Graphic designers 'Zip' up image management
As graphics and multimedia become an everyday part of today's sophisticated business communications, graphic designers are under increasing pressure to deliver these images to bureaus and film houses quickly and efficiently.
Thin red line, a Sydney-based graphic design house, has recently overhauled its image management processes to enable its designers to meet tight deadlines with a minimum of fuss.
The company undertakes all kinds of graphics and design work for clients, from traditional corporate brochures and sales flyers to larger-scale stand designs for exhibitions, and the creation of multimedia images for web sites.
The ability to transfer these files to a range of clients, printers and other bureaux is of the utmost importance to thin red line, as any compatability problems mean unnecessary work in resaving files which could, ultimately, result in a missed deadline.
"We had been using Syquest drives, but found they were at times temperamental and were being used by fewer and fewer of our associates," said Alex Baird, thin red lines head designer. "Most print bureaus and film houses had converted to Iomega Zip disks as the primary tool for sharing and transporting information."
"We upgraded our system to include two Zip drives because we found that our clients and associates preferred our design files in this format. The general trend was for tapes and Syquest disks to be replaced by Zip disks. We found we had to adapt to this change to keep pace with the rest of the industry."
"The Iomega disks are definitely the new standard for storing today's larger files, and not just in the design world," said Ms Baird. "In working with many of our corporate clients, we have also found that they use Zip for a non-graphics files such as powerpoint presentations, downloading Internet information and other general archiving.
"For us, the real advantages of converting to Zip disks has been keeping in line with the industry standard and being able to effectively service our clients. The 100 MB capacity of the Zip disks allow us to put a complete job - including all pictures, fonts and layouts - on one disk. This makes transporting jobs a lot easier and minimises the chance of one part being lost somewhere in transit.
"Often we need to get a job completed and off to the film house in a very short time frame. Zip disks are so easy to use and we can be confident that any printer will be able to read them and we won't have to mess around resaving to a different format. If were not using what everyone else in the industry is using, we lose our ability to be competitive, and this ends up costing us clients.
"Minimising the cost of storing and transporting files is important for us. Being a smaller design studio we are far more cost conscious, and need a system which can deliver high storage capacity at a reasonable cost. The Zip disk is not only the standard across our industry, it is also great value for money."
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