Internship Journal #8: Printing

I create a lot of printed work for IFCC, from flyers to guides. Everything I have designed for them gets printed. Most of the time, they print it in house. However, there are times where they will send it to the printer. I have learned how to write an invoice for the printer and what to give them in order for them to print the project exactly how the client wants it. For example, when working on the resource guide, there was a creep error. Because the guide was going to be saddle-stitched, which is when staples binds the booklet through the fold, when the book is folded, it causes the inner pages to extend further than the outer pages. Naturally, you would cut it so it’s even. However, the way the book was designed was there was text near the edge of the page and the creep would cut the text. So, I learned how to find the creep for the book so it would print in a way where it wouldn’t get cut. In order to find the creep, you have to take the total pages in book, which was 68 pages, divided by 4, then multiply it by the paper thickness. The paper thickness was 80lbs gloss. Take that number, and divide it by the number of flat sheets in your book. After doing this equation, I got 0.1264 inches for the creep. It’s going to be a small number, but it’s just what we need to make this guide keep its information intact.

When I’m not doing design work, I also help out the people in the office with non-design tasks. One time, one of my supervisors need me to put address labels on envelopes to send out to their child care providers. They were using Brooklyn Public Library envelopes and wanted me to cover it up with their address labels. It was a small box full of them but I did it with ease. I also helped with sorting items into bags for an event they had on Saturday. They were giving away bags of items to use with kids if the child care providers came to events the organization holds. I had to put one of each item into 50 bags. Luckily, I had the help of two other employees so we worked out a system and got it done quicker than if we were to work alone.