PUBLICITY PRINT>>

So presumably you'll all be engaging the services of some swish Soho design agency to get together your publicity this year, and they'll be dealing with the print, yes? Well, on the off chance that some of you don't have buckets of cash to throw out of the window, here's some advice on designing your publicity, and ten tips on arranging your print.

Introduction

Your publicity print has two main dimensions - the creative concept behind it, and the mechanics you choose to use. That is to say the images and words you use to sell your event, and the kinds of publicity (flyer, ad, poster) that you are planning to use.

Creative Concept

Your publicity will normally centre on some sort of 'creative concept' which, once designed, can be manipulated into all sorts of publicity material - whether that be a flyer, postcard, sticker, magazine advert or whatever. Your creative concept needs to do two things - catch the eye and sell the event.

Catching the eye

People are so used to having advertising thrust at them - on TV, in magazines, on buses, on notice boards, everywhere - they have developed the skill of ignoring adverts - poster blindness. This is particularly true at the Edinburgh Festival where a mountain of print is dropped on the city.

A good creative needs to overcome this problem by being 'eye-catching'. Most creatives have some sort of image - a photo, illustration, cartoon, computer generated image, or sometimes just a word - around which everything else revolves. Think about what kind of image will attract attention - shocking pictures, unusual images, familiar pictures, cryptic images. With theatre you have the option of using your actors in the publicity, assuming your show is fully cast when you are making your print. If you have a famous name in your play this is a particularly good tool. A good original photo of you cast can catch the eye, but don't just use a portrait shot of your actors because it's easy. If you do use your cast think about how the picture will stand out from all the other 'cast photo posters' at the Festival.

Some people use familiar images, or parody current advertising campaigns, as a way of attracting attention. These can work but don't forget if you don't use original images technically you need to get permission from whoever owns the images you are using. Other people sometimes produce a series of cryptic posters which are obviously linked, but which only make sense when you have seen them all. These can be effective and get people talking - though they may have less immediate impact.

A useful device when thinking about poster design is to glance at crowded notice boards and see what you focus on first. What you are looking at is eye-catching. Is your creative going to compete with it?

Selling points

As well as being eye-catching your creative needs to sell your event. The image itself might do this (if it includes a famous cast member, for example), but more often the selling comes in the use of words. What information are you going to include on your publicity - what are you calling the event, is there a slogan, how and where are you going to refer to your big selling points?

Spend time over the actual wording you use. Snappy, exciting - but not cliché - phrases can really sell an event. A little linguistic imagination can turn all aspects of your production into big selling points, even negative ones! A ridiculously small venue can offer 'an exclusively intimate performance', while an event with a one night run can be 'your one and only chance to catch this'.

At this stage remember people like to have assurance that the event will be good. A professional looking poster will give them confidence in your production. And any quotes from big newspapers about your show, or past shows you have produced, might also sell your event (many theatre companies produce stickers with their quotes as and when they are published, and add them to there posters and flyers throughout August).

The creative is the key part of your overall campaign. The images, slogans, fonts, logos and ideas used in this creative should be used throughout all subsequent publicity material - so you need to make sure you're happy with it!

Mechanics

Once you have decided on your creative concept you then need to decide what actual tools you are going to use to publicise your event. There are numerous ideas to choose from, you are only limited by your budget. These include: posters, flyers, stickers, pens, mats, glasses, carrier bags, matches, lighters, t-shirts (to be worn by cast and crew) and of course adverts in the media (more on that at here).

Most people will develop their creative with a particular mechanic in mind - for most Edinburgh Fringe shows the starting point is the flyer. This creative is then manipulated for use in other mechanics.

Assuming you are printing a flyer or posters as part of your publicity campaign here are ten tips to help you plan, budget and get the best out of your publicity print.

Ten tips on publicity printing

One
Assuming you don't have a regular printer - do shop around, you'll be surprised what differences in prices you will get from different printers. To give you a quote they will need to know what size poster or flyer you want to print (A6, A5, DL, A3 etc), what kind of paper you want it printed on (matt or gloss, and what 'weight' - most people print flyers on about 150gsm, though some go for 300gsm, which is more like a light card), how many colours you want to print (most people go for full colour these days), what quantity you need, how you plan to supply artwork, how quickly you need the job turning around and where you want them delivering to. So have answers to all of those questions ready. There are advantages to using a local printer (any problems, you can call by), but if you are just going to get your flyers/poster delivered straight to Edinburgh then it might be cheaper to get them printed there to start with. If so, you might want to give our friends at Smart Design & Print a call - 0131 538 8020 (they print the ThreeWeeks Daily and loads of other festival type flyers and posters).

