Finding your niche in Desktop Publishing

Identity systems encompass logos, letterhead, and business cards, and spills over into other areas such as business forms, brochures, and signage as well.

Logos are symbols and/or type that help to quickly, visually identify a company or organization. They are used in almost all printed materials a company produces and along with color and basic design elements reinforce an organization's identity and name or brand awareness.

These are the basic items that most businesses use and are often the first thing small business owners will contact a designer to create. For small business on a tight budget the letterhead may do double or triple duty for printing invoices, fliers, or even for simple brochures. If you are working with a new or very small business you can create goodwill by showing them designs which allow them to use their basic letterhead for a large variety of other documents.

Are special financial documents used to provide a summary of operations and financial standing of a company or organization. They may also include other special information about the company including its mission, future plans, profiles of key management or staff. The target audience may be investors, customers, employees, partners. Some publicly held companies are required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (U.S.) to produce annual reports.

Also charitable and nonprofit organizations and schools may publish annual reports.

The challenge with designing annual reports is to turn balance sheets and corporate mission statements into a visually appealing package.

Large companies may produce their annual reports in-house but independent freelancers may be able to get their foot in the door by approaching smaller companies and nonprofits with limited budgets. Annual reports may take a considerable amount of time to produce and several individuals or departments within a company will probably provide input (i.e. be prepared for lots of revisions) but they can also be a good source of repeat business.

Proposals are another type of report that companies may produce for perspective clients or investors. They may be formal or informal. Companies may also produce reports (for internal or external use) outlining plans, proposed acquisitions, research, and any number of other purposes. Depending on the scope of the report the company or organization may want a formally designed layout with charts, illustrations, or photos.

Business forms include those used internally by a company and those seen by customers or others. Invoices, order forms, routing slips, statements, customer satisfaction surveys, employee suggestion forms, and job tracking forms are just some of the types of forms a business or organization might need.

The challenge in designing business forms is to make a form easy to read, easy to fill out, and more attractive or unique than the readily available generic business forms out there.

Approach your current customers about designing forms for them. If they are using generic business forms you may be able to show them how custom invoices and statements that echo the layout and color of their corporate identity pieces can help reinforce their business identity.

Catalogs can be large or small. Generally they consist of illustrations or photos plus descriptions of the products depicted. Any company that produces a number of products or parts for sale is a potential customer for your catalog design skills.
Catalogs range from small booklets to perfect bound books of hundreds of pages. They present an opportunity for repeat business because product lines and prices often change frequently.

Range from simple price lists to elaborate booklets with photos and illustrations. Like catalogs, restaurant offerings and prices change often resulting in repeat business.

Lists of products and services including price lists are another example of frequently changing documents that range from simple lists to elaborate designs. Because they may change frequently, businesses (especially small businesses) may have limited budgets so you'll have to come up with creative designs that save money too.

These listings of products and service can all result in regular repeat business beyond the initial design due to changing prices and product lines. Frequently changing data such as in catalogs, menus, and product lists may utilize database-assisted or variable printing options.

Include a wide range of documents that companies use to promote themselves. They differ from advertising materials in that they are generally more of a soft-sell and often designed to provide on-going PR for a company more than generate immediate sales. Collaterals may or may not be tied to specific advertising campaigns.

Brochures take many forms. They can introduce an entire company and its products or services or may focus on a specific product. Companies may have a variety of brochures aimed at different types of customers � prospects, new customers, repeat customers.

Product data sheets often outline specific features or they may be assembly and use instruction sheets.

Promotional materials can include notepads, calendars, bookmarks, magnets, t-shirts, mousepads, and other "leave-behinds" that are useful to the prospect or customer and provide silent, long-term exposure for the company that imprints their name, logo, and contact information on the items. Specialty businesses can create some of these promotional items but some businesses may engage a designer to create a special design (such as for a t-shirt) and work with the specialty printer.

Certificates can include award certificates for internal use but can also be customer appreciation awards and gift certificates for new or existing customers.

Cards can serve as goodwill collaterals when sent as holiday greetings or to say thank you to customers.

Crafts and Creative Printing projects are not just for party decorations and gifts to friends and relatives. Computer-generated crafts can be an income-producing business including selling creations online or at craft shows. Many creative printing projects can also be used as promotional items and giveaways by small businesses.

Just a few of the items in the Crafts and Creative Printing category: Calendars, Candy Wrappers, Greeting Cards, Invitations, Envelopes, Scrapbooks, Party Decorations, Decorative Boxes. Although professional page layout and graphics programs can be used, there are a huge number of specialty programs aimed specifically at this market.

Created by designers using desktop publishing software include display advertising, fliers, sales circulars, and direct mail packages. Newsletters can be used as marketing or promotional vehicles as well.

Direct mail can be anything from letters to postcards to complete packages with letters, brochures, order forms, and other pieces.

Designers can often find a niche in this area designing ads or marketing newsletters for small businesses.

Packaging is an area that covers everything from labels to bags to boxes of all shapes and sizes. While you might produce labels from your desktop printer, most packaging production is done by specialty printers. However, you can design the artwork with page layout and graphics software.

