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Nightmare customers & graphic designer
Had a nightmare day going back and forth all day with a customer who is supplying artwork for a pvc banner. The problem is their designer has used photoshop for the design and not a vector based software like illustrator so he can only save it at very low res which the customer is not happy with.
I think the designer is more used to designing websites, online ads and flyers rather than large format. I’ve spent more time than the job is worth "oh I swore" customers.
Rant over lol
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33 Replies
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Quote to recreate it correctly, if they don’t like it cut your losses and move on to the next job.
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Have you got photoshop? Could ask for the psd or could even ask for an eps then re-save to a usable quality. But illustrator prints super sharp as you said its vector based unlike photoshop which rasterises type/images.
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If you get the psd, you’ll need the font’s too. Similarly when we get .ai or .indd files, where they’ve linked images rather than embedding them :bangshead:
If it’s not ‘Print ready’, reject it and get the ‘designer’ to fix it, or they pay you to do it. I know one company who charge a minimum of £20+VAT to make any alteration. Something as simple as changing a phone number on a business card they’ve printed before 😆
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Hi David
They are an old customer no a big one but they keep coming back it’s just they are using a new designer that’s not used to large format you know designers have no knowledge of how they are produce it just looks nice on the screen lol
Congrats on your result on your op case
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That should of been ip dam auto correct lol
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I get that… and I know it’s a bit of a difficult situation.
They have appointed a designer, the designer isn’t up to the job. That is not your problem. If it’s a 5min fix, like adding bleed & crop marks fine, but if it’s utter garbage, send it back.
Bit like if I bought a car from a garage, and had a problem with it, the local mechanic won’t fix it for free… they might take pity and do a deal.
Yet to get paid for our case, but we’ll see 😆
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I think 90% of free lance graphic designers are like this. And they should all be shot. £600 for a logo, that only works on a screen, £400 for a fairly extensive van livery doesn’t seem very fair to me.
There is one I will work with up here. And his files are prefect and he is alwAys thinking how to make the job easier for us. As David says. Charge for it.
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[quote="David Hammond"]If you get the psd, you’ll need the font’s too. Similarly when we get .ai or .indd files, where they’ve linked images rather than embedding them :bangshead:
You mean people don’t send you print ready files… my favourite one is a jpeg on a word document [emoji25]
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Over 90% of our work is trade but we do get word or publisher files sent from retail customers and they don’t get why we can’t print from them lol and jpeg is how this graphic designer sent the banner artwork and it’s not even the correct size… bang head.
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Feel your pain Lee :bangs head: lol also for a “graphic designer” not being able to send the correct artwork it’s twice as frustrating. As David said the only way would be is to charge for redesigning in illustrator so the file is print ready.
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quote Lee Reeves:Over 90% of our work is trade but we do get word or publisher files sent from retail customers and they don’t get why we can’t print from them lol and jpeg is how this graphic designer sent the banner artwork and it’s not even the correct size… bang head.
Most of my clients are trade also. When I get something like this wonder is it like that all the time for others.
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Just a tip re Word etc
If you get something on a non-graphics file type, many rips have a "virtual printer" automatically installed into Windows when the rip driver is installed into the rip.
Thus you can use the standard Windows "File" – "print" from any software package straight into the rip using the virtual printer driver (look for a name which includes both the printer and the rip name) and it usually does a fair job.
The standard Onyx products have this (Postershop etc) but Onyx Thrive doesn’t (virtual printers can be a hassle so they decided not to include them in Thrive)
I think Caldera has this too and a few of the other less common rips so it might be worth trying if you are in a fix.
Andrew
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This week we got a request from a person who advertises his design skills to alter his logo!!!
I’m always amazed how people will pay £200 for a logo design, then balk at £200 to put that logo on a van.
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Tell the designer the spec you require. He should be able to do it at quarter size/300dpi in Photoshop
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I have repeatedly told them the spec we require, they just don’t seam to be able to do it lol not heard anything from them today so hope they are trying to sort it out.
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quote Lee Reeves:I have repeatedly told them the spec we require, they just don’t seam to be able to do it lol not heard anything from them today so hope they are trying to sort it out.Get this all the time. Mostly stems from them designing and saving a rendered file at a stupid resolution / scale or going "but it’s a 300dpi file… what’s the problem?"… Yeh mate, but it’s only 2 inches (600pixels) wide and you want it 8 feet wide (96"), ie 6 dpi output…very few of these "designers" get large formats…thier brains can’t process bigger than A4.
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When we interviewed for a designer, we were quite shocked on how little they knew about sign and print.
They are given projects at college… Design an advertising campaign for a make believe company.
Very few knew about bleeds and safe areas for paper printing. None of them had done any vehicle work or signage. Few knew about what file to ask for or how to recreate a logo from crap artwork.
We were also amazed on how many designers with degrees had never had a designing job since leaving college or uni….
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When we took on an apprentice she was doing "Graphic Design" and had day trips with college looking at buildings and all sorts of random stuff. It was a "Design" course incorporating everything design.
Our apprentice protested & I protested about how it wasn’t graphic design as we understood it. The college then informed us there’s a "Pre-Press" course, which far suited the print industry.
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quote :We were also amazed on how many designers with degrees had never had a designing job since leaving college or uni….
Do they still have to do work placements for the Graphic Design degrees – hope so, real world is totally different set of pressures.
I took a 2 year foundation course, followed by 3 year degree (with 6months work experience), followed by 20 years in the trade… and still learning 😆
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quote Lee Reeves:Over 90% of our work is trade but we do get word or publisher files sent from retail customers and they don’t get why we can’t print from them lol and jpeg is how this graphic designer sent the banner artwork and it’s not even the correct size… bang head.I asked a customer to send me a PDF instead of a jpg low res image , so what does he do send me the jpg embedded in the PDF![emoji23][emoji23]
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I get that more then you would expect.
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Customer sent suitable artwork in the end. About half hour after it was printed they phoned and said they sent the wrong artwork lol so now waiting for new artwork to print again they only thought we should reprint them free of charge. As you guys can guess they have been invoiced lol
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quote Lee Reeves:Customer sent suitable artwork in the end. About half hour after it was printed they phoned and said they sent the wrong artwork lol so now waiting for new artwork to print again they only thought we should reprint them free of charge. As you guys can guess they have been invoiced lol
Couldn’t make it up [emoji23] all fun and games as they say…
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Does anyone like working with tiff files?
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So, two weeks after receiving the first of two voicemail messages requesting I fit some carbon wrap film they’ve bought, yet leaving no number for me to contact them back on.. in waltzes a 12yr old with a fiesta ST and cap turned backward, with his is the hookiest looking roll of 3m carbon wrap I’ve ever seen, asking if I’ll fit it and wrap his roof.
After explaining that we prefer not to fit customer supplied materials, especialy moody (fake) materials, he starts getting annoyed, even after I show him a piece of genuine 3m carbon wrap film and tell him that it costs more per mtr of my stuff, than what he paid for his 5m roll, and even after I rub off some of the ‘3m’ logo on the back of the film he thinks I’m being unreasonable and is "gonna tell all my mates init that you’re no good right" :shocked:
I suggested that if he wished to tell his friends not to come here with their fake ebay tat then thats cool with me, however, if they want a proper job done with some proper materials that won’t fall off in 6months, then they’re also welcome to come along.
Customer last seen wheelspinning (must’ve been gravel) angrily away up the road!!!! :tongue:
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:thumbsup: glad its not just me that gets all the "special" customers.
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Get this quite often, especially the low res jpg in the pdf file :rollseyes:
Another customers artwork comes as pdf’s that for some reason seem to loose bit’s so each time I just end up asking a for a jpg but apparently they can’t do that and send me another pdf with a jpg in it :shocked:Hugh, I try to stay away from boy racers, I’ve got one local to me that has had 3 sun strips on his "race" car and he’s crashed all 3 of them, he rang up last week for another as he’d just crashed his car in exactly the same place as he crashed last year on ice, apparently it was the lack of ABS wot did it! :shocked:
I managed to refrain from commenting.Merry Christmas
Steve -
And todays issue with supplied artwork – Tel number is wrong.
Customer: ‘Surely you checked the number before printing’…….
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We just got one similar Colin.
Academy school got sample sizes for a show of some sort. Orders a few weeks later starting at the smallest youth size (3-4yrs) which they had the youth samples.
This morning “3-4yrs and 5-6yrs are no use to us. We’re an academy school. Why did you think they would?”
But the 7-8 etc are all good. Sigh.
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Here’s a good one from last Christmas
We do offer design and print services as my background is commercial print.
Client placed an order for 2000 16 page A4 brochures to be delivered before the christmas shut down, because time was tight, I took them myself and duly delivered the dozen boxes inside their premises, delivery note signed etc
First week back, irate customer rings up, where I my brochures, delivered them I say, delivery notes signed by xxxx etc.
Oh right we’ll get back to you as we cannot find them.Turns out because they were left near the door, some bright spark didn’t check what the content of said boxes were and promptly skipped the lot!
Order for another 2000 to be printed duly excepted, you can’t make this stuff up!!
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We all get these goons from time to time. Had one in a while ago wanting a ‘big massive banner’ ending up with a 10’ x 4’ (his request). Saw him a day or two later demanding a free reprint as our first effort looked ridiculous on the 100’ fence it was placed on. After trying & failing to explain that it’s the clients responsibility to ascertain the required sizes as we have no idea where these things are to be sited, I then suggested an area to put the banner where it would fit much more snugly. Happy to report that we’ve never seen him since.
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Call Friday asking if we do wall graphics and paper.
Sure we do.
Oh great we should have sign off this afternoon to be fitted between xmas an new year. 😆
I explained how most suppliers are shut and the industry effectively stops for a week, wishing them good luck.
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Got quite a few last mini ute jobs, mainly t shirts.
All we told of our closing date. All jobs were completed with a day to spare, 2 replied with ill pick it up Saturday when told they’re were ready. They were quite amassed when we reminded them of our shut down date.
What a bad company we are because we closed for Christmas on Wednesday night…..
2 t shirts, all paid for still siting on the shelf at the shop :bangshead:
No doubt there will be 100 missed phone calls and messages when we return in the bew year…..
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