october 2009
	spelling errors...low res images...missed deadlines...oh my! If you’ve been in business long enough, chances are you have a horror story of a project that took on a life of its own. Costs that snowballed, overshot deadlines, and a final piece you were unhappy with can make you wonder where the project came off the rails. There are a number of common causes that can contribute to your design job turning into a long and costly one. Here are a few tips to help your next project run smoothly. 1. No Such Thing as TMI (Too Much Information) Pass along as much detailed information during the project kickoff as possible. This helps establish expectations and objectives up front, increasing the odds that you’ll be happy with the results. 2. United We Stand Coming to us with unified, finalized objectives ensures that we are designing to meet your entire team’s expectations. There’s less rework when we’re all on the same page and the objectives are clearly defined. 3. How Less Becomes More Consider budgeting more up front for the initial design exploration. The more time we have to develop concepts, the more likely you’ll be satisfied with the results without running into multiple, costly revisions. 4. A Picture is Worth… High quality work requires high resolution images. Images embedded in Word, Power Point or Excel documents or images from websites are not reproduction quality. Your designer will always be happy to help you with any questions you have on file formats. For a basic primer, see our glossary on image formats below. 5. Simple-Schmimple If you’re providing artwork to us that you want revised, we’ll need layered or editable files. JPEGs, PDFs, or other types of flattened images may require recreation of the art which can become costly. click here for more tips
	file formats explained Jpeg, gif, eps, psd; what do they all really mean? What’s best to use? Many graphics professionals don’t even know, so here’s a breakdown: BMP (Windows Bitmap Image) A standard format used for storing images on Windows-based PCs. A low quality image not suitable for high quality artwork. GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) Primarily used for storing digital images and graphics on the Web due to it’s small file size and high quality. Use this file format if your image has fewer than 256 colors and contains large areas of uniform color. It is not suitable for photographic images. PNG (Portable Network Graphics) Similar to a GIF but it supports 16 million colors, not just 256. Especially useful to display photography without loss on the web. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) The format of choice for nearly all photographs on the web due to its excellent quality even at rather high compression settings. Also often used for storing and transferring full-color digital images for photography. TIFF (Tag Image File Format) A flexible format that offers better quality images than jpegs from a digital camera. However, larger file sizes will fill up your digital card quickly. Do not use tiffs for web images, most web browsers do not support them. click here for more file formats
			recruiting success Recruiting top talent from colleges and universities is one of the ways Curt G. Joa, Inc. maintains its technology leadership position in the high-speed web converting industry. When it was time to update their recruiting materials, they asked for our help. Two new banner stands were created using original photography of current Joa employees. A large Joa logo banner was designed to hang behind the recruiting table. New tri-fold brochures show students the benefits of working for Joa and living in the Sheboygan Falls area. Anita Lucarelli, Staffing and Training Specialist at Curt G. Joa, emailed us after her first use of the new recruiting tools: “We went to the Platteville Career Fair and the banner and banner stands looked terrific. There was no room for us to put the stands on the floor— but they worked out great on top of the table.” Client: Curt G. Joa, Inc. Design: Leibold Associates, Inc.
	Photo: Leibold Associates, Inc.		welcome! Dan Gara joins Leibold Associates as Director of Visualization Services. The addition of Dan to our staff allows us to expand the services available to our clients. With over 10 years of experience in producing digital 3-D models, 3-D renderings, 3-D animation, conceptual illustrations and virtual environments, we are thrilled to welcome Dan on board. Most recently an employee of Kimberly-Clark, Dan graduated from St. Norbert College with a Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Communications. An accomplished illustrator, Dan has over 14 years of experience in the graphic arts.
	next month: a time for giving
	green efforts Acrobat and PDF have helped reduce paper use by giving people the ability to create and send electronic documents back and forth via email, rather than printing hard copies and mailing. By introducing a PDF workflow, you can help reduce your environmental footprint, using less paper and energy, as well as saving a tree. click here for more green tips (reference: adobe.com) Do you have a really great green tip? Share them with us, we’ll publish the best ideas in future newsletters. Plus, everybody who sends us a tip will be entered into our drawing to win a copy of “The Green Book”. click here for more details