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Foreign-language layout can be handled either by your translation vendor or
by your graphic designer. There are advantages and disadvantage to both:
* Translation vendor: while your vendor can provide layout artists that
speak Spanish, they are not usually professional designers
* Graphic designer: unless they speak the foreign language, you're taking a
big risk -- on the other hand, they know the layout side very well
The best approach, I believe, is to leverage the respective skills of each.
That means have your translation vendor perform a "95% layout" and ask the
graphic designer to finalize the piece.
For marketing pieces, you should clearly communicate your intended target
market to your translation vendor. To be effective, your collateral should
be "localized" and the Spanish in Puerto Rico is very different from Spain,
Argentina, or Mexico.
On the other hand, be sure that you are not limiting yourself by developing
collateral specific to Puerto Rico. Will you want to sell, for example, in
Mexico later this year? If so, consider aiming for a more general,
pan-Latin-American style and terminology.
Lastly, our company, ForeignExchange Translations, provides technical and
marketing translation services to Internet and technology companies. In
addition to techwr-l (be sure to visit the web site and search the
archives), industry and professional associations are good sources to find
translation companies with specialization in your industry.
Good luck,
Andres
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Andres Heuberger
<andresh -at- fxtrans -dot- com>
ForeignExchange Translations, Inc.
Phone: 401.454.0787 http://www.fxtrans.com
From print to web in 32 languages.
