Two thousand print-ready vectors, on schedule
Running the vector artwork pipeline for a sports print business as Art Department Head: turning raw customer art into clean, print-ready vectors at volume, and leading the team that produced them.
- Role
- Graphic Design, Vectorization, Art Direction
- Discipline
- Graphic Design
- Year
- 2022
- Headline
- 2,000+ Print-ready artworks
Context
TAGSports is a sports print business where every order depends on clean, print-ready artwork. As Graphic Designer and Art Department Head, my job was the vectorization pipeline: taking customer-supplied art of wildly varying quality and turning it into proof sheets that production could run without surprises.
The problem
Vectorization at volume is a craft and a logistics problem at once. Each piece has to be redrawn cleanly enough to print, the bar has to stay identical across thousands of jobs, and it all has to keep pace with a business that needs proofs approved and orders moving. Quality and throughput usually pull against each other; here both had to hold.
Process
- 01
Built a repeatable vector process
I worked customer art into clean vectors with a consistent standard for line, fills, and separations, so a proof sheet looked the same whoever drew it and whatever the source file was.
- 02
Led a three-designer team
As Art Department Head I led three graphic designers through the vector output pipeline, keeping the bar and the turnaround steady across the whole department rather than just my own desk.
- 03
Kept proofs moving
The output fed proof sheets that backed real transactions, so reliable delivery under deadline was the point, not a nice-to-have.
Outcome
Over 2,000 print-ready customer artworks went out as dependable proof sheets that kept transactions moving, produced by a small team holding one consistent standard at volume.
- 2,000+ Print-ready artworks produced
- 3 Designers led
The volume work behind the case studies: proof that craft and reliability, held steady at scale, are their own kind of design.