There are many factors that need to be considered when creating a design. Those factors increase when your content will be viewed on different types of media. As graphic designers, it becomes important to have a process in place to ensure your finished product will be clearly viewable in any situation. Current technology plays a big part in how users will view a design. Care must be taken to examine how emerging technologies will affect your designs usability and functionality. This article will outline some key points to consider when starting your next project.
When approaching a design or application, it is imperative to consider early on in the process how the content will be viewed. The same holds true when developing cross platform material. The process for ensuring your content can be delivered appropriately begins in the first stages of design. In this phase the client will provide you with their message, audience and scope of the project. Asking the appropriate questions at this time can avoid potential surprises and changes to a finished design.
The questioning stage can be an overlooked part of the process. By creating a checklist to give to your client you can ensure that the critical questions are addressed before the job is even taken. Are there budget limitations for the project? Will this design be displayed in print as well as digitally? Are there any large scale outputs planned for the design such as billboards?
Budgeting concerns can be the most stringent in a project. Due to the nature of business, budget will many times be inflexible and cause the rest of the factors of the project to be built around it. At this stage it may become necessary to make changes and become flexible in your own process. Some good methods for catering to a small budget include utilizing free stock resources or even taking photographs yourself.
The next step is to identify that the project will in fact be a cross platform design. In many cases, depending on the target audience, it may be beneficial to suggest to your client to explore a design that will work in multiple formats. Platforms such as the web and Apple’s iPad are coming close to eclipsing the commonplace magazine and newspaper distribution. Things that viewers have come accustomed to seeing in print will now be displayed on LCD monitors, cell phones and mobile devices. Print media is on a decline, but the industry still has a major claim in today’s media (Preston). It therefore becomes important to include print as an option for your design.
After determining the medium for the design, the task now is how to visualize a design that will work in multiple formats. For a design that will be rendered in print and in digitally, specifying the resolution of each version is the next step. Consider a design that will be displayed in print but also on the iPad format. The resolution on iPad is 1024*768 pixels (Apple Inc) while the printed format for your project will be 8.5 by 5.5 inches at 300 ppi. While the solution sounds simple as creating your design at the larger format, the critical key here is to plan for it. While the design created at 8.5 by 5.5 inches or 2550*1650 pixels can be downsized to 1024*768, many designers can attest to the horror of trying to upscale a design because printing was not in the plan.
The dimensions that are decided upon will then be used in the sketching phase. It is a widely used practice to create several sketches of alternate ideas before settling on a specific design. Your cross platform project will not be different in this case. While the pixel dimensions will change as shown in the example of the iPad versus a print design, the ratio will stay intact. Creating sketches that observe the final projects ratio becomes beneficial as the ideas can be visualized in each of the final applications.
In the next stage of design you will begin to create visual references of the design that can be shared with the client. Different renditions of a single design can be presented at this time. It is a good idea and a common practice to utilize placeholder images or comp images in this phase. Avoid purchasing stock images before a final design selection to maintain compliance with the budget restrictions.
After the client makes a final selection on the design, the process changes from one of visualization to implementation. Having gathered the necessary information early on, you have determined that this design will be rendered both in print and digitally. The importance of collecting this information beforehand is that now you can begin your design as a print design and work your way down to the smaller digital media.
In this implementation phase you are in essence creating a print design. Working with a print design that will be converted to digital will encompass many things, Using Adobe Photoshop you can get a good idea of what the printed image will look like while it is still digital presented on your screen. Taking advantage of the CMYK profile in Photoshop provides a preview of how the image colors will be translated on paper. After converting to the CMYK image mode use a Color Balance adjustment layer to create colors that will have the proper contrast both on screen and paper.
Now that you have created a digital image that will display correctly in print and on screen, the image needs to be formatted for both. A high resolution graphic can be used to send to print, but in the case of web graphics some compression is needed. Advancements in web development, higher bandwidths allow for more media rich websites and sophisticated graphics. This gives you more freedom when working with images intended for the web, but image size remains a factor. Utilizing the Save for Web feature in Photoshop, you can find the balance between image quality and file size to suite your application needs. Other ways to ensure scalability and therefore usability in multiple platforms is the use of vector images. The flexibility of vector images allows clarity in various resolutions of a particular design. This would be particularly important for a graphic that is displayed both on the web and billboard display.
Having followed the process outlined above, you will avoided many pitfalls that arise in the design process. Your design is now ready to be displayed across multiple formats. However your preparation and attention to detail may have yielded the greatest result of all; the satisfaction of your client. |
