RE: dealing with designers

At 01:27 PM 4/29/03 -1000, David Jones wrote:
>Now a PDF I could read, but if I was getting mail over a
>dialup connection, I might be pretty unhappy waiting for
>it to download! Of course, that depends also on the
>size of the PDF file. We have a designer here who
>takes the PDF route, wanted to email a 4MB PDF
>attachment ... she did that, once, to all 1600 staff
>members we have here ... not something you want to
>do every day!

If the question really is how to send the artist's work out as-is vs. how 
to teach the artist to come up with designs that will be communicated to 
the most people, then I want to weigh in again and say that many, many 
people are admonished NOT to open email attachments from unexpected sources 
- even if it's "from" someone you know.

If the goal is to send out formatted email in a marketing effort, PDF will 
NOT get you the results you want. File sizes are simply too big for 
graphics-intensive designs, people don't trust or appreciate email 
attachments they're not expecting, and there's no chance for a first 
impression - that split second between seeing the marketing piece on the 
screen and clicking the delete button where you MIGHT get someone's attention.

If the goal is to produce a web page that incorporates or highlights the 
artist's work, then again PDF is simply not a viable option.  File size 
aside, an entirely different application must open to view a PDF document - 
which takes a long time to launch - and PDF isn't pretty or very readable 
on a screen.

> > I agree with the other person who recommended a PDF
> > attachment; it's the only way the designer will have full
> > control, and it saves you the trouble of presenting a
> > technical explanation.

I think the problem isn't that the artist wants to keep control, but rather 
that the artist isn't helping the designer.

Collette K. McNeill

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