Blog

We had our 2025 Portfolio Show last week! It was quite the day. It started downpouring when I needed to bring in my poster board, so I had to drive up under the roof so it wouldn’t be destroyed (jokes on me I got super drenched). The turnout at the event was pretty good! My whole family pretty much came to support me and it was nice to show what I have created. I talked to some industry people but overall I was super happy my bosses at PANTHER | Ad Arts came to see what I do outside of work! They were so supportive and happy for me, it really was a great time.

It’s official! I am going to be working full-time at PANTHER | Ad Arts! I am so excited and happy! I love working there! The people are amazing and I really enjoy what I do. I am so glad that they hired me on! I will be working as a graphic designer and customer service representative to help clients. I also will start managing their social media and help with marketing. This is a dream come true!

At PANTHER | Ad Arts, I was asked to create a playbill for Sioux Falls Christian’s production of “Letters to Sala”. At first, I thought I was just making the cover and some advertisements for parents but then realized I was going to be making the whole thing! I researched all about the play, which is based on a woman who kept letters from her time in labor camps during World War II. It is an incredible story and her daughter wrote a book about her life called “Sala’s Gift” (which the play is based off of). Working on personal magazines this year really helped me work on this playbill. I knew about reader vs. printer spreads, and how the pages needed to be in multiples of 4. It was a really cool project and I even was able to attend the show!

I finally finished my origial project! I created South Dakota-Land (like Candy Land just South Dakota themed). I am super proud of my work as I spent a lot of time creating all of the icons from scratch. I wanted to make it have a cartoon look while still making it look like the real thing. It includes: Falls Park, the Corn Palace, Dignity of Earth and Sky, the Capitol Building, the Badlands, Wall Drug, Crazy Horse Memorial, and Mount Rushmore. If it was real, I think kids would like to play it in the car as they travel across South Dakota and learn about the state.

If you’ve ever written a school paper, opened a Word doc, or printed something “serious,” chances are you’ve met Times New Roman. It’s one of the most widely used typefaces in the world—so familiar it practically fades into the background. But behind its ordinary appearance is a story that includes newspaper deadlines, type design breakthroughs, and even a bit of controversy.

The font was born in 1931, created for the British newspaper The Times of London. The paper’s printing quality was falling behind, and they wanted a new typeface that looked sharper and was easier to read on newsprint. They commissioned Stanley Morison, a typographic advisor at Monotype, to oversee the project. Morison worked with Victor Lardent, a staff artist at The Times, to design the new typeface. Their goal was to make a font that was highly legible in small sizes, space-efficient, and classic-looking but modern and functional. The result was Times New Roman, a serif typeface with balanced proportions, strong vertical contrast, and just enough elegance to feel trustworthy. It was named afterThe Times newspaper. It made its debut in the October 3, 1932 issue of the paper, and people took notice. It was crisp, efficient, and easy on the eyes even in long columns of text.

After a year of exclusivity in The Times, the font was released to the public through Monotype. Over time, it spread far beyond newspapers. In the digital age, it became a default typeface in Microsoft Word and other programs. That’s when Times New Roman truly took over the world, appearing in school assignments, government forms, office memos, and more. It became so common that many people now associate it with “formal” or “boring” documents. But when it was new, it was actually a clever and efficient design upgrade. Some designers love it due to the fact it is highly readable and time-tested, while others hate it since it is everywhere, making it feel generic. Some creatives avoid it just because it feels overused. Others appreciate it as a reliable classic with deep roots in type history. From 1930s newsrooms to your modern laptop, it’s a reminder that even the most “basic” things we use every day often have rich, thoughtful origins.

Trapping is all about keeping your printed colors aligned and clean, even when the press isn’t perfect. We’ve already talked about spread (expanding the lighter color) and choke (shrinking the darker color) but when it comes to small text, especially on high-contrast backgrounds, things get a bit more delicate. For example, imagine tiny white text on a solid black background, or thin black text on a bright yellow label. That color contrast looks amazing on screen but in print, it’s super sensitive to even tiny shifts in alignment.

