Design, Web, and Print

For many orders, production and delivery time is 5-10 business days after final approval of the layout and payment has been provided.

$10.00 for most business card orders. For other items, please call or email.

Payment in full is typically required before a job goes into production. Other payment plans may be available for certain projects. You can make a payment by check, money order, or debit/credit card.

Creative Graphic Biz offers reprints in cases where the product is shown to be defective. However, no refunds or returns are offered for mistakes in the layout which the customer has approved.

Established in Knoxville TN, Creative Graphic Biz has been doing business since 2008.

The Customer is responsible to record and pay any sales or use tax required by their own State. Creative Graphic Biz only collects sales tax from Customers within the State of Tennessee, in accordance with Tennessee law.

Creative Graphic Biz is a retailer only. However, professional discounts are available for freelance graphic designers. Call or email for more info.

You only need to pay for website design once, or as often as you update your site. However, you do need to rent the server space and domain name service to keep your site online. This is where the annual web hosting fee comes from.

Creative Graphic Biz offers very competitive pricing at around $58.00 annually, and fees do not go up year after year as you may have experienced with other hosting providers, which makes it perfect for small businesses. See Web Hosting Price Break-Down.

If you're curious about the costs involved in running a hosting service, Creative Graphic Biz pays at least $60.00 monthly for the server to host its clients, plus about $11.00 annually for each domain name. This does not include maintenance costs. Further, no profit is made off the domain name service, which is included as a convenience for the client.

Web hosting is paid in advance every 6 months or yearly. To end your service, simply request Creative Graphic Biz to stop billing you. In this case your site will be deleted from the server and someone else may take ownership of your domain name.

However, it's better to talk with your web administrator first. There are a number of things to consider such as backing up your site to your own computer, shutting down your site but keeping your domain name, or even selling your website.

Absolutely! PDF, EPS, and JPEG are all acceptable file formats. For full color business printing, include a 0.125" bleed and allow a 0.125" safety margin. Remember to convert your fonts to paths or bitmaps.

Also remember to check your colors! Be sure to test your layout on your best printer using its best setting on a quality paper stock. It might also help to test your colors on several different monitors, if possible.

Probably not. Internet graphics are generally compressed and stored in the lowest resolution possible to allow fast downloads and conserve server bandwidth.

On a bright monitor or tablet this compression looks okay, and our eyes are used to the limitations of these devices anyway, but on paper it looks kind of "blah".

Another issue is that resizing low quality bitmaps usually results in even lower quality.

Finally, graphics for the Internet are optimized for the colors a monitor uses, which is different from the colors that can be printed on paper, so you can end up with loss of color information on top of everything else. These are the kinds of issues design professionals are always having to deal with.

Layout assistance is available for those who already have a layout, but need help finishing things out. In such cases, a professional can step in to make final tweaks, check on things like color and resolution, and create the necessary files for production.

With layout assistance, you can submit your design in a format you are comfortable using, such as a word application or your favorite photo editor.

If it looks like something is missing or if the design professional has a good idea, they will get back to you and perhaps offer a suggestion for your layout. You may then decide to edit and send it in again, or proceed with the layout as is.

When submitting a layout, you must provide the complete writeup or text you want printed in a type-written format that can be easily "copied and pasted". Any logo, graphics or clipart you want to use must also be provided in a suitable file format, and you must have a license to use such graphics.

Layout assistance is usually free for business cards or for simple text-based layouts on T-shirts, banners, letterhead, etc. For more involved layouts such as brochures, banner graphics, or T-shirt logos, pricing is determined based on your specific needs.

You may even purchase layout assistance from Creative Graphic Biz when having items printed through another supplier.

When creative work is required for any project, whether a business card, logo, or complete marketing package, a design professional can help.

A good designer not only understands the ins-and-outs of the design and print industry, but is willing to take the time to understand the needs of the business they are serving. They can work closely with your marketing, creative writing, and promotional efforts to make sure your design accomplishes its end goal.

A design service like Creative Graphic Biz can see you though the entire process, solving problems as they may arise and helping you stay on budget. Creative Graphic Biz can also help with your own in-house work when a fresh perspective is needed to move a project forward.