Two
Many people at the Fringe find themselves in a dilemma over posters. They want a few to put up at their venue, but that's it. If you go to a conventional printer you will find printing 50 posters is the same price as printing 300. For very short runs you should try a digital printer, who print them on glorified laser printers. Full colour digital printing is pretty good these days, and should be fine for a short run of posters.

Three
Ensure your printer can accept files generated by whatever application you are using to design your publicity. This is a lot easier than it used to be because most printers now accept artwork as a PDF, and most applications (Quark, In Design, Freehand, even Word and Powerpoint) are able to save documents in a PDF format. But do check with your printer first what kind of file formats they will accept, and make sure your software is compatible. If you are sending a PDF, ask you printer for advice on the exact settings you should use (chances are the default settings on your computer won't be quite right). If you are creating your PDFs by using Adobe Acrobat (the main PDF generating software) then many printers can supply you with a little 'plug in' that automatically installs all the right settings. If you are creating a PDF from within InDesign or Word then you might have to input all the settings yourself. Your printer should be able to advise on this. (If you are supplying your artwork old school style as a Quark or InDesign document you will need to supply a copy of all the photos/image files you use and any fonts you have used. You don't need to worry about images and fonts if you are supplying as PDF).

Four
Make sure you know how you are getting your artwork to the printer. This is also easier these days, because most printers will accept artwork by email, and if you have a broadband internet connection you can easily email over files up to 5MB (may be even 10MB). But if you are getting A2 posters printed you might find your image is just too large to email, which will probably mean you need to burn it to CD and mail it. If that is the case - make sure you are able to burn CDs and that there is time in the schedule to get the CD to the printer.

Five
If you use photos in your publicity, you need to make sure the image files you use are the right kind, the right colour type and the right resolution. For print you need the photos to be in the TIFF format, not JPEGs. The colour format should be CMYK, not RGB. And most importantly, your image should be at a high enough resolution. You can get away with 150dpi, but most printers recommend 300dpi (some insist on it) - check before you submit your artwork (many digital cameras take pictures at 72dpi by default). You can change the resolution of photos in Photoshop, though if you double the resolution of an image (say, from 150dpi to 300dpi) you should half the image size to compensate. If that makes the picture too small for your flyer, you should really find a better quality picture - Photoshop can't transform a low res small picture into a high res big picture, it just isn't that clever.

Six
Make sure your colours are right: if you are printing in full colour make sure all your colours are set as CMYK colours in Quark or InDesign. If you are not printing in full colour make sure you have selected 'Pantone Colours'. Don't use the default colours in your DTP package. Your printer will have books which show how different Pantone and CMYK colours print out. These are often slightly different to how they look on screen, or how they print out on your ink jet printer. So make sure you check before you go to press. If you are printing a spot colour make sure it is the same ink type throughout. You can print different 'tints' of the colour you use, but not different 'shades' of the colour you use. If you are using Pantone 72 make sure in your DTP package all use of blue is actually set as Pantone 72, and not as a different kind of blue ink.

Seven
Put a bleed on your work. If in your design you have a coloured box or picture running right to the edge of the page, extend the box or picture at least 3mm over the edge of the page. This is a 'bleed' and ensures you don't get white lines around the edge of your job. Even when you're 'bleeding' documents it is still a good idea to make sure that any text etc is no closer than 4mm to the edge of the page.

Eight
Remember 'dot gain'. If you have tints or colours on your flyer you should set them at least 5% lighter that you actually want them, as they will always print out darker than expected. This is because of 'dot gain' - because the ink dots that make up your print spread slightly when they hit the page, making tints appear darker.

Nine
The same rule is true with photos - set them slightly lighter than required. This is especially true if the photo is on the same page as a big solid block of colour. When photos appear next to solids the printer has to set the ink levels so that the photos are not too dark but solid blocks aren't too patchy. This is easier if the photos are set lighter - that way it doesn't matter if higher ink levels make the photo darker, and both pictures and blocks should be fine.

Ten
Always send a hard copy (ie a print out) of your work to your printer. It doesn't have to be in colour (although it helps if you have the facility) since the biggest problem is normally fonts. Ask about getting a proof back from the printers too. Again this is possibly less important now than it used to be because less can go wrong at the printers if you supply your artwork as a PDF - but I'd still want to know for sure the printer was looking at the right file before they print 20,000 copies of it. If you want to double check the colours on your publicity then you must tell you're printer you want a colour accurate proof - if you don't specifically ask for this you will get a laser or ink jet proof and the colours on that won't be exactly the same as the colours on your final print (blues in particular tend to vary). But be aware that a colour proof will normally cost you extra - so if you want one, check with your printer when you are getting your quote.