The Catalog Production

After the completion of the planning process, catalog production starts. These are the steps when producing a catalog:

Firstis the gathering of data. Before any design to exist you must firstgather a complete list of all the products you will include in thecatalog, as well as all non-product copy. If some items will be groupedtogether as one catalog photo block such as a shirt that comes in 4sizes and 6 colors, check to ensure that it is clear for the designer.Sort further the list into categories or spreads.

Second, writethe product copy. Although most every company can pull a list ofproducts, item numbers and prices from their computer system, virtuallyno company maintains proper product name and descriptive copy. Productnames used in inventory software typically have names like "IVY T-SHIRTRED MEDIUM." In your catalog that same product would instead be called"Ivy T-shirt", available in red and size medium.

Keep in mindthat the descriptive copy for general customer catalogs should rangefrom 30 to 60 words. Business and technical catalogs should be as briefas achievable while getting across the information a corporate buyerneeds to make an informed purchasing decision.

The third step isto plan and design the overall look and feel of the catalog. In theplanning questions you may have determined the catalog dimensions,catalog objective and catalog audience. With that information you candesign the master layout for the catalog. All page design willoriginate from this master layout. In the master layout, you can designall common page elements, grids, design themes, and type specificationsfor all type of occurrences. To examine the design specs, you can mockup a couple of pages.

Fourth, design the spreads and cover.After the overall look and feel of the catalog has been designed,product list and copy created, you can now sketch out each spread toidentify the items on the spread and their approximate layout. You canalso indicate any product photography that needs special shots such aswith a background or model, and sketch approximately how we envisionthe photograph's layout.

The fifth step is productphotography. This step involves the acquisition of all the picture andgraphic files. The next thing to do is to process the images inPhotoshop. There you can adjust the levels, add a clipping path andconvert the image to CMYK.

Finally, you can now layout thecatalog. This is the most thrilling part of designing a catalog. Hereyou can put all the elements together on the page to come up with afunctional and attention grabbing catalog.

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