In the meantime, we found out the envelope converter made changes to the square flap die cut. Oy! (Are you kidding me?) In this case, the simplest solution was to adjust our envelope design to fit the new die. Thankfully, our design was flexible enough to do so.
Finally, on to the press check… where, for the most part, everything went well. Our vendor showed a lot of patience with the designer and I as we diligently checked the printed items for overall quality, registration (does the ink line up? Are the lines on the type crisp?), color (does the image look realistic? Is it too yellow? Too red? What can we adjust to make it look right?), and for additional issues such as hickeys and blemishes (often dust or powder on the rubber blanket that transfers the image onto the paper, produces minor specks/spots on the sheet). After shifting the color on the letterhead four times and the color on the business cards once, we were finally happy with the outcome and we approved the run. These are going to look sweet!
While the wove finish creates an authentic and familiar experience, due to it’s rough texture, we experienced a bit of mottling (i.e. splotchy-ness) on the less opaque bands of color. And while we gained a classical, strong, and familiar look and feel for our products by using a premium uncoated paper, because of dot gain (ink seeping into the paper), we traded in crisp clarity for some loss of detail (but they still look awesome!!). I can't show you them just yet... but I'll post pictures when I get the green light.
The moral of this story is… for every job, it is likely you will face adversity and will be required to find solutions for problems that you did not anticipate. For every decision you make along the way, there are pros and cons, and you must give and take. The main mission is to maintain flexibility and always strive for the best. In the end, you’ll have a stellar product, one you can be proud to tout as your own.
Check it out!! They have arrived!
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