Going green seems to be the latest trend sweeping the planet. It is unfortunate that this is a trend and not a permanent lifestyle change for everyone because trends fade with time. It is truly disheartening to see McDonald’s cups and plastic Coke bottles littering our streets and our water sources. It is also shocking to know that litter is a free and shameful way of advertising. I know I’ve seen a candy wrapper lying in the grass and later went and purchased that candy. It is sad, but it is true.

Now more than ever our planet needs all of the help it can get to reduce our human footprint. I know this may sounds pretty blunt and harsh, but our work is trash! The marketing and advertising material that we are so proud of is literally ending up in the dirt! In a way, all litter and garbage starts with us. Unrecycled printed materials aren’t the only downfall of design. Have you ever considered how much electricity it takes to power multiple computers and printers? Of course you have! You think about it every time you get your electricity bill.

What can we do as designers to give back to our environment? What can designers do to keep our planet beautiful and please our clients at the same time? A simple solution to help our planet is to educate ourselves so we can educate our clients. By educating our clients we are able to teach them environmentally friendly ways to be successful.

Here are a few environmentally friendly tips for designers to share with their clients. These tips will not only help shrink the carbon footprint created by designers, but some of these tips will also help save you and your clients money!

Going green with print

Find an eco friendly printer.

1. Ideally we would like to find printers who use post-consumer recycled materials and 100% chlorine free paper. The word ‘recycled’ has somehow adopted the meaning ‘cheap’ is some people’s eyes. Many consumers think that all recycled paper is dull, grey, and not as white as virgin paper. Recycled paper that appears off-white hasn’t been de-inked. For bright white recycled paper use de-inked paper. The ink that is taken out of the recycled paper can be burned to create energy to power the paper mill or outsourced for other usages. Ironically, recycled paper is just as good, if not better than virgin paper.
2. Find a printer that uses soy and vegetable-based inks opposed to petroleum based inks.

Here are a few eco friendly printers you should considering checking out (some may even be cheaper than who you are currently printing with)

• Moo
• Greener Printer
• Print Pelican
• Green Printer Online
• pixxlz
• a local printer
• clientel systems

Going green in web

1. Use XHTML and CSS. The less code you use on a web page lowers the transfer rate over the network, which in return lessens the amount of electricity used. Learning and using XHTML and CSS will also make you a better web developer.
2. Recycle your code. By using php and javascript you can call certain images and media that appear on multiple pages of your website only one time  instead of over and over again. You can also recycle code by calling certain scripts for multiple sites that are on your server that may be using the same code.
3. Create single page websites when possible. Once again, this reduces transfer rates which reduce the amount of energy being used.
4. Find hosting services with carbon-neutral companies. Carbon-neutral companies are businesses who have measured all of the carbon dioxide they are using and then alter their work ethic to remove as much of it as possible.

Dreamhost has gone carbon-neutral. If you are currently looking for a new host or thinking about switching your hosting services you can google ‘Dreamhost coupons’ and get amazing hosting services for an insanely cheap price!

A few environmentally friendly ways to save some extra cash

1. Power your computers down nightly.
2. Replace light bulbs around your office with energy-efficient light bulbs, which also last longer.
3. Keep a recycling bin near the printer. Lets face it, we run a lot of proofs to make sure our design looks right. If you aren’t able to decrease the amount of proofs you run per project, the least you can do is recycle them!
4. Stop faxing, start emailing! I know we have a lot of old school clients who still prefer faxing opposed to emailing. Using email as an alternative to faxing will save you the cost of paper, ink, and the cost of electricity it takes to keep a fax machine running 24/7.

If you are looking for a way to slowly wean your client off of faxing I’d suggest investing in an eFax account.

How have you reduced your carbon footprint?

On March 8th it was International Women’s Day. I actually had no idea such a day even existed. In celebration of such a day I decided to make a belated post honoring International Women’s Day. I have gathered a collection of females who design and/or blog to share with you. This is a collection of female designers I follow on twitter, subscribe to their blogs, and just create flat out amazing work! These females are not only inspiring to the small, yet growing community of female designers, but they are inspiring to the design community in general. The following sites designed and created by females can be used as inspirational outlets, as well as design resources. These sites are listed in no particular order.

It’s not your printers fault, it’s yours. Ouch, I know that was hard for you to hear. A designer’s initial reaction when receiving faulty print jobs back from their printer is to point the blame at the printer. In most cases, it is our fault. As designers, it is our responsibility to make sure our projects are perfect and fit the specifications requested by our printer before we even think about sending our jobs off to them. There has been this never ending war between designers and printers because we never take the time to understand one another. Just like you, your printer wants to do a perfect job and make sure your job comes back to you flawless.

In this article I am going to highlight certain key points to help you build your relationship with your printer. Even if you never meet your printer face to face it is important to build an everlasting professional relationship with them.

