Biggest disconnect is not researching the finishing before beginning the design.
Sometimes designers have unreal expectations regarding finished product and budget too.
If unfamiliar with a print product, get samples. Ask best practices for file set up and color spaces. Get a proof.
I do wide format printing and I’ve seen a lot of designers try to do this for the first time. For file prep, color, and image resolution, the way I tell you to do it is going to be completely different from the way you may have been taught in school or from what a conventional press printer will tell you. If you don’t know a process, ASK. Then believe the answer. I still get 3gig billboard size files sent to me at 300ppi with 1/8” bleeds when I only need 30ppi and 6" INCH bleeds.
As for final prints not matching the original vision, a proof would catch that. Pay for one. Then possibly pay for the “heroics” time your printer puts into saving the job for you. Learn from that experience, learn the fix, add it to your experience portfolio.
It the old, “But it looked great on my monitor!” thing.
Things like not balancing a layout for printing on a print product held at reading distance, perhaps.
Because I print big stuff, I’ve actually seen Brand Guides that have different versions of logos for different scale output products to address that “slightly off” thing at scale.
Other issue I see a lot is text at wrong size for viewing distance. The only fix I have for that is for the designer to print out a piece of it, tape it to the wall in a hallway and walk back to actual viewing distance. Don’t believe text sizing charts too much. They’re out there, but limited in that they tend to show blocky sans-serif.
Sometimes too, for display graphics, the imagery isn’t scaled properly for viewing distance (not to mention that it often comes in at too low of a resolution to print nicely )
That’s what I was wondering, too, but I wasn’t certain.
It surprises me how many people get tripped up on this issue that seems like common sense. At the typical distance between a computer display and the person sitting in front of it, the display probably takes up ~50% of that person’s field of vision. And if something, like type, from that distance is too small to read, it’s easy enough to lean in to get a closer look.
However, from across the room or down the highway, no matter how large something is printed, it will never take up ~50% percent of one’s field of view. Five to 15 percent is probably more like it in many instances.
In other words, for those designing something meant to be seen at a distance, back up from the display until it occupies a similar percentage of the field of view that the final installation will occupy at a typical viewing distance. If the type is too small to be read or the images aren’t easily deciphered at a glance, there’s a problem.
You know this, of course, but for those who don’t…
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