Peep This Design Jargon

As designers, we have a language all our own, which can sometimes leave you saying, “What in the world does that mean?” Have no fear, here are a few terms — and their definitions — that you may hear from us along the way.

BLEED
When printing, bleed allows you to print to the edge of a document without having misalignment when trimmed.

BRANDING
The representation of what people feel, think, and say about a product, service, or company.

CMYK
Stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, the colors a printer works with. This is also known as process color. CMYK is a subtractive color space; in other words, to make white, you take away all the colors

COMP (COMPREHENSIVE)
Comps are made to see what the initial design project will look like before it’s printed, showing the layout of the text and illustrations.

CONTRAST
The difference in color found between the light and dark parts of an image.

COPY
Editorial text supplied for a design, layout, or website.

DIE CUT
A shape or hole cut out of a printed piece, often combined with additional materials or colors to make the design stand out.

EPS LOGO
A common logo file, typically vector based, which allows the artwork to be resized indefinitely.

MATTE FINISH
Non-glossy finish on photographic paper or coated printing paper.

MOCK-UP
An example of what a project can look like with the design we have created. Can be a printed piece or something viewed on the computer.

NEGATIVE SPACE
The space that surrounds an object in an image, defining boundaries of the “positive” space, and providing balance.

PIXELATED
When an image is displayed at a low resolution or the image size is too small, this effect happens, creating unclear, blurry patches.

RGB
Stands for red, green, and blue, a monitor’s color space. RGB is considered an additive color space, meaning to make white you add all the colors together. You view the world in RBG, not CMYK.

SCOPE
The part of project planning that involves determining and documenting a list of specific project goals, deliverables, tasks, costs, and deadlines.

STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY
Pre-made photos that have already been taken, available to purchase and use in design projects.

UX
User Experience refers to how the product “feels.” The broad responsibility of a UX designer is to ensure that the product logically flows from one step to the next. One way that a UX designer might do this is by conducting in-person user tests to observe people’s behavior.

UI
User Interface refers to how the product is laid out. UI designers are in charge of designing each screen or page with which a user interacts and ensuring that the UI visually communicates the path that a UX designer has laid out.

VECTOR
Vectors files, the preferred logoformat, allow for artwork to be resized indefinitely.

WIREFRAMES
A basic layout without design elements. Wire frames are generally used in web design as a means to plan where navigation and content will sit on the page. They are typically demonstrated with boxes and other geometric shapes.

We hope our glossary helps you to feel more confident when speaking to designers. If you ever have any questions about design or designer lingo, feel free to ask a Juicer.