1. Printer Specifications. No matter who your printer is they have most likely provided you with a list of specifications. Following these specifications ensure that your project will come back to you looking how it did when you designed it.
• Even though printing is the final stage of design it is important to read over your printer specifications before you start a new design project to make sure you are building your document correctly. Why? Well, depending on your printer they may have certain document setup sizes. Some printers build their bleeds directly into their document making them larger, while others require the standard .125 inch bleed around your document.
• The printer specifications also address color guidelines, as well as rich black specs. Did you know that some printers have their own specific rich black mixture? There are so many rich black combination’s out there, so if your printer uses a certain combination make sure you are using their rich black. Also take the time to discuss Pantone Colors with your printer. Some printers charge a higher fee to print Pantone Colors.
• Your printer’s specifications will also provide you with file format guidelines and how to save them correctly. Don’t assume your printer is able to print your EPS file. Even if they may be able to print your EPS, it may not be their preferred way of printing. If possible, always create your final print file using your printers preferred file format and step-by-step instructions to setting up and saving out your file. It is always a good idea to never send your printer your original documents. This can cause all kinds of text, color, and image problems.
• If your printer has asked you to name your files a certain way, respect that request. I have learned from experience that naming your file any old name is grounds for confusion. Your printer probably has a high traffic of files coming to them daily, so naming your file ‘MyBrochure.pdf’ is not going to help your printer distinguish your jobs from the next brochure they receive. If your printer doesn’t have a file naming system, create your own. This will help prevent confusion for your printer, as well as yourself. I always include my job name and date in the files title before sending it off.
2. Never wait until the last minute. Your printer is very busy, so don’t think you are their top printing priority. If you know you have a deadline that needs to be met and that you will be placing a large order of a large print run, plan ahead. Even if you are not aware of your exact deadline date book a general time slot with your printer to ensure that they have all the printing materials needed for your project and the time to print it. In some cases, it is more important to make a date with you printer opposed to your client. You can always change your printing date, but you can’t change your client’s expo date and when they will be needing their newly designed banner.
3. Send test files to your printer. A lot of the time we are in a hurry to send jobs out to the printer and don’t take the time to test them out. After you have fit your project to your printer specifications and packaged it accordingly to their guidelines send them a test file. By doing this it helps guarantee that there are no unaccepted mistakes when the final file is ready.
4. Time is money. After you have delivered your job to the printer don’t just sit around and wait for them to contact you. Contact your printer every now and then between the time that you send your job and the time you are meant to receive your job back. Make sure that they received your job and that everything was delivered to them with no problem. It is also nice to contact them to just ask how everything is going. This lets them know that you are very concerned about the print job and that you are waiting on it.
5. Double check your job once you receive it. Ok, this is the step that we love to point the blame at! We are sticklers when it comes to checking over our final product for errors. If you happen to find any errors that are clearly printer mistakes address them with your printer immediately. If your printer did a wonderful job, make sure to tell them. We love to know when we have done a good job and so do our printers.
6. How do we know when we have made mistakes as designers, not the printer? Here are some common mistakes made my designers:
• Text issues: If you have sent your printer a job and saved it as a PDF straight from Illustrator, chances are your printer is going to need your fonts unless you have created outlines of your text. Make sure you are always sending your printer a flattened PDF or have created outlines from your text to ensure that there will be no font issues. Also double check the colors of your font. If you have used black on your body text, make sure you are using 0,0,0,0 CMYK color values and not registration black or rich black (rich black is used for large blocks of black color, such as background colors).
• Image issues: Always try to keep your images at or above 300dpi and in CMYK. Some printers allow for image dpi a little below 300 (I have never gone lower than 250 dpi) and in rgb, but double check this with your printer. Better safe than sorry. If you are placing your images into your document, make sure they are linked to the appropriate file. InDesign gets a little tricky sometimes when it comes to linking images. Even if your image is not linked correctly in InDesign a low res version on that image is still displayed in your document, make sure it is linked and not just a low res instance of your image.
• Check your dot gain values to make sure that your images don’t become washed out or shadows look too dark. If you aren’t sure what your dot gain is or how to check it learn all about dot gain here.
• Trimming issues. I have been reinforcing ‘better safe than sorry’ throughout this article, and once again: better safe than sorry! Always keep your text .25in from the edge of your document and always extend your bleeds .125in outside of your document to make sure that no text is being cut off and that no unwanted white edges are showing.
• Paper stock. Depending on your project your printer will usually recommend a paper stock. If they don’t, ask. If you don’t ask this is a good learning experience. If you receive your project and the other side of your paper is showing through, your paper was too thin! Unfortunately, this is our problem. It is always nice to learn from our mistakes though.

These are just a few general mistakes that designers make. There are many more out there, but I’d like to think that these are the most common. If you run into any other mistakes, don’t be so quick to jump on your printer about them. Your printer is very knowledgeable and want your job to be perfect, so they will be willing to consult with you to make sure the same mistakes will not happen again.