Print brief template

Format, extent, quantity and finishes, and why the delivery date is not the artwork deadline.

Start this briefAbout 90 seconds. No account.

Print is unforgiving in a way screens are not. A website can be fixed after launch. A print run cannot, and the cost of a mistake is the whole run again. That is why a print brief carries more specification than any other kind, and why most of that specification is something the briefer does not know and the printer will assume. This template exists to carry it.

Format and extent

For collateral and editorial work, the trim size and the page count come first, because everything else follows from them. Page count decides the binding: folded under four, saddle-stitched to around forty-eight, perfect bound above. It also has to be divisible by four to bind at all, which briefers routinely break and which this template catches as you type the number.

Quantity decides the method

Under five hundred is digital. Above two thousand is offset. In between it depends on the finishes. The method decides whether spot colours make economic sense, what the colour profile is, how long the press needs, and whether tooling for foil or embossing is affordable at this run length. The briefer almost never knows this, and this template works it out from the quantity band and says so.

Finishes are files

Foil, spot UV, embossing and die cutting each need a separate vector separation file and an additional proofing stage. They also carry tooling costs that are the same for fifty copies as for fifty thousand, so at short runs the finish can cost more than the print. A brief that names the finishes lets the designer plan the files and the printer price the tooling.

Colour

Brand colours defined in Pantone become spot separations at a run length where that is economic, and a CMYK conversion where it is not. Brand colours defined without Pantones are CMYK from the start. Colours not yet decided are a design task before they are an artwork task. State which of these is true.

Who prints it

A named printer turns bleed, minimum type size and colour profile from assumptions into facts, because their specification replaces the defaults. A printer still to be found means print management is part of the job. Either way, print costs are quoted separately from design fees, and the brief should say so plainly.

The date is not the artwork deadline

Briefers give the date the piece is needed. Designers need the date the artwork must be at the printer. Between them sit print lead time and shipping, and for anything with a regulatory panel, a legal review. Give the delivery date and the template works back through each stage in working days and writes the real artwork deadline into the brief.

Vector logos

A logo that exists only as a raster image cannot be printed at this quality. It is discovered painfully late almost every time, so here it is a blocker at the start.

The one thing that must not be got wrong

In print it is usually the thing that is fixed by law or by a physical fact: the barcode that must scan, the page count that must bind, the colour that must match the last run. Put it at the top, in a box.

The questions, and what goes wrong without them

  1. Scope
    What are you making?
    Packaging, editorial and signage share almost nothing. Naming which removes most of the tree.
  2. Scope
    What kind of packaging?only when it applies
    The container decides whether a dieline is needed, whether the artwork wraps, and whether a structural supplier must be involved before design starts. A missing dieline is the most common packaging delay there is.
  3. Scope
    Format and extentonly when it applies
    Page count decides the binding, and a count not divisible by four is a hard print constraint briefers routinely break.
  4. Craft
    How many are being made?
    Quantity decides the print method, and the print method decides whether spot colours and finishes make economic sense. The briefer almost never knows this and the printer always assumes it.
  5. Craft
    Finishes and colour
    Each finish is a separate vector file and an extra proof. Foil and emboss carry tooling costs that make short runs disproportionately expensive.
  6. Craft
    Regulatory content, and who prints itonly when it applies
    Missing regulatory content is the second most common cause of packaging reprints, after dielines. A named printer turns bleed, type sizes and colour profile from assumptions into facts.
  7. Craft
    Who is printing it?only when it applies
    A named printer turns bleed, minimum type size and colour profile from assumptions into facts.
  8. Look
    Pick what you like
    People are unreliable at describing taste and reliable at recognising it. Five picks say more than a paragraph of adjectives.
  9. Look
    Your picks pull two ways. Which is closer?only when it applies
    When the references contradict each other, the designer has to pick a side. Better that you do.
  10. Look
    What already exists?
    Raster logos cannot be printed at packaging quality, and this is discovered painfully late almost every time.
  11. Look
    Who is this for, and where will they see it?
    Where it is seen changes the design more than who buys it. Online product photography is almost never mentioned and changes everything.
  12. Practicalities
    Budget range
    A band is a signal about which kind of job is on the table, not a commitment. Without one the designer guesses.
  13. Practicalities
    Key date
    A date only means something next to the minimum production window. If they do not fit, better to know now.
  14. Practicalities
    Who signs it off?
    The number of approvers, with a named tiebreak, predicts revision rounds better than anything else in the brief.
  15. Practicalities
    The one thing that must not be got wrong
    Every project has one. It is rarely written down because it feels obvious to the person who knows it.
Answer them by tapping

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