Having had my designs chosen to be used by the university this year, the arrangements for their printing has been incredibly rushed, and laced with a number of complications. The most difficult of these was Marketing's stipulation that the cards should be produced in bilingual form with the Welsh always preceding, and having equal prominence to, the English. For two of the cards, where the design plays on the substitution of the Glyndwr g into English seasonal phrases, this proved considerably problematic. I could kick myself for being too anglocentric but this constraint was not part of the written brief.
I also assumed that there would be time to rework the designs to bring the fonts and CMYK colours into line with those used in the actual branding. However, due to the 24-hour turn around time, this was a misplaced assumption. As a result of all the to-ing and fro-ing between the in-house design team, Marketing and myself, plus the deadline at the printers, I ended up surrendering complete control of the final design adjustments. The result is a compromise that I am not entirely comfortable with. I am not proud of the results. I think the integrity of the designs have been compromised.
All this highlights the need to be certain about restrictions from the word go and to approach the appropriate people to elicit all necessary information early on in the design process. I need to be much more proactive in this area in future. The penalty you pay for not taking these steps is work that you are not that keen to attach your name to.
