Graphic Design Services

Label-it has its own excellent, in-house fully-functional graphic design facility. Our software programmes and state-of-the-art equipment, combined with the skill and experience of the designers, can create a label that will make your product stand out.

Our graphic artists are experienced in flexo, lithographic and digital printing to produce a design to perfectly fit your needs.

We can advise and assist you throughout your design project, from concept through the printing process. If you only have a vague design concept, just fax, email or post a rough sketch, and our artists will prepare a draft for your approval.

As part of our graphic design services our studio will oversee the printing process for you.

Graphic Design for Printed Media

With a clear understanding of your marketing objectives, the designer can now move on to selecting the colour scheme, fonts and concept. A composite is then developed that will integrate your marketing objectives with a design style aimed at your target audience. This corporate identity or branding will encompass a look and feel for your business that communicates a specific visual message.

• What do you want your design project to accomplish?
• Who are you selling to?
• How do you want to be perceived by your target audience?
• What is your unique selling point?

Photographic Services:

If you need professional product photography to make your products look their very best, we’re here to help. Great product photography increases sales and lends credibility.

Sources of images

If you are looking for new images to include in your label designs, you could try the services below, which we have found to be invaluable:

• istockphoto.com
• Getty Images

Artwork Specifications

Our preferred artwork format:

Our graphic design studio is PC based using predominately CorelDraw 14, and Adobe Illustrator CS3. These are our preferred file formats because we find that these software programmes give higher quality and better colour separation.

Graphic images such as logos are best sent as originals or as 600 DPI TIFF files.

We do not accept Quark Xpress files. If Quark Xpress is the only program you are using then please convert all of the text in your design to outline paths and save as a PDF and an EPS file and send us both. The PDF and EPS file will usually satisfactorily import into Adobe Illustrator.

We do not accept Gif or Jpeg files as they are usually very poor quality due to compression.

Preferred file types (in order of preference)

• CorelDraw v14 with all text converted to curves
• Adobe Illustrator CS3 with all text as outline paths
• EPS with all text as outline paths
• PDF with all text as outline paths
• TIFF 600DPI for photographic images only
• BMP for 1-colour mono logo, at 600 DPI.

These file types may work to a reasonable quality, but commonly cause problems:

• Word Documents – we can only use this for simple text designs
• Excel – simple text designs only
• PPT – simple text designs only

Instructions

When designing all artwork for label printing use vector based drawing programmes such as CorelDraw 14, and Adobe Illustrator CS3 for the best results. This will improve the sharpness of the printing plates and allow for easier colour separation.

Any photographic images should be embedded into the file and all text created, where
If your artwork needs bleed off (your label design or background is intended to cover the entire surface of the label), please allow 1.5 mm of bleed off around each edge of the label. Always remember to convert all fonts to Curves/Paths this will stop any missing font issues, when we open the file.

Flexographically printed labels have to be stepped and repeated and have to allow for stretch around the cylinder before sending for plates. This however is not a simple process and you should contact the artwork department for advice on how to step and repeat your design. It would be best if you allow us to do this for you.

The most common problems we face with artwork are the low resolution of Jpeg and Gif files, which are not usable for printing. Another problem is when clients send designs without converting fonts into outline paths. This could delay the artwork approval stage of the order.

If you have any concerns or queries please contact our art department for advice on how to send your files or email studio@label-it.co.za We will be more than happy to help.

Proofing

Please send us a colour proof of your artwork with your order if possible. We will always send you an artwork approval form before we print your order by fax or emailed as a PDF file.

Please note that it makes good sense to check your designs (and spelling) before sending them to us – corrections or modifications made after the proofing stage will incur extra charges, as we need to repeat the entire pre-press process to incorporate the new files.

Software Supported (Mac and PC versions)

• Adobe Photoshop - versions up to and including CS4
• Adobe Illustrator - versions up to and including CS4

Our strongly preferred format is an Adobe Illustrator EPS file with all fonts converted to outlines, as this is the format we use when printing digitally.

Note:

If you’re creating multiple designs, please send each design (or version) individually in its own file to optimize the pre-press process and avoid manipulation errors.