Written by
Ana Reis
Screens flatter everything. A printed proof is the first time a design has to stand up without backlight, and it is where most of our decisions get made.
Every project at Deckle goes to paper before it goes to a client. Not a mock-up on a screen, not a PDF: ink on stock, trimmed and pinned to the wall. It is slower than exporting a link, and it is the most useful hour in the whole process.
What a screen hides
A backlit screen makes everything look finished. Thin type glows, pale colours hold, and a layout with no hierarchy still feels calm because the brightness does the work. On paper the same design has to earn its contrast. Hairlines break up, a warm grey turns out to be green, and the headline you were proud of is suddenly the same weight as the caption.
None of this is news to anyone who has sent a job to press. What surprises people is how often it changes a design that will never be printed at all.
The wall test
We pin proofs at eye height and stand three metres back. If the name of the company is not the first thing you read from there, we go back to the desk. It is a blunt test, and it settles more arguments than any presentation.
Try it yourself
Print your homepage at actual size, tape the sheets together and put them on a wall. Walk away, come back, and note what you read first. Then decide whether that is what you meant.