Student- Costing a Print Job

tallulah_crack

Hello,

I'm a graphic design student and for one of our projects we have to cost the printing of packaging we have designed. I have emailed many printers for quotes but they dont seem interested because this is not a live project.

The packaging is a custom shaped box, 13cm in height, 6 cm in width and 2 cm in depth. It will be a two colour job and requires double sided printing. I would really appriciate it if somebody could PM me with an approximate quote as to how much this would cost.

Thanks!

seithon

As one student to another I suggest the following,
Lie.

Seriously, lie, say the project is live, get some costings and then politely turn them down later on.

alexlyons

I'd agree, pretend it's live, get a few quotes, then turn them down based on being to expensive (if your trying to get the cheapest) and I'd be surprised if none of them dropped even a small bit

OctavarIan

I third the suggestion to just lie. Have done it myself before (Clear Channel) and there's no fuss in it.

peejay1986

Again, I agree, just lie. I'm a graphic design student and I just say I'm quoting for a client. Then just say the client has abandoned the project or something.

looksee

A few points to consider -

What size is the box layout? Giving the size of the box is not helpful and shows that you are probably a student chancing your arm!

You will have to cost in the price of a knife (die) for the box, which involves a good deal of messing for the printer, sending off a pattern and getting a quote from a third party.

It would not be reasonable to buy a die for a few hundred boxes, you would expect to either use a standard die, or be producing something really exotic. You would have to be very sure of your ground to tell a convincing story about that.

Are you talking about 2 colour spot printing, or cmyk printing using only 2 colours. I'm a bit out of date but I think the 2 colour spot would be more expensive than cmyk these days, as it means the machine has to be cleaned down for each colour. Someone might correct me on that.

You are wasting your time going to the big printers, they will not even attempt to give you a quote unless they are sure you know what you are doing, and the job is big enough to bother with.

Go to a smaller printer that has a 'main street access' in other words they are used to dealing with the general public. Don't try to pretend you are a professional graphic designer, say you are helping your brother get a product off the ground and are trying to find out what the cost of packaging will be. Take a printout of the job (line drawing of the size and shape - he is not interested in your design, no matter how good it is )

Don't go to the nearest printer to the college! Unless they get a lot of work from the college and are prepared to humour you, they will have been damned over the years with students telling this story.

Or you could try something like this http://www.bagnboxman.co.uk/acatalog/custom-made-boxes.html

Good luck!

Dublin_Gunner

1. Don't even tell them ANYTHING about the job, merely ask for the quote - if they do come back asking, tell them its for a client.

2. As was said, its probably as easy getting a quote for a CMYK as for a 2 spot job, and can;t imagine there being much of a price difference - unless its very low run.

3. Go digital if its a low run job. Litho could turn out to be fairly expensive if you're only getting a few printed.

4. You will need a keline, and a die made for the job. You will most likely have to supply the keyline for quoting purposes, if its not a standard type of die you require.

5. Giving the 'depth' doesn't really help! You'll need the dimensions specified flat for the print job, and also if you require any glued tabs etc.

6. Get the contacts for a number of printers, and e-mail / call lots of them. Gives you a better chance of having at least one of them revert with a quote - be prepared to be hounded by sales calls from the printers though.

tallulah_crack

Hey everyone,

thanks for all your advice. I contacted a few printers and didnt mention that I was a student and finally managed to get a quote.