Because there are different reasons you may need to work with a design professional, (as well as different kinds of projects) it is necessary that the designer understand the needs of the client and the nature of the project before a tentative price quote is offered.

A truly good design is more than just the "design," it's presenting the right information in the right way. Not only should a piece look and feel great, the message it communicates should deliver great results for the company and its target audience.

Copywriting may include researching and coming up with a good slogan, offering suggestions for a sales pitch, or creating a few paragraphs of web content. More involved projects may include developing new sales literature, or reworking a page-long writeup to be attractive and effective.

Creative Graphic Biz can work with you directly or with an outside copywriter to achieve your goals. As with any creative project, pricing for copy related work is based upon your specific needs.

Yes! It is not unusual for small businesses or start-ups to do a lot of things on their own. (Whether this will result in the kind of product you need or end up taking too much of your own time is another question.)

If you're considering doing your own design work, here are some ideas to get the creative juices flowing:

• Reflect on your unique business strengths. Do some research on your competitors. What makes you different or better than the rest? Make your point clearly and effectively without referring to the competition.
• One way to communicate the unique qualities of your product or service is with your slogan. Do you already have a slogan or tag-line? Is there anything you can do to improve it?
• Have you thought about tweaking your logo or business name? Will you ever have a website for your business? Now's the time to make any changes and to secure a domain name, before you start printing.
• Even if you don't want a website, you should still secure your domain name to prevent others from using it and causing confusion. Once you start researching available domain names, you may find that you need to modify your business name for the simple reason that nearby competitors are already using it!
• Will you want to include a photo of yourself or your team? How about a photo of your storefront or company vehicle? Do you want to feature a specific product on your business cards, brochures, or other marketing material?
• Do you already have suitable photos for your project, or will you need professional photography and editing to make it sizzle?

The possibilities are endless. Start collecting the various elements you'll need, then open up your favorite graphics application and go for it! (For single color business printing, take a look at the Do-It-Yourself Print Center.)

If at any point you need assistance from someone who's done it before and cares about your success, Creative Graphic Biz is here to help.

The right layout involves research, copyrighting, photography, graphic design and marketing. A project may go through many steps, stages, and revisions before it's ready for print, and so a design project which aims for serious results can present a significant investment.

However, there's a number of things you can do to lower design costs, even if you have no intention of doing the layout yourself:

• First, connect with your design professional. Get a feel for what you need, what it might cost, and what your options are. This will help you define your goals and the general direction of your project.
• Next, see what parts of the project your company is able to do internally, whether its research, product photography, copywriting, or font and color selection.
• After you've taken things as far as your time and talent allows, turn to Creative Graphic Biz to pick things up and work with you to create a layout that looks great, achieves your goals, and stays on budget.

In this way, a lot of the important work is completed by yourself which you would otherwise have had to pay an outside service for. Knowing more certainly which direction you want your layout to go can also save on design costs, and allows for a more accurate price quote.

Of course, if you would prefer to rely heavily on your design professional, Creative Graphic Biz has the experience to see you through from initial concept, to completed product!

Creative Graphic Biz offers proofing "assistance" as an optional service, which can potentially eliminate a lot of mistakes in your own layouts or writeups.

However, the customer is ultimately responsible for final proofing, checking for typos, spelling errors, mistakes in layout, etc., even in the case of layouts which Creative Graphic Biz has created. A digital file will be made available to the customer for this purpose.

It is always important to have another person proof your work, particularly one who has not been involved with the project (to avoid "typo blindness"). For projects in which you must be certain there are no mistakes, you should seek the additional support of an outside proofing agency.

Precise color matching is available for certain types of projects, when needed. This type of color replication may require printing an item by itself rather than ganging jobs together, and the creation of color proofs both for the client and printer. For small jobs, the additional costs involved are not usually practical.

For low-cost, short runs, a better strategy is to work with your graphic designer to eliminate as many color issues as possible before going to press. This helps to keep color variation within a more acceptable range, and because you're printing relatively small quantities it's more practical to apply any necessary color tweaks on your next order.