🧠 Pixel to Paper: How to Avoid Ruining Your Designs

Hey there, 

Welcome back to the 40th edition of Brandish, 

Your guide to crafting an iconic brand.

This week’s story is a behemoth that I feel doesn’t get covered nearly as much as it should, 

But as brand experts it’s something that we all NEED to understand if we want to produce consistent, quality work. 

So without further ado, 

Kick back, 

Grab your Brez, 

And let’s get into it. 

The Color Conundrum

You’re probably wondering,

“What’s this thing that’s so important in branding that I don’t know about??”

I’ll tell you in a second, but first let me explain WHY I’m telling this story today. 

We all know that in branding, even the tiniest details matter. 

When you’re creating designs, logos, etc. that are going to be the representation of your brand, it’s absolutely crucial to make sure everything down to the smallest pixel is the way it should be. 

Now - with everything digital, it’s an easy fix…

But not with your printed work. 

And I’m not talking about making a mistake with the design or layout - we all know you’re better than that, 

I’m talking about the color schemes and moving those from digital to print. 

The main issue here is that no color will turn out exactly the way that it looks on your laptop, 

Making an oversight here can lead to: 

• Extra hours spent on one project

• More money thrown into extra prints & edits

• A whole lot of printed work that you can NEVER use

So yes, while this seems like a small part of it at first, 

Finding the RIGHT ways to set up & match your color schemes is just as important as anything else. 

I Hate Printers

For God knows why, matching the EXACT colors you need with a printer is one the single most frustrating things I’ll ever do. 

And just to add to this problem, what you’ll see on the screen is never exactly what’s going to be printed. 

The lighting in the screen illuminates EVERYTHING in the design - so even you could match the colors in your design to the printer, 

It likely won’t be the match you’re looking for. 

So we have 2 problems here: 

1 - Finding the right color profile to use 

2 - Matching the printed colors that actually want to the digital design 

Problem #1

My best recommendation for this is to either use CMYK or Pantone. 

Both are great to use, but if you want to get REALLY specific with your colors I’d go with Pantone every single time. 

They have a lot more options and all around, way more versatile.

Problem #2

This one sounds daunting but I promise it’s not that complicated, 

Just a few extra steps. 

Once you’ve decided on a color profile (let’s just say Pantone), 

Go on Amazon and pick up the physical books WITH the color codes. 

If you’ve ever painted a room in your house, this is just that exact process. 

Flip through the book to find the printed color code that best matches what you’re looking for. 

Take the code, add it to your digital file, and that’s it!

Easy Peasy. 

Tinder, But For… Printers

Listen, 

Finding a good printer is a lot like swiping on Tinder. 

For every ONE good printer, there are like 10-20 bad ones. 

I’m no expert in the printing process by any means, but I’ve worked on that end enough to get the gist, and I know when a print provider is just trying to take my money and provide the least amount of service possible. 

There are a LOT of variables that go into printing, 

FlexoPress vs digital printing, 

Different varnishes (Gloss, Matte, Etc.) 

Paper, Plastic, Cardboard, etc. 

Now a ‘bad’ printer will just give you whatever you pay for without much insight. 

A “good” printer will help you pick the right process, material, color style, and give their opinion on what will work best for you.

One bad printer can ruin an incredible design - so I recommend taking the time and effort to find the best printer for YOU. 

The Rabbit Hole

For the sake of your time, we’ve only talked about the tip of the iceberg when it comes to your printed designs. 

There are SO many variables to consider, and we’d be here all day going through everything you’d need to know about it, 

I mean I’m STILL learning about it. 

My best recommendation is based on what I discussed above: Now that you understand the basics, find a printer who is an expert and learn from them. 

You’ll get quality designs that are the best fit for what you need, AND you’ll start to become more of an expert on this yourself. 

Like I said in the beginning of this - Printing is a behemoth that does not get covered in DTC nearly as much as it should, 

But when you’re in retail the quality, color, and overall look of your designs will have the biggest impact. 

Time to jump down the rabbit hole. 

Tool Of The Week

Before we wrap up, I wanted to take a quick sec to feature a tool that we’ve been using for a while now at Obvi - and it is CRUSHING on our post purchase side of things. 

They’re called ROKT - And the short version is that they used their ‘closed marketplace’ to offer tailored, easy upsells to your audience. 

And on the other end, we’ve been featuring our own products in these post purchase upsell placements - tapping into an entirely different channel that hits our audience when they’re ALREADY in that buying mindset. 

But you’re a brand expert - what should ROKT be important for you?

Yes, this week’s newsletter has been all about finding the right printing process so your products can crush it on the retail side of things, 

But when you’re featuring your products on someone else’s checkout screen - the same rule applies. 

You can access an entirely new revenue channel with ROKT - and you want to be just as in depth with your product designs for this digital storefront as you would with print. 

But - that’s just my 2 cents. ROKT is its own powerhouse, and if you’re to increase revenue for your brand (which you should be), I definitely recommend giving it a look. 

Wrapping Up 

And that’s a wrap on this week’s newsletter!

This one has been a mouthful, but I wanted to make this topic as valuable as possible for you. 

The printing process is no easy mountain to climb, and if you know as much of the basics as possible before getting into it, 

Then you might be able to avoid a lot of the mistakes I made early on. 

Anyway, I’ll see you next week!

Ankit