WHAT, WHY, WHEN

The Print Prologue web guide is a resource for the community of creative thinkers—both new and established. It makes the first leap into the design of print projects easier, more thoughtful and productive.

ABOUT THE GUIDE

What the Print Prologue guide is not

Print Prologue was not developed as a guide for print production. You will not find detailed tutorials on how to prepare your design files for print or how to print them yourself. While we've included information about considerations and guidelines for how your graphic elements may be printed, the overall goal is to help guide your decisions and thought process while designing so that the aesthetic elements in your work relate as best as possible to the elements of print.

Who this guide is for

People who are beginning to design or pay for print. More specifically: emerging designers (recent grads / junior designers), small business owners, creative professionals, brand & marketing strategists.

When to get started: problem, idea, vehicle... then design

Print Prologue was developed to help at a very specific point in the design process. The point after you’ve identified a problem or need, determined an idea and concept for solving the problem and chosen the appropriate vehicle for communicating to the audience. If that vehicle is a small format print piece, it is now time to begin using Print Prologue.

If you start designing without a plan for printing, you end up spending more time fixing your design later. Do nothing before determining these three things: Quantity, Budget, Timeline. They are essential to know at this point in your project. This information, upfront, can easily narrow down your options for production methods and save hours (even days) going down unnecessary paths.