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A little help in outlining?

brdss

New Member
Hey guys! My graphic artist is stumped on this one (and I know very little, but am learning) and was wondering if anybody knows a quick and dirty way toget the end result that we are looking for.

We need to outline this tooth in the shape of the tooth (with a bump out for the lