Cost

• The first half hour of creative service is free to all of our clients. Projects requiring longer than one half hour to produce are the billed in hourly increments, at a nominal charge of $100/hour for offline artwork , and $150/hour for online projects.

Using Our Creative Services

• The Creative Services Designer assigned to your project will provide a written estimate before beginning any work. We will not commence work until the Project Estimate has been signed by you and returned to us.
• The Designer will keep a detailed log of the time spent on your project. When the job is completed, we will fill out an Invoice for the number of hours worked, and attach a copy of the original signed Estimate. You will be billed for Creative Services separately from your media expenditure.
• If during the course of the project significant changes are required which change the original scope of the project, and a substantial amount of additional time is required to complete the project to your satisfaction, a revised estimate may be submitted, and we will not proceed until we have your approval.
• We are happy to provide samples of projects completed for other VentureDirect clients.

Creating Your Own Artwork

• Whether you are providing us with images and files to work with, or sending completed files to VentureDirect or Solar Communications, please follow the guidelines on these pages for file formats and specifications.

Acceptable Programs

• QuarkXpress
  Illustrator
• Photoshop
• InDesign/Editable EPS

Acceptable Operating Systems

• We can accept materials created on computers running either Macintosh or Windows operating systems

Acceptable Disks

• Zip Disk
• CD-ROM

Electronic File Specifications

• All images, whether gray scale or color, should be scanned at 300 dpi at 100% of the finished size.
• Bitmap (line art) images must be scanned at 1200 dpi.
• Color images should be saved in CMYK mode, NOT RGB.
• All founts should be Adobe type 1 or Postscript fonts, NOT True Type. You can also 'Create Outlines' of type in Adobe Illustrator.
• Logos using type should be accompanied by the fonts used, or the fonts should be converted to path outlines (create outlines).
• Word processing, presentation or crude paint programs such as Powerpoint, Publisher, Paint Brush, etc are not recommended. These types of programs require extra steps to make their content press-ready, and you may incur additional production charges if you use them.
  All specified colors should be Process equivalents of Pantone colors, or created using CMYK percentages.

Film, Transparencies, or Color Separations

• We do not accept artwork as film, slides or color separations. We can only accept digital files.

Scanning Printed Catalogs, Magazines, Books, Covers, etc.

• We can scan these items for use in artwork provided they are in good condition and do not involve potential copyright violations.

Scanning Printed Photos

• Prints are scannable, but may not result in high-quality output, and should only be used as a last resort.

Scanning Logos

• The best scan will result from a clean, crisp black and white logo. Scans from color logs will not result in high-quality output, and should only be used as a last resort.

Specifying 2-Color Artwork

• We use any two of the following colors, and we recommended using Black as one of the colors.

Please include all of the following when sending file components or completed artwork on disk to VentureDirect.

• All fonts used in the document (both screen and printer).
• All imported graphics.
• Completed Disk to Film Output Form (your National Media Specialists will email this to you).
• Laser printed proofs of the art.
• Printed list of disk contents.

Sending Files via Email

• Files must be no larger than 5MB in size. Please compress the file before sending, using software such as Stuff it Deluxe or Zip it.
• Send files as email attachments to ventureart@earthlink.net

Posting FIles on Our FTP Site

• If the compressed file is larger than 5MB, it can be uploaded to our FTO site. Using Internet Explorer 5.0 or above as your browser, type in the following URL as it appears below and drag the compressed file into the Explorer window.
  ftp://ventureart:guycc7va@www.ven.com
  
• If you prefer to use FTP software like Fetch or WS-FTP, simply type the address below and upload files.
  • Host: www.ven.com
  • User ID: ventureart
  • Password: guycc7va

Sending Completed Card Pac Files Direct To Solar Communications

• You may upload artwork to our Card Pac printer, at solarcsr.com, at anytime, provided you label the file clearly with the name of the Card Pacs Card Pac mailing, the issue date, and your company name (e.g. Entrepreneur3/02, CompanyName.sit).
• Please also fax a hard copy of your artwork to your National Media Specialist and to Solar Communications (630-983-1095 Attn: Pre Press), with the file clearly described as above.