Top Rated Print Design Companies

While the digital world may dominate most things we do today, print still has an important role. From business cards and brochures to billboards and posters, printed items are still an important part of marketing. Like ABBA, print is timeless, always needed and something you can't ignore, but it still needs to be well designed to be effective.

Print design is the process of doing just that. It does require a slightly different approach to items in the digital world, but everything we print needs to be designed. From layout to shape and colours, all impact readability and overall effectiveness. For things like posters and billboards, space is just as important, where you leave space can dramatically affect that initial impact, and with print, you may only have a few seconds to catch the viewer's eye.

Professional print design agencies understand how to use shape, space and everything else to not only ensure that everything remains clear and the message easily understood, but that the design works within the limitations of the print process too.

Print designs appear on printed media like business cards, billboards or brochures rather than on digital spaces like websites. Just like digital designs, the goal of print design is to use visual graphics to communicate a specific message to viewers. At first glance, it might seem like print design is a rarity, but in fact, we still use printed products every day, so much so that it's taken for granted.

Billboards and posters are everywhere, plus think about menus, flyers, and even printed instructions which all have to be designed. Print design covers the graphics, overall design, colours, font choice and everything else you can see in a printed item. A professional print designer will use all these things to create beautiful, engaging designs that grab attention and layout information clearly and effectively.

There are some differences from the digital world, as with the digital space there is a limited number of ways in which a person will see the design, always at a close distance for instance. But a poster or billboard may be viewed from hugely different angles or distances, and in the case of billboards, maybe only for a few seconds as you pass them. Clarity is crucial, creating a memorable design that sticks with the viewer even if they only see it for a few seconds is always the goal.

Print media design is a type of design that focuses on how items will look when printed. Although the elements of this type of design are often created on computers, the final product always has a physical manifestation.

The process of design may follow the same path as design for digital products, and may even use the same software, it is the practicalities of print and digital that mean there is a different approach to the fundamentals of design between the two. Whether it is a card for business or a giant billboard, the act of printing onto paper or other mediums makes a physical product very different to viewing something on a screen, which is how we consume digital design.

How colour works, the importance of space, fonts, shapes and so on are all impacted by the medium used, and for print media getting it right is especially important.

While the basic principles of design stay the same whether you are designing for print, digital or anything else, (like colour theory) there are some things that are specific to print media.

Here are 7 tips for successful print design:

Because of the way we see and use printed items, it tends to be a less forgiving medium than digital, which is why professional design is so important. Consistent, easily recognisable colours can help with brand recognition, but colour choice is very important. Unlike the digital world, where you can create intricate, multi-coloured designs, printing has some physical and technological limitations that must be part of the design process too. Some ideas and colour combinations simply won't work or will look sub-optimal due to the practicalities of printing. A designer must understand all these aspects to deliver effective solutions.

Having effective, well-designed print marketing materials will contribute to the credibility of your business and build brand recognition. Your branding creates a visual and emotional connection with your customers, and good design can be the reason people do or don't buy from you.

A professional print design service allows you to make the most of printed media of all kinds, with knowledge of the printing process ensuring that your business cards, brochures, billboards and so on look as good as they can and deliver the performance you are looking for.

In fact, with so much competition today, standing out from the crowd, whether that is having an instantly recognisable letterhead, an eye-catching poster or billboard, or a brochure that really engages the reader and lays out your offer perfectly is more important today than ever before. No matter how much we focus on digital in daily life, print media is always going to be part of everything we do, and having a print design that delivers is a crucial part of marketing for any business.