Everything has kind of fallen into place for me this Summer. I didn't think I'd get a summer job so quickly but doing so, meant talking to Matt, a boy who was in A Level Graphics class and getting work experience at Midland Regional Printers in Basford, Nottingham where he works.
Of course during Summer they were really quiet for business which meant I could sit down with them and see how they went about design for printing. They explained to me how printers and designers generally don't tend to get along because apparently designers make their lives quite difficult when it comes to printing their work... unauthorised font licenses, CMYK/RGB and spot colour confusion, bleeds etc... but although I didn't do much in terms of design I learnt quite a lot.
I didn't have a clue what printing plates were... a different metal plate for each CMYK and spot colours, amazingly precise, obviously.
I was very tempted to borrow the pantone solid coated swatch book forever, but I didnt :)
What annoyed me on this placement was how stubborn people can be when it comes to personal tastes, because it was quiet they asked me to mock-up a calendar for them to print and give out to clients. I mocked up a simple colour-coded calendar and wall planner relating to the seasons and temperatures which they didn't seem sure about. They showed me their past calendars which were absolutely awful - basically 12 stock images they'd brought. What the fuck? I wanted to be sick.
