Creative Quest

Soon, gone will be the days when every packaging designed will have that small white box at the back with coded black lines and random numbers. A unique barcoding system developed by Microsoft, High Capacity Color Barcode (HCCB) is set to hit the market later this year on DVD media The HCCB, a four and eight-color geometric patterned barcode, can hold up to two-pages of data which is more than double of what the current black and white barcodes can store. The code is made up a combination of colours and various orientation of the triangles which will create distinct patterns  The international Standard Audiovisual Number International Agency (ISAN-IA) is one the first to license this code for identification on audiovisual products like motion pictures, videogames, etc. Not only the vendors, but Consumers too will be able to interact and obtain valuable information like website, email address etc from the barcode by scanning the code with webcams and eventually with cameras on their mobile phones. 

They say that its not a replacement to the existing UPC and other barcode systems but considering the extent of data that can be stored and retrieved, it will not be too long before all the products in the market ahve this multicolored pattern on them.

This development in terms of technology and reach is great but what it will do for design and aesthetics of design remains to be seen.

Bleed refers to the type of printing that goes right upto the edge of the paper.

In order to ensure that the layout gets printed edge to edge, you need to leave a bleed margin of about .25″ above the total size on both dimensions (if you are working in mm, about 3mm on each side should suffice). That means that if your actual size is 7″ x 5″, your bleed size needs to be 7.25″ x 5.25″. (actual size: 130mm x 250mm - bleed size should be 136mm x 256 mm ) Set guidelines at your actual size. this will mark what will be printed and seen after the bleed area is cropped post printing.

You can normally get the bleed size from the printer along with the actual size. but incase you dont have the bleed size, make sure that you put the cut marks on all sides demarcating the actual area and bleed margin area

make sure that any text, logo and design element essential to the layout are well within the guidelines else they too shall get cut in the process

Ad with bleed margin and cutmarks