Why we love design for print

Print design and digital formats are two totally different worlds. It doesn’t mean that a print designer can’t come up with a beautiful and wonderful digital design and vice versa. We love designing for print, but besides designing for print, we’ve also designed and created several websites of which we’re proud of.

But let’s get back to the title of this article. We love designing for print, but what makes print so special? What makes designers chose to work with materials like papers and ink instead of designing for screens?

Print design is about finding the best solution

Designing for print means you have a lot of things to consider. What format do we need to design for? Is what the client asks the right solution for this problem? What kind of paper and inks do we need to use to provoke the desired feelings?

There are literally hundreds of different sorts of paper and they are all different. There isn’t a ‘single’ paper that fits every project you have to print. However, every project has a paper type that is often used. This because it is seen as a standard for a particular outcome.

Papers can have a special coating to provide several effects with the inks. You have matt coatings that will give you the feeling of luxury, shiny coatings that will boost colours, papers that absorb the inks, photo paper, etc.

Also, paper has textures in it, some papers more than others. There exist different kinds of textured papers; smooth, linen, laid, felt, column… And of course, all of them have a different outcome on the printed work.

Take a sheet of paper, and sniff it. Take another kind of paper, and sniff that. Did you notice that they smell different?

I personally love old newspapers, they give me the feeling the paper lived, suited its purpose. It makes me feel happy to work with paper.

Another important thing that you must consider is that not every type of paper reacts the same with every ink. What inks should you use on what kind of paper? A matte ink or a shiny ink?

Should it be a water-based ink? Or does the print need to be used outdoors?

As you can see, there is indeed a lot to consider when designing for print.

That’s what we love about paper, paper makes us feel so many things, the smell of paper can make us literally happy, and holding it into our hands makes us feel like a child discovering the world.

Are you looking for great designers for print or a communication agency to take on your next project? Feel free to contact us.