This recruitment company had some clear ideas on where they wanted to go with their design. They had created a logo design and colour scheme of black and cream/gold.

The logo design was not created in vector format, so I recreated it and then added the shading or embossing effect in InDesign afterward on the ‘me’.

The client had chosen the wallpaper like pattern that they liked and I found it under ‘damask wallpaper’ in a stock images site. The difficult part was getting it into the right colour and screen strength to suit a black background.

The problem with using a subtle screen image or pattern on a solid black background is that the black ink tends to overwhelm the subtle pattern when on the printing press, and there is a great risk that the pattern could disappear altogether in print, not looking at all like the screen proof. So I had to lighten the pattern on screen about 15% more, to accomodate for the fact it would darken in print amongst the solid background.

The back of the card was a bit easier, because on a light background, the darker coloured pattern tends to darken and show up more rather than disappear into the background.

In the end the print result was great, with a nice subtle result for the damask pattern against the black background, while still maintaining a clear image.

Lisa

Lisa is a graphical and pre-press designer with more than 15 years experience. She runs her own agency Twilight Emerald from Ballarat, Victoria Australia.