Graphic Design

We have an experienced team of in-house Graphic Designers to help with page layout and typesetting of your documents to make them print-ready.

Design Team

V. Marcus Tarducci comes to PDQ Printing with a wealth of knowledge from the corporate design world. He spent 3 years as the New Media Director at Pfeiffer plus Company in St. Louis, MO where he created the procedural guidelines necessary to develop new projects including conceptualization, planning, illustration, graphic design, photographic direction and programming for all applications. During his tenure with Pfeiffer he worked closely with Southwestern Bell Telephone, Express Scripts Inc., BJC Health Systems, Washington University and the Monsanto Company.

Marcus graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Graphic Communications from Washington University in St. Louis, where he was recognized as a 1st place winner in both Corporate Identification and website design by the American Institute of Graphic Arts. Print Magazine also awarded him 1st place in their annual Digital Art and Design Project.

Since joining PDQ Printing in 2001, Marcus has been responsible for designing and producing a wide variety of printed materials ranging from a simple, one color, brochure to full color, glossy marketing pieces. He has become an intricate part to many of our client’s brand and identity, and a great resource of design knowledge.

Jayne Butler joined PDQ just over 10 years ago and brought with her almost 30 years of experience in graphic design and public relations. Her knowledge base working in the graphic arts industry over that time period has become an invaluable resource to us and our clients.

Prior to PDQ Jayne focused her attention on marketing and public relations. She spent 14 years discussing with clients how to convey information about the products and services they provide to potential customers to support their direct sales efforts. She subsequently took that experience and became the managing director of graphic design at Colonial Printing where she was able to implement that experience working on projects for MetLife, Paul Arpin and AAA (Triple A).

Apparently, Jayne's value wasn't just discovered, as she was once featured as a “Who's Who in American High School Students!"

Sarah Heaton joins us from Cornwall, England where she spent 19 years as a graphic designer in the printing industry. Along with adding an international flare and perspective to our team, she is extremely well versed in the process of preflight and prepress. Her experience and knowledge has created a seamless approach for our clients from approving the proof through to the finished product.

Prior to joining our team over 7 years ago, she was the production manager of Centreprint Commercial Printers. Centreprint is based in the United Kingdom operating all Heidelberg presses together with the latest computer-to-plate and digital workflow systems. She was also the studio manager at the Quintdown Group, a family run company with 30 years of experience in providing print, design and marketing to businesses in South West England.

Sarah's experience has provided a tremendous platform for growth at PDQ. Her insight has helped our clients achieve the best quality possible in terms of design and printed materials. In 2003, Sarah won the Hammermill Grand Certificate of Merit for outstanding Print Imaging Quality and Creativity in the Brochures category.

Glossary of Terms

To list all terms connected with the Graphic Arts would fill a book. Many would be too technical and of little value to anyone other than a skilled craftsman. In this section only the most common terms used in Graphic Arts production are defined:

• ABSORPTION In paper, the property which causes it to take up liquids or vapors in contact with it.
• ADDITIVE PRIMARIES In color reproduction, red, green, and blue. When lights of these colors are added together, they produce the sensation of white light.
• AGAINST THE GRAIN Folding or feeding paper at right angles to the grain direction of the paper.
• AGATE LINE A standard of measurement for depth of columns of advertising space. Fourteen agate lines make one column inch.
• AIRBRUSH Used to correct and obtain tone or graduated tone effects. In platemaking, used with an abrasive-like pumice to remove spots or other unwanted areas. In CEPS, a retouching technique.
• ANALOG COLOR PROOF Off-press color proof made from separation films.
• ANTI-OFFSET OR SET-OFF SPRAY In printing, dry spray of finely powdered starch used on press to prevent wet ink from transferring from the top of one sheet to the bottom of the next sheet.
• APERTURE In photography, lens opening or lens stop expressed as an F/no. such as F/22.
• ART All illustration copy used in preparing a job for printing.
• ASCENDER That part of a lower case letter which rises above the l' main body, as in "b".
• AUTHOR'S ALTERATIONS In composition, changes and additions in the copy after it has been set in type. Often called "AAs".
• SPINE The back of a bound book connecting the two covers.
• BACKING UP Printing the reverse side of a sheet already printed on one side.
• BACK LINING A paper or fabric adhering to the backbone or spine in a hardcover book.
• BAD BREAK In composition, starting a page or ending a paragraph with a single word, or 'widow'.
• BASIC SIZE 25 x 38 for book papers, 20 x 26 for cover papers, 22.5x28.5 or 22.5x35 for bristols, 25.5x30.5 for index.
• BASIS WEIGHT The weight in pounds of a ream (500 sheets) of paper cut to a given standard size for that grade; e g., 500 sheets 25 x 38 of 80-lb. coated book paper weigh eighty pounds.
• BEARERS In presses, the flat surfaces or rings at the ends of cylinders that come in contact with each other during printing and serve as a basis for determining packing thickness.
• METAL PLATE In lithography, a plate used for long runs in which the printing image base is copper and the non-printing area is aluminum, stainless steel, or chromium.
• BIT In computers, the basic unit of digital information; contraction of BInary digiT.

Contact Us

If you are a small business in need of some printing, or a company to help you design a professional look, feel free to contact us for a quote.

Site Links

• Home
• About Us
• Services
• Graphic Design
• Request a Quote