A Short Guide to Speaking Designer
Have you ever wanted to effectively communicate with your designer to get results faster? Or maybe your designer told you something that you were fairly sure wasn’t English and you were too embarrassed to ask what they meant?
Have no fear, these are common problems. So here is a list of common terms your designer might use.
Always remember, if you don’t understand something, don’t be afraid to ask your designer what they mean. We don’t bite, I promise.
Designer to English Translations
Color, color, everywhere
Color is more than just the rainbow and why you should care.
When a designer talks about “color space” they are referring to the different ways of creating color (see RGB vs CMYK vs Hex). Generally, if a designer askes about “color space”, they want to know what the end product is.
If you hear a designer talk about color space, it is often followed by one of these words.
- RGB
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- RGB stands for Red, Green, Blue and is the standard color space for all things digital. Things designed in RGB do not print well.
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- CMYK
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- CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black and the color space that your printer uses. Things designed in CMYK might not look great on the web.
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- Hex
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- This is a subset of the RGB color space and it is the color space of the internet. Things designed in Hex do not print well.
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Upload file here
The ins and outs of your file type and why that’s important.
This word is every non-designer’s nightmare. With digital files, there are many different ways and sizes of saving a file. If a designer asks about file type, they want to know where the file is going. Here are a few of the most common file types.
- Ai
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- Large, vector files that contain a lot of raw data. Great for editing logos and graphics.
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- Esp
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- A vector file that smaller than an Ai. Great for master logo files and prints.
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- Jpeg
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- Small file size, but can accommodate high resolution. Great for websites and sharing with friends.
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- Mp3
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- Standard audio file. Great for all things audio.
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- Mp4
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- Standard video file. Great for all things video.
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- Png
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- Similar to a Jpeg, but can accommodate transparency. Great for logos and icons.
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If something is raster, that means that if it is scaled up, it will pixilate and loose it’s clarity.
The resolution of something is how many pixels make up the image. The more pixels, the higher the resolution of the image is.
If something is vector, then it can be scaled up ad infinitum without pixilating. This is great because your design can now be printed anywhere from business cards to billboards.
Pesky printing
Ready, set… what do you mean you can’t print that?
Have no fear, designers are not vampires! If they ask about bleed, they want to know if your file had color that goes right to the edge of the page. Whether it does or not impacts how they print your project.
The term comp is short for composition. A comp is usually a piece of work that is not finished yet, but is well into the designing phase.
Copy merely refers to any text that you have in your design.
Preflight is the process of looking over a file and preparing it for print. If your file is going through a preflight check, that means the design is verifying that your file will work and look like you want it to.
If a designer says this, that means that your file is ready to be printed. Be warned: this also means that if you need to fix something in the design, from this point on, it will be really, really hard and quiet possibly very costly.
The resolution of something is how many pixels make up the image. The more pixels, the higher resolution the image is.
Identify yourself!
The keys to success are at your disposal.
A logo is simply the combination of shapes and/or letters that lets people visually identify your business.
Branding is the set of guidelines that dictates what colors, fonts, logos and layouts that are used consistently across all media. If you have good branding, a person can identify your company’s ad without ever seeing your name.
Was this helpful? Is there a term that you think should be here? Let me know.
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