CMYK into 2 Spot Colors

[gashe]

Hello,
I am a graphic designer and recently i designed a logo for a client that is in CMYK. He didnt care in that time, now he needs the logo in 2 spot colors. In the logo i am using gradients to get the silver and gold-bronze color. I really dont know what 2 PMS color to use to get the same effect on print. Here is the logo so you know what i am talking about: http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/6585/jajpg.jpg
I designed the logo in Illustrator cs4
Thanks for your advice

Regards

[gordo]

Hello,
I am a graphic designer and recently i designed a logo for a client that is in CMYK. He didnt care in that time, now he needs the logo in 2 spot colors.

What you created is not a logo - it's an illustration.

It is a fundamental criteria in logo design that the graphic must be effective and suitable for reproduction under the worst possible circumstances - typically one color, e.g. black ink only, on poor paper (e.g. phonebook/newspaper, et. al.).

So, IMHO, you should and will have to create a new graphic that shares elements of the original illustration (circles, stars, fleur-de-lis, etc.) but is crafted from the ground up to be reproduced in only two colors (and preferably no halftone screening).

best, gordon p

[Skittizay]

if you need to keep the gradient then i would just open up a swatch book if you have the appropriate one, and find a gold and silver color that matches the darkest parts of your gradients...switch the cmyk values in your gradient tool box to the new pantone colors that you choose...

[almaink]

So your the one responsible for all these process logo's I've been fixing lately so they will print as 2/c spots! Yet another example of why design work should require a license.

[gashe]

Well thanks for your honest replays.
The whole think is that 9 out of 10 clients don't want solid colors. They all love gradients, shadows bla bla. And ofcourse most of the clients wants to save money to print it in less colors if it is possible. Thats why i am asking you for advice if it can be done as it is now. I know most of you dont like complicate artworks but you should understand that most of the time we do things that the client wants, and they dont want to listen to us. So my next question is if it is possible to tell me the PMS colors for silver and dark gold ?

Thanks

[wonderings]

Well thanks for your honest replays.
The whole think is that 9 out of 10 clients don't want solid colors. They all love gradients, shadows bla bla. And ofcourse most of the clients wants to save money to print it in less colors if it is possible. Thats why i am asking you for advice if it can be done as it is now. I know most of you dont like complicate artworks but you should understand that most of the time we do things that the client wants, and they dont want to listen to us. So my next question is if it is possible to tell me the PMS colors for silver and dark gold ?

Thanks

There are many different pms colours for those. The best thing would get a pms swatch book and find the one that matches what your looking for. Have you done any print with the CMYK logo already? Are you trying to match any printed material?

[Verdant]

You won't get exactly the same look, but since it's 2 color silver and gold you could spec out metallic PMS colors. Also, instead of creating gradients I've found that using the blend tool and blending shapes and colors together gives you better reproducibility (is that a word??), and gives you more control over your screen values.

[gordo]

Well thanks for your honest replays.
The whole think is that 9 out of 10 clients don't want solid colors. They all love gradients, shadows bla bla. And ofcourse most of the clients wants to save money to print it in less colors if it is possible. Thats why i am asking you for advice if it can be done as it is now. I know most of you dont like complicate artworks but you should understand that most of the time we do things that the client wants, and they dont want to listen to us. So my next question is if it is possible to tell me the PMS colors for silver and dark gold ?

Thanks

That's why I agree with almaink.

Sorry, but doing what the client asks for, or says they want, is not what a professional graphic designer does. A professional, as in any trade, does what is needed to determine exactly what the problem is that is presented to them and then propose the most effective solution to solve that problem.

It is not a question of the client wanting to "save money" by printing it in less colors. It is a question of the responsibility of the designer to explain to the customer, during the initial briefing, that an effective logo will have to work in a great variety of media. Sometimes in color, sometimes in just black and white - as in a newspaper ad. Sometimes it won't even be printed but be created in other media like glass and signage.

That's why this "logo" design only lasted one year:


Compared with this one (and its variants) which has been working for the company for over 40 years:


BTW, I would be very cautious about using metallic PMS colors since they do not trap well and the metallic will be lost wherever the image is halftone screened.

best, gordon p

[John Clifford]

Well thanks for your honest replays.
I know most of you dont like complicate artworks but you should understand that most of the time we do things that the client wants, and they dont want to listen to us.
Thanks

As has been stated previously, YOU are the graphics professional. It is up to YOU to let the client know what is possible and what they should be looking for. If YOU can't convince the client, then YOU're not doing your job.

Yes, I just had to deal with a black/white job that had a blue text link and a color logo in it, converting everything to grayscale. I also had to convert some 4-color into 2-color. But prepress guys like me get PAID to do that and only because YOU designers don't properly prepare your files.

[Stephen Marsh]

Gashe, now that you have been chastised by the forum, I will offer some advice. By the way, the forum is not picking on you, they are giving you very good advice, my advice is to take it to heart. Good logo design starts with the simplest printing, such as being suitable for use with rubber stamp creation or envelope printing - or even a fax cover sheet. Moving on...

As you have done this logo in Illustrator, you should have more flexibility in making two colours. You may have to make some adjustments to make this work in two colour only. Depending on the artwork construction, you may have to change the colours in Illustrator to use say magenta and black only, where magenta would be substituted for the spot gold or bronze colour. Otherwise if you are sure of what you are doing, you can simply use black and a true spot colour.

I would use black and a spot colour, regular or metallic, whichever was in budget.

You will likely have to consult with the printer and make sure that the client understands that the final result may not look exactly like the four colour version.

I have attached a 2-spot colour version made in Photoshop as an example.

Regards,

Stephen Marsh