If a company produces a product it generally needs packaging of some type. Boxes for software, food and wine labels, product tags, and shopping bags are just some examples of packaging that can be created by a freelance designer using desktop publishing software.

Periodicals are publications that generally come out on a regularly recurring schedule whether it's annual, monthly, weekly, or even daily. Newsletters, newspapers, and magazines are periodicals. They provide a great opportunity for repeat business but can be time and effort-intensive.

Can be simple one page letters produced from your desktop printer or elaborate 4-color publications that rival the magazines found on the newstand. Newsletters (and to a lesser extent magazines and newspapers) are prime candidates for self-publishing too.

Magazines and newspapers are less commonly produced by freelance desktop publishers, most work being handled in-house. However, as a freelancer you could obtain contract work for special sections of larger publications. Smaller publications or those with other than daily publishing schedules may be more willing to work with freelancers for more of the design and production work. Some publications may farm out specific tasks such as digital photo processing or the creation of custom illustrations and graphics.

These are publications that generally come out on a regularly recurring schedule whether it's annual, monthly, weekly, or even daily. Newsletters, newspapers, and magazines are periodicals. They provide a great opportunity for repeat business but can be time and effort-intensive.

These can be simple one page letters produced from your desktop printer or elaborate 4-color publications that rival the magazines found on the news stand. Newsletters (and to a lesser extent magazines and newspapers) are prime candidates for self-publishing too.

This includes magazine cover or book jacket designs, custom illustrations and photography for books or periodicals, and technical illustration.

Sometimes the desktop publisher may be called upon to provide the artwork themselves in connection with a publishing project. They may contract with others to provide the artwork or they may themselves specialize in a certain type of artwork � providing their services to book or magazine publishers directly or through another designer. This area is not strictly graphics, it also includes typography and page layout for covers, inserts, etc.

While many larger publishers handle the artwork in-house, one market to explore is the creation of jacket designs and artwork for smaller self-publishers or CD inserts for smaller independent bands and music publishers.

Publications for our purposes here, refers primarily to books and other non-periodical publications such as booklets, workbooks, manuals.

Whether in-house or as a freelancer, typesetting for a long document such as a book generally requires professional level tools. Adobe FrameMaker, Corel Ventura, and QuarkXPress are considered the leaders in this field. Because freelance desktop publishers sometimes wear many hats (including self-publishers), technical writing and indexing are sometimes included in this category although normally these are jobs for professional writers and indexers.

While major publishers may handle all book design and layout including indexing in-house, freelancers may be able to make a niche providing these services to self-publishers or small independent book publishers.

Self-publishing is the for-profit publication (hopefully) of books, newsletters, booklets, or other publications by-passing traditional publishing avenues.

You can self-publish just about anything that you can desktop publish. The primary difference is that you are generally self-publishing items which you sell, such as a book you wrote or a subscription-based newsletter. Some self-publishing may be done to supplement another business. Self-published customer newsletters or a free tips booklet is aimed at increasing business or generating sales of other products or services.

Some self-publishers in turn require the services of desktop publishers to do much of the design and production work for the books and booklets they want to self-publish.

Signage can be big business. Retailers need signs in front of their stores as well as inside. Buildings need signs to point visitors to certain areas such as the lobby, a lounge, the exits, the elevators. Exhibitors at conventions and trade shows need signs. Cities and states need road signs. On a smaller scale individuals needs signs too: garage sale, happy birthday banners, and lost dog signs.

For some types of signage you'll need to become familiar with local or state regulations regarding size, acceptable symbols, and even the type of fonts you can use. Although your designs may not be printed on paper, even metal, plastic, and neon signs can be designed on your computer. Adhesive decals, bumper stickers, and novelty license plates are signs as well.

Web publishing can involve designing web pages or entire sites, providing original content, or placing existing print documents online.

This includes Web as well as other non-print publishing such as email newsletters, CD-ROM publications, eBooks, and PDF documents.

While some Web and electronic publishers come from a print design or desktop publishing background, many enter the field without any prior training in desktop publishing, graphic design, or traditional publishing.

These are often the starting points for some new desktop publishers just getting started. Others make this field their long-term speciality.

While dedicated page layout programs are the best choice for desktop publishing, through necessity or by design many people use word processors to do complex desktop-published documents. Some businesses often require secretaries and others to do desktop publishing in word processing programs such as Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect.

At its most basic level, word processing is typing. However, it generally involves some degree of formatting and may also involve integration of graphics. Software specifically designed for r�sum�s is available but is usually more limiting than the formatting options available in modern word processors.

About the Author:
Prior to 1997, Jacci Bear was a freelance desktop publisher and writer. Since that time she has been teaching desktop publishing on the Web through her own writing and by consolidating information found throughout the Internet.

Experience:
During the 1990s Ms. Bear desktop-published a small magazine about desktop publishing, co-founded the FidoNet INK echo and AusTINK, both DTP-related groups. Her software reviews and other writings have appeared in various publications and in recent years her GuideSite has been cited in publications, such as Home Office Computing, as a top source for DTP information.

Education:
Although her formal education is in business management, Ms. Bear took on numerous design and publishing projects for civilian and military employers. This on-the-job training laid the groundwork for her later freelance work in desktop publishing.

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Finding your niche in Desktop Publishing