Packaging & Production
The File Handoff Checklist That Prevents a Production Disaster
"The design is done" and "the printer can actually use this" are two different milestones, and founders regularly celebrate the wrong one.
"A gorgeous approved design and a production-ready file are not the same deliverable, and the gap between them is where launches quietly slip."
What "Production-Ready" Actually Means
A finished creative concept and a press-ready production file are genuinely different deliverables — production files require exact die-lines, correct color mode and values (not just what looks right on a monitor, per this Journal's digital proofing article), bleed and safety margins, and file formats specific to the chosen print method covered in this Journal's digital vs. flexo article.
The Checklist Worth Confirming Before Anything Goes to Print
Correct color values for the actual print method (not screen RGB), die-line accuracy matched to the real bottle or can geometry covered in this Journal's packaging architecture article, mandatory compliance copy at correct minimum type size, and a barcode meeting the placement and quiet-zone requirements covered in this Journal's UPC barcode article.
Whose Job This Actually Is
Confirm explicitly, in the original agency agreement, whether production-file preparation is included in the design fee or billed separately — a scoping question covered from the pricing side in this Journal's label design cost article, and one of the most common places projects quietly go over budget.
Raw Guild Studios
We Build Beverage Brands From the Ground Up
Creative direction, naming, identity, packaging, and production — one studio, start to shelf.