Normally, spreading a light background color into dark text can help fill in any gaps caused by misregistration. But with small text, spreading the background even a fraction of a point can swall thin strokes, reduce legibility, or make the text look fuzzy. Choking the dark text inward can reduce the chance of a visible halo around lettersbut if overdone, it can thin out the text too much, cause parts of letters to disappear, or make the type look uneven.

For small text in high-contrast settings, the goal is maximum legibility with minimal distortion. You should avoid trapping small text if possible, especially under 8pt. You should also use overprint for small black text on light backgrounds as it avoids all the risk of spread/choke. If you do need to use trapping, you should apply very minimal spread or choke and prioritize sharpness over safety. If your text is black, use 100% K ink only—no CMY mix. That way it can overprint cleanly, there is no risk of color misregistration, and you can avoid muddy third colors.

When you’re designing something for print like a flyer, label, or poster, you want every detail to come out sharp and legible. That includes small text, which can be trickier than it looks. One of the most important choices you’ll make (often without even realizing it) is whether that text should knock out or overprint the background. Small text has thin strokes and tight spacing, which makes it very sensitive to how inks behave.

Overprinting Small Text:

• Good for dark inks (especially black) on light backgrounds
• Helps avoid misregistration where colors don’t line up perfectly and cause blurry or fuzzy edges
• Keeps text crisp and avoids thin outlines or color halos
• Default choice for body text in most print jobs
• Be careful if the ink is light or transparent, if you overprint a light color over a dark background, it might disappear or change color.

Knocking Out Small Text:

• Good when text needs to be a specific color, especially something light like white or yellow
• Prevents the background from affecting the color of the text
• Risky for small text on dark or busy backgrounds. If there’s even slight misalignment, it can leave distracting color gaps or shadows around the letters

For very small text, black overprint is often the safest choice. It’s less prone to print issues and usually looks best on press. Knockouts, while useful, require careful trapping and can cause problems at small sizes. My recommendations would be to use 100% black (K only, no CMY) for small text especially when overprinting. Avoid multi-color (CMYK) text below 10pt as it increases the chance of registration issues.

If you’ve ever mixed paint as a kid, you probably remember how blue and yellow made green. The same kind of thing can happen in printing, when two inks overlap, they can mix to form a third color. This is especially common when using overprint. Overprinting means one color is printed on top of another, without knocking out the background. So instead of printing red on a white background, you might be printing red over blue. And when that happens, the inks blend—sometimes creating a brand new color. This new color is what we call a third color result.

Designers sometimes use overprinting on purpose to create layered, screen-printed effects. It’s a great way to add depth or create new colors without using more ink. But if you’re not expecting it or if it messes with your brand colors or readability, it can be a real problem. It can make text harder to read, change colors on logos or icons, or create mismatched tones. For example, if you print light blue over yellow and suddenly it turns green, that might not be the vibe you were going for.

When working on a design for print, you’re probably focused on colors, fonts, and layout. But behind the scenes, there’s another decision happening that can totally change how your colors behave on paper: knockout vs. overprint. These are two ways colors can interact when they overlap, and knowing the difference helps you avoid surprise results when your design goes to press.

A knockout removes the background color underneath an object so the top color prints directly on white paper (or whatever the base is). It’s like punching a hole through the bottom layer so only the top color prints there. For example, if you have black text on a red background. With knockout, the red doesn’t print behind the letters, the printer “knocks out” that red in the shape of the text. Then the black is printed directly on the paper. This gives you sharp, clean edges and true color.

Overprint means the top color prints on top of the color beneath it—without removing anything. Both inks are laid down, and they mix visually where they overlap. Using the same example (black text on a red background), if black is set to overprint, the red will still print behind it and the black will print on top. With black ink, this usually looks fine (and actually helps avoid misregistration). But with lighter or transparent inks, you could end up with an unexpected color where they mix.

This week we jumped into creating pieces for the Portfolio Show. We had to start making invitations and posters to hang up around campus, as well as deliver to businesses in the area. We had to print the content and cut them in the production room. It at times was difficult because some people did not listen to directions and printed/cut wrong, which made us lose time and materials.