DesignFix Design Studio
Print design and print-ready artwork
Print is the least forgiving medium there is: once it's on the press, it's on the press. Most print problems are decided long before that, in a file that was built for a screen and never adjusted for paper.
What this covers
What we work on in print design
Printed pieces designed from scratch
Posters, flyers, brochures, menus, leaflets and folded formats, laid out to the size and fold you're actually producing.
Print-ready file preparation
Bleed, margins, trim marks, colour mode and resolution brought in line with what your printer asked for.
Artwork cleanup and redrawing
Files rebuilt when what you have is too low-resolution, too degraded or too flattened to print well.
Vector artwork for print
Logos and graphics converted to clean vector so they stay sharp at poster size and cut cleanly where they need to.
Projects that fit here
Examples of the kind of thing people send us. If yours isn’t on the list, describe it anyway.
- A poster laid out at the size it will actually be printed, with proper bleed
- A three-fold brochure set up to the printer's folding template
- A file returned by a print shop with a list of problems nobody explained
- A flyer designed for social media that now needs to exist on paper
- Artwork rebuilt from a scan of something previously printed
- A document converted to CMYK without the colours going flat
Who this tends to be for
Businesses producing printed material
Anyone about to spend money on a print run and wanting it right the first time.
Print shops
When a customer's file needs work before it can go on the press and there's no time to do it in-house.
People given a spec they don't understand
Bleed, trim, safe area, 300dpi, CMYK — a list of requirements is not the same as knowing how to meet it.
What "print-ready" actually means
Printers ask for print-ready files and rarely explain what that means, because to them it's obvious. It usually comes down to four things, and a file can look perfect while failing all four.
Bleed and trim: anything meant to run to the edge of the page has to extend past it, because paper shifts slightly as it's cut. Without that margin you get a thin white line down one side of the finished piece. Safe area is the same idea in reverse — text too close to the trim can lose a letter.
Colour: screens make colour with light and presses make it with ink, and they cannot reach the same colours. A vivid blue on your monitor may print noticeably duller. Converting properly, rather than letting the printer's software guess at the last moment, is how you avoid opening the box to a surprise.
Resolution and structure: an image that is sharp at screen size is often a quarter of the resolution needed on paper, and a design flattened into a single image loses the ability to fix anything without starting over.
We either design with all of that built in from the start, or take the file you have and bring it up to the specification your printer gave you. If you have their spec sheet, send it — it tells us exactly what the file needs to be.
How it works
From a sentence to a finished design
- Step 1
Tell us what you need
One or two sentences is enough to start. You don't have to know what the work is called or which category it belongs in.
- Step 2
We discuss the project
We ask what we need to know — where it will be used, what size, what it has to work on — and tell you honestly what is and isn't possible.
- Step 3
Share files or references
Send the artwork you already have, a photo, a sketch, or examples of the look you're after. Files go straight into private storage.
- Step 4
You get a custom offer
A written scope and a fixed price for your project specifically. Nothing is charged and nothing is started until you accept it.
- Step 5
Approve and pay
Accepting the offer creates the order and takes you to payment. Decline it or ignore it and nothing happens.
- Step 6
We complete the design
The work runs through the same production and delivery process as every other DesignFix order, with revisions included in the scope.
What to send us
You don't need to know what to ask for
None of this is required, and a single sentence is enough to start. It's simply what tends to be useful, so a first message doesn't turn into three.
Whatever artwork you have
The file itself, however rough — an export, a screenshot, a photo of something printed, or the version a supplier rejected.
A reference or a sketch
Something you like the look of, a rough drawing, or an existing design you want the new work to sit alongside.
Where it's going
The product, the size, and the process if you know it. Print, garment, screen or sign changes what the artwork has to be.
Any specification you were given
A printer's requirements, a supplier's template, or the rejection message you received — that usually says exactly what needs fixing.
Colours and brand material
Existing brand colours, fonts or guidelines, so new work matches what you already have.
What you want changed
A sentence is enough. "Make this printable", "this needs to work on a dark shirt", "I want something like this but ours".
Questions
Common questions
Tell us what you need
Describe the project in a sentence or two. We’ll ask what we need to know, then send a written scope and a fixed price before anything is charged.