h3>Daniel Dejan

Graphic designer, educator, art/creative director

If you say “Daniel” to many designers and print buyers, they’ll know you’re referring to Daniel Dejan. As the ETC Print & Creative Manager for Sappi Fine Paper, Daniel is in a league of his own: he’s widely regarded as an amazingly talented presenter, who delivers so much good content with skill and artful technique that he’s a conference favorite year after year.

Every presentation is different. Daniel is a fount of knowledge on so many creative & communications topics. Do yourself a favor and sign up for his presentation on Standard #5: Special Effects and Finishing Techniques on Tuesday, October 9^th at our conference in Chicago. The Standard #5 is an educational reference piece that combines the technical with the creative. Every attendee will get a copy.

Go one better: register for his 3-hour Color Management Workshop the day before, same location – and conquer your fear of color management! Workshop attendees will get a copy of Sappi’s Standard #2: Color Management and Calibration, as well as a copy of Daniel’s seminar for note-taking purposes.

We asked Daniel a few questions about his October presentations for PBI:

1. What does Standard #5 add to the Sappi series?

Standard #5 is a continuation of Sappi’s commitment to ‘optimizing the Print’ experience: Standard #1: preparing files for print, Standard # 2: Color Management and Calibration, Standard #3: Varnish and Coatings Techniques, Standard #4: Folding Techniques, and now Standard #5: Special Effects.

We hope that designers and creatives, production managers, print buyers, paper merchants and printers alike all find valuable educational resources as well as inspiration from these Standards – and that they assist them in creating, implementing and producing efficient, fun, engaging print projects that run smoothly as anticipated and assist them in differentiating their clients’ brands and services from their competition in their markets.

2. Are there any rule-of-thumb guidelines for using specialty finishing techniques when designing print materials?

While they are very fun to use, much like spices, too many do not make for a better recipe. Concentrate on using one or two well and in an engaging manner. Most importantly, while many of these special effects are really not that cost prohibitive, always discuss them with your printer in regards to how they will impact the production schedule, as some of these effects require more time than others and may push delivery schedules out a bit farther than time allows.

3. Does one need to be

a specialist to master the techniques in this volume?

Absolutely not, quite the contrary; most of us are already familiar with varnish techniques, foil stamping, embossing/debossing, die cutting, etc. What we have attempted to do in this Standard is to show different combinations that creatives or production managers may not have thought of, push the envelope to new dimensions in regards to using aqueous and UV coatings, and some very imaginative variations on techniques we have seen before such as lenticular, flocking, and thermography that many of us may have not used in a while or have seen implemented tin this way.

Certain techniques such as Quick Response (QR) codes are very simple to generate, but should be strategized as a part of a more well thought-out integrated marketing approach with a micro-site’s landing pages designed with forethought and clear goals in mind. Augmented Reality (AR) is more complex and usually requires a programming and design/rendering specialist to accomplish: very engaging, lots of fun, the natural evolution of the ‘print to on-line facilitation special effect’ that requires an experienced team to execute properly and strategically.

4. Talk a little bit about the Color Management Workshop, which will be held on Monday October 8th. What can attendees expect?

Most content creators and production managers are somewhat familiar with color management, although they would admit that they do not always get the color they expected or specified and cannot pin-point the reason(s) why.

In this workshop, we will try to fill in the blanks regarding color theory – especially the RGB to CMYK conversion and why “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” is not always the case; what tools and techniques are available for design studios and agencies to quantify and measure color, articulate it and quality control it affordably; what tools and techniques are absolute best practice in color management, such as specifically proper lighting during specific operations and why proper calibration is not an option but an absolute; how paper will impact color and how to work with a paper mill/merchant and printer in specifying the proper paper and implementing a color control process to ensure results.

We will also discuss color management and printing guidelines such as SWOP, GRACoL and G7 and how to incorporate them into an optimized color management workflow. Admittedly, three hours may seem like a long time, but in actuality this will only open the conversation to put attendees on the right path when they get back to their work environments. Most of all, this presentation will be educational, inspiring and, hopefully, entertaining.

Thanks, Daniel! We asked Daniel to deliver his Color Management Workshop based on requests from PBI conference attendees. Check out the news release on this workshop. You can register separately for the October 8^th workshop, or sign up for the conference as well when you register online.

© 2012 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You’re free to forward this email. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author