25 Feb The the impotence of proof reading
I don’t know about any of you Graphic Designers out there but the greatest challenge I ever face with a print job is getting the client to take responsibility for the proof reading – not that they don’t want to do it, just that they don’t know how!
The number of times they’ve glanced across the page, “This is perfect, just what we need..!”
“Er, that’s great, good – but are the contact details correct? Is that how you spell your name? Should the, er, the email address have a dot?”
“Yes, Yes, Yes!” comes the reply, that is until the printed copy arrives.
So how do you solve the problem?
Personally…
I’ve tried explained it face to face.
I tried a special signature that I use on emailed proof copies (which includes all the details that should be checked and double checked before signing off the artwork).
I even tried including deliberate mistakes to gauge whether the coffee was being thoroughly checked. Then I could go back with a legitimate scare and say “You better check this through again!”
The problem is it’s a lose – lose situation for the designer. It’s the clients responsibility to check but if a mistake appears it was still ‘your’ mistake.
So, now I have the solution – this it what I’m sending to clients from now on: The the Impotence of Proofreading
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OonDPGwAyfQ&w=584&h=438]
You just know I’ve made a mistake here somewhere, right?
PS: For the record I once had Pubic Relations printed on 25,000 leaflets :\
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