# Design for Print: Stand Out with Specialty Printing Techniques - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/design-for-print-stand-out-with-specialty-printing-techniques/ [← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Graphic Design · Solid intro · Rated 7 /10 # Design for Print: Stand Out with Specialty Printing Techniques Updated August 2026 Ross Moody · Maker & Entrepreneur Intermediate · 109 min A working printer explains letterpress, screen print, and offset with real cost tradeoffs, then walks a business card from sketch to press-ready file. [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fdesign-for-print-stand-out-with-specialty-printing-techniques%2F166642129) New to Skillshare? Your first month is free, enough to take this course at no cost. "Design for Print" is built by a working maker rather than an educator by trade, and that shows in both its strengths and its rough edges. Ross Moody, who runs the card and gift company 55 Hi's, structures the class as a tour through print production followed by a single applied project: a business card carried from concept to a press-ready file. ## What the course actually covers The first half is a methodical comparison of print processes. It opens with CMYK versus spot color, using a physically separated four-color image to show how cyan, magenta, yellow, and black overlap to form a printed piece, then contrasts that with Pantone-referenced spot color used in letterpress and screen printing. From there it moves through letterpress (with a slowed-down look at how a plate presses "bite" into paper), screen printing (mesh, emulsion, and layered ink passes), and offset versus digital printing, closing out the process section with paper weight and stock choices. The specialty techniques lesson is the most content-dense stretch, covering overprinting for creating a third color from two inks, duplexing and triplexing paper to sandwich colored sheets together, metallic and fluorescent inks, and edge coloring on thick cover stock. The second half shifts to the actual project. A budget section on ganging up jobs, sharing spot colors across multiple card designs to hit press minimums, and using a printer's house stock is genuinely practical and reads like advice earned from running a small manufacturing operation, not textbook theory. The sketching and concepting lessons are looser and more about mindset than technique. The strongest material returns at the end, in a pre-press walkthrough that shows how to label a dye cut line in Illustrator, set bleed and live area, convert colors to spot swatches, and build a basic trap so two adjacent print colors do not gap on press. ## Where it succeeds and where it thins out The course earns its keep by naming real, specific costs and constraints instead of generalities: letterpress sheet sizes limited by press bed dimensions, why screen printing handles large ink floods better than letterpress, why proofs are not available on hand-mixed spot color jobs. That specificity is what separates it from a generic overview of print methods. The weak points are pacing and depth in the design stretch. The paper section rushes through weight terminology, and the sketching and computer transition lessons lean on the instructor's own workflow and instinct rather than a repeatable method a beginner could copy. Photoshop and Illustrator steps assume the viewer already knows their way around the software, so someone without that baseline will lose the thread exactly when file setup gets technical. Rated for what it sets out to do, the course is a solid intermediate primer on print production and one specific, well-explained pre-press deliverable. It rewards someone who already designs and just needs to understand how a printer thinks. It falls short as a standalone design course for a beginner, and it deliberately skips deep dives on any single technique, sending viewers to a resources section for further study instead. The standout The pre-press walkthrough on labeling dye cut lines, bleed, live area, and spot color swatches in Illustrator is the one segment worth the whole class for anyone about to submit a real print job. ## What you will learn - · Distinguish CMYK versus spot color printing and when each makes financial and visual sense - · Compare letterpress, screen printing, offset, and digital printing on cost, minimums, and tactile results - · Apply specialty finishes like overprinting, duplexing, metallic and fluorescent ink, and edge coloring - · Cut production costs by ganging up jobs, sharing spot colors across designs, and using house stock - · Set up an Illustrator file with dye lines, bleed, live area, spot color swatches, and trapping for a printer - · Sketch and refine a business card concept around a chosen printing budget and technique Best for: Graphic designers and small brand owners who already know basic design software and want to move a project from screen to a specialty printer with confidence. Skip it if: Complete design beginners with no Illustrator or Photoshop experience, since the pre-press lesson assumes existing software fluency and moves fast. Clarity of Instruction Engaging Teacher Helpful Examples Organization of Lessons [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fdesign-for-print-stand-out-with-specialty-printing-techniques%2F166642129)