Graphic Design Unit Lesson 4

Graphic Design Unit Lesson 4: Steps to Production

There are 5 steps to producing a graphic design that is ready for the public. Although it is sometimes tempting to jump right to the end product in one step, efficiency and quality increase when these steps to production are followed.

1. Draw Thumbnails

A thumbnail is a rough, hand drawn sketch of a graphic design idea. There is little detail in the design; just enough to give a general idea. Words are not usually included in thumbnails. Thumbnails are a way of brainstorming for several different ideas. Typically, many (20+) thumbnails are drawn for any one finished graphic design.

Here are three thumbnails related to a specific graphic design.

2. Draw Roughs

Roughs are made based on two or three choosen thumbnails. In roughs, the large words are written, the images are drawn to proportion, and the spacing of the layout is much more accurate than in thumbnails.

These are two roughs based on the thumbnails above.

3. Make Comprehensives

A comprehensive is made from the rough that is chosen as the best. If color will be used in the graphic design, it is added at this point. The entire design is spaced exactly as the end product will be. Comprehensives include all of the words. If a computer is going to be used to make the design, the comprehensives are made on the computer. They are the final checking point before the final copy is made.

This comprehensive was made from one of the previous roughs.

4. Make Mechanicals

The mechanical is the final copy. It is also known as the "camera-ready copy". The mechanical is used for reproductions of the graphic design.

The comprehensive shown above was used to produce this mechanical.

5. Setup

Setup can be several different things depending what is used to reproduce the mechanical. If a computer is used for the reproduction, as in this unit, setup is filling a page on the computer with copies of the mechanical. For example, if the design is a business card, during setup, ten cards are copied onto a page in the computer. The phrase used to describe this is: "The cards are ten up." In this way, the mechanical is ready for printing.