Designing on a Budget
Let’s face it, every designer dreams of that giant project with a massive budget, which allows us total creative freedom to create the most lavish and interesting concepts, with dozens of revisions in order to ensure that the final design is absolutely perfect. It’s like a designer’s vision of utopia.
In the real world, though, it’s not likely to happen.
We almost always have to work within a particular budget, and sometimes that budget can seem absolutely paper thin. Yet, we still need to create an attractive design (or designs) for the project. Well, here are some tips for creating an awesome direct mail package on a tight budget.
Go Two Colour
Four colour process printing is becoming increasingly affordable these days, but by and large it’s still usually less expensive to use one or two colours. If you’re working on a tight budget, consider designing for a minimum number of printed colours.
Don’t think of it as a limitation, either! Instead, try to think of it as an inspiration and a challenge. Tell yourself that everybody is using full colour in their designs and that you’re going to try to make your design stand out by using a beautiful, two colour design. Granted, it’s like playing a bit of a psychological game with yourself, but it should help stimulate your creativity.
Low-Cost Stock
We’re not talking about paper stock here – though smart choices in paper can also help keep costs down. What we’re talking about is stock graphics. There are all kinds of sites out there that provide quality images at a reasonable price. Sometimes, you can even get them for free!
Here are a few sites where you can pick up some free stock graphics:
Of course, when working with any kind of free files off of the internet, be sure to read the license agreement. These photographers and designers have been kind enough to offer their work up free of charge. The least you can do is make sure that you use their files according to their wishes.
Design Freebies
As we’ve already noted, there are lots of incredibly generous people out there, who are giving away design resources for use in your projects. Obviously, there are the stock sites, but you can also find freebies on all sorts of design blogs. You and also find things other than just photos. There are all kinds of vectors, icons, brushes, patterns and other design elements to be found. Sometimes these freebies are restricted to non-commercial projects (personal, educational, charitable), but there are certainly other freebies that can be used commercially, too! Building a solid library of freebies is a great way to help offset costs!
Again, just be sure to follow the creator’s license.
Efficient Sizing
Talk to your commercial printer about sizing. Different printers use different sized presses, which in turn require different sizes of stock. Smaller pieces, such as postcards or slips are also usually run with several impressions on a single sheet. If you know the size, you could potentially adjust the dimensions of your piece enough to fit one more imprint on the page. This should drive your costs down, and can you can feel good about reducing the amount of waste generated from cropped and unused paper stock.
Of course, it’s also a good idea to talk to your mail service provider too! The last thing that you want to do is change the size of your piece to save a bit on print, but end up spending a bundle on extra postage because your piece is suddenly out of spec!
Effective use of Space
Are you using the space on your piece as effectively as possible? I am all for the use of white space and giving giving elements room to breath, but can you make more effective use of space, while still maintaining balance and good design? Eliminating an extra page or slip can help keep you within your budget!
Consider Digital Print
While it’s true that digital print is often a bit more expensive then regular offset, it is also more flexible. If your campaign requires multiple versions of a piece (or even multiple pieces), it might be worth your while to look at the possibility of using digital print and variable substitutions. It may actually end up being more economical to run everything in one large digital run than in multiple, smaller offset runs. Talk to your printer.
Use the Website
Have you been handed a stack of copy, with long paragraphs all about the company’s history, or the detailed specifications for a particular product? Consider making a very soft and polite inquiry, to see if it would be acceptable to some of the copy to the website and use the direct marketing piece to drive clients and prospects to that site. Again, this can help save precious pages and reduce printing costs.
So there you have it. Budgets are a reality that all designers have to face, and when you’re dealing with a budget that feels particularly constricting, I hope that these tips will help ease the strain and still let you rock out your next killer design!
