The Digital Art Standards identify basic standards for the creation, storage and sharing of electronic and hard copy source artwork.  Both ASI distributors and ASI suppliers can reference the standards to improve their ability to manage production ready artwork, reducing one of the biggest headaches both parties face.  Digital Art Solutions, an artwork services company serving the promotional products industry, has created the original standards and will be managing the development of the certification program.

Among one of the useful features provided by the new program is an Artwork Readiness Index, which helps distributors and suppliers estimate the production time required to re-create or clean-up a logo, based upon both the file format type and the original quality of the image. 

“Distributors and suppliers often tell us that they spend a lot of time and resources trying to obtain production ready artwork,” said Dale Denham, senior vice president of ASI.  “With clearer direction about how to prepare, store and share usable art, ASI members will be able to streamline their business operations and increase customer service levels simultaneously.” 

An industry standards committee is being formed to review the existing Digital Art Standards, and to recommend changes relevant to promotional products industry participants.  The first three members of the committee are Affinity Express, Inc., ASI and Digital Art Solutions.  They will be joined by distributors and suppliers, and the group will be responsible for developing the artwork certification program.  If you are interested in joining the committee, contact Cathy Martino, affiliate relations manager at ASI, at cmartino@asicentral.com.

The current Digital Art Standards are available for review at www.productionreadyart.com. The specifications call for the use of either Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW, which are both readily available and have the ability to produce high-quality images efficiently.

Craig Mertens, president and CEO for Digital Art Solutions, said “Digital Art Standards is an education initiative.  By establishing a standard set of ‘how to’ guidelines, we have been able to demystify the process of evaluating and transferring electronic artwork.”  He said the original specifications have been developed to help eliminate many problems at low cost, by being easy to use and simple to understand.

David Grant, chairman and founder of Affinity Express, Inc., noted that “There is no magical process that will automatically fix poor quality original artwork.  Affinity Express can help companies by providing clean-up, modification and redesign services for artwork, all in accordance with the new standards.”

Jay Busselle, general manager for Digital Art Solutions, said “As a committee member, I look forward to working with other respected industry colleagues to research more ways in which all of us can become more comfortable handling digital artwork.”      

Aligning business practices with the Digital Art Standards initiative will allow distributors and suppliers to publish an official logo from the program on their Websites, on catalog covers and on marketing materials.  The logo will indicate to clients and to business partners that they are certified and adhere to the standards.   

The endorsement of the new program from ASI creates extra value for members, by allowing them to integrate new processes that will enhance their business operations, improve turnaround time for clients and allot more time for selling.

For more information about the Digital Art Standards and the certification program, or to become involved with the standards committee, visit www.productionreadyart.com, or contact Cathy Martino, affiliate relations manager at ASI, at cmartino@asicentral.com.