Posts from the ‘Traditional’ Category

QA in Print Production

Although somewhat of a bias opinion Google’s Biz Chief: 50 Percent of Ads Will Go Online in the Next Five Years. it is safe to say the digital medium is the future of advertising (shocking, I know). With ever increasing screen presence I feel it is equally important to highlight a quality control process for print advertising.

Case in point, this lovely error you see, of course no explanation could be given for the printing oversight. I was however able to negotiate a make good on the insertion because a SWOP proof was submitted to the publication to visually communicate how the ad should reproduce.

With the average media insertion rate for a single, full page, color ad in a national publication running anywhere from $8k – $35k (and more), investing a few extra dollars for a hard copy proof will guarantee the media buy and safeguard the agency and client from argumentative finger pointing should an issue arise.

I know it seems archaic to pull proofs, if you’re running a national print campaign and investing hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars on the media buy, prepress should be included as an integral step in your QC process. If a client never pulls proofs and boasts an issue-free track record they’re lucky. The statistical rate of error will coincide with increased advertising volume, production and budgets. And print production (like the food industry) should always follow QC standards.