Print design
Your trade show is in three weeks, and the booth still only exists in your head? Your printer offers to do the design for free, and you can already picture the result? Your print materials barely match your brand anymore, rushed in-house, brand guidelines half forgotten?
Good news: print design is a craft, and urgency is part of the craft.
Deadlines met, even when we get the call ten days before printing.Modern creative, built with the grids and rigor of the web, that stands out from what you see at every trade show.Print and digital by the same team: the booth, the screens, the posts and the event landing page speak the same language.
Three calls that change print design
A print piece can't be fixed after the fact: once it's printed, it's there. That's where our three calls come from.
Urgency is our normal
We all know it: print needs usually arrive for yesterday. Our subscription gives us that agility, and we've never delivered a print job late. Scalability called us ten days before printing: around thirty pieces went out on time.
Web thinking, applied to print
Our designers often come from the web, and it shows on paper: we build your materials like pages, with grids, structure and components in Figma, then move to Adobe for the printer. The result is fresh, and technically tight.
Print and digital, by the same team
A trade show is never just print: there are screens, posts, the landing page, the invitation. Printers and print agencies don't do digital. We do, with the same team, so everything speaks the same language.
How does print design work at Dafolle?
We start with the printer's constraints, not the creative: formats, materials, bleed, deadlines. That way, we never design anything that can't be printed. Then, three directions, finalization in Figma, and print-ready files we send straight to the printer if you'd like.
Day 1
The brief and the constraints
What the piece needs to say, to whom, where and when. Plus all the printer's technical specs, so we never work blind.
Brief approved
Days 2–4
Three creative directions
Three different proposals, shown in context. You pick the one that feels like you.
Decision 1: the direction
Week 1
Finalization in Figma
The chosen direction rolled out across all your materials, with the rigor of the web: grids, hierarchy, components.
Materials approved
Week 2
Files for the printer
Move to Adobe, CMYK, bleed, crop marks: files that very rarely come back to us.
Decision 2: the print proof
If needed
Coordination with the printer
We talk directly with your printer or the venue's, so you don't have to play middleman.
Optional
In parallel
Digital materials
The screens, posts, invitation or event landing page, in the same visual world.
Depending on the project
Which print design fits your need? Three levels, three timelines
A greeting card, a full booth or an entire poster campaign: the level depends on the number of pieces, and on the date of the big day.
2 days
Small piece
A flyer, a business card, a poster, a greeting card: a simple need, delivered, approved and finalized in two days.
One piece
Print-ready files
Format variations
Year-end needs, trade show cards.
About 2 weeks
Trade show and event
Booth fronts, roll-up banners, flyers and small handouts for visitors. Beyond two weeks is rare: it takes a very big project.
Booth and roll-up banners
Visitor handouts
Screen visuals
Ricoh 360, Scalability, Humanlinker.
2 to 3 months
Full print identity
A poster campaign, the print identity of a venue, packaging rolled out across a whole product line. More research, more pieces, more steps.
Creative research
System rolled out across the whole line
Files and printer follow-up
Louizos Edition, Hyska.
One monthly fee from €4,200 excl. VAT, no commitment. And the remaining time covers your other needs: web, ads, the event video.
Print design composed by hand, where AI can't deliver yet
AI generates a poster in ten seconds, and it genuinely helps us: visuals, photos, first layout ideas. But print is about composition rules, margins, formats, materials. That's where it rarely gets it right, and it's probably the medium it will take longest to master.
AI for visuals and photos
Visuals, photos, moods: AI saves us precious time on the raw material for your pieces.
Layout ideas, reworked by hand
AI suggests layouts, sometimes interesting, rarely optimal. The designer keeps what works and composes the rest: grids, hierarchy, typography, bleed.
The same visual world everywhere
What we compose for the trade show then rolls out to your screens, your posts and your site, without losing print quality.
Here's the paradox: the more generated visuals flood trade shows, the more a carefully composed piece stands out. That's the one visitors keep.
When we launched Dafolle, we had had enough of website redesigns that drag on for eight months, cost six months' worth of contract amendments, and end up with a site that no one dares touch anymore.
We built a model for the exact opposite: a subscription with no quotes, senior designers recruited for their business acumen, and an AI infrastructure that we enhance every month so your teams remain autonomous after we're done.
If you're hesitating about entrusting your redesign to us, let's take fifteen minutes. I'll tell you what we can do, and what we won't do.
Joffrey & Clara
Co-founders of Dafolle
The tools we use for print design
What if your print design need is more specific?
Do you handle print emergencies?
Yes, it's actually most of our print requests. Scalability called us ten days before printing for around thirty pieces, and everything went out on time. We've never delivered a print job late.
Can you prepare every piece for a trade show?
Yes: booth fronts, roll-up banners, flyers, cards, badges, and screen visuals. Plan on about two weeks.
Do you print?
No. We prepare print-ready files and work with your printer, or the venue's. Files very rarely come back to us.
Do you deal directly with the printer?
Yes, if you connect us from the start. We send them the files, sort out technical questions with them, and you don't have to play middleman.
Why you rather than the printer, who does the design almost for free?
Because that design is often done fast, sometimes with AI, with no thought for your message. The printer has one real advantage: design and printing in one place. We bring you creative that gets noticed, and the digital materials to match.
What tools do you use?
We compose in Figma first, with grids just like for the web. Then we move the files to Adobe, because that's what printers need to meet print standards.
Do you do high-end print: embossing, foil, highly crafted books?
Yes, our print designers know how, and we'd love to do more of it. Most of our clients mainly need trade show and everyday materials, but it's an area that excites us.
Do you do packaging?
Yes, like board game boxes with a shared visual system for Louizos Edition, or running insoles for Hyska, from the print on the insole to the box. Packaging takes more steps, and more time.
Do you do signage?
Not yet: we've never had the chance. If you have a space to dress, we'd be glad to talk.
How much does print design cost at Dafolle?
Print is part of the subscription, from €4,200 excl. VAT per month, no commitment. A flyer takes two days, a booth about two weeks: the remaining time covers your other needs.