Faculty photo directory in school hallway...

[C.E.]

I've been given the wonderful task of 'designing' the hall photo directory. Originally, I thought it would be cool to print out a background, laminate it, and then print the person's picture on some clear vinyl/sticker paper so you can easily reorder the Dir depending on if a new person joined the Faculty here, or someone retired (believe it or not, for some reason the Bio dept here has gone thru alot of change in the Faculty in the past year alone!) ...

Well I whipped something out, sent it off to print & be laminated. Of course, they didn't do a test print or have me come down and spot proof anything, they went ahead and printed all 4 panels and laminated them. The colors were WAY off from what they were on my screen, and the dark green ended up being a BRIGHT spring green, and the gold was a neon yellow. So to say the least, I've been putting this task off for a while now. (Not to mention that the clear plastic sticker idea didn't fly either - the ink where the person's face was printed ended up being translucent, so that neon green crap showed thru their faces.

Sooo I'm back to square one. Anybody have any creative ideas how to approach this? Without printing out 4 big panels each time someone comes or goes, and yet be graphically appealing? (I pretty much have free rein here too, one of the big perks about being THE design team (of one) here.) LOL! Here's a quicky shot of the cabinet I'm supposed to use...
http://www.wright.edu/biology/working/photo-dir/cabinet.jpg

Thanks gang.

[PrintDriver]

Ok, first, always specify you want a proof.
Large format has all sorts of printer types out there and some don't give a rat's behind what comes out of the printer.
Second, No large format is ever gonna match your monitor. Specify PMS colors and provide a hard copy with them spelled out.

How bout getting some steel enameled dry erase board (www.dryeraseboard.com - 'magnetic' You can have it custom cut). Have an adhesive back inkjet mounted to it with the background color and text. Then have the pics printed on the same material only this time mount it to magnetic sheet (or just get them printed onto thin magnetic sheet. It exists.) You may want to overlam the inkjets to keep em pretty.

Getting it to stay up may require some screws and/or some Liquid Nails depending on how much destructive power your client gives you.

Have a ball.

PrintDriver is a grande format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

Post Edited (PrintDriver) : 11/23/2004 11:49:16 PM GMT

[PrintDriver]

Before you do a bunch of that thin magnetic sheet, make sure it will stick to an overlammed print on steel. Some of that thin magnet stuff isn't all that hefty in the magnetic department. The 1/16' thick roll stock should be fine though.

PrintDriver is a grande format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

[coconut]

Take some photo's have them printed, cut them out, type out some text and get them up! It will have the retro look! Make it interesting, and make up for the time lost. If you want to have a certain look have it painted by yourself or the best senior artist, and let him/her sign at the bottom, there you go.


What do I look like a smoken monkey?

[C.E.]

bump bump..... any more ideas out there?

Hey PD that was such a cool idea but I got the big NIX on spending any more $ on it... seeing as how the print job that I screwed up for not making sure my colors matched cost about a couple hundred. I talked them into that, but no mo.

Coconut, I like the idea, specially the make up for lost time part... what kind of retro look are you thinking though?

[coconut]

Depends on where you live:
You could do 60's laugh in style if that's cool around there
old western themes is thats cool around there
old man in the boat
hippy smoken weed theme, if thats cool around there
maybe an 80's maddona - that was them then and this is them now thing
could be a 50's style take their pictures and dress them with clothes made out of construction paper for a certain period of time: poodle skirts?


What do I look like a smoken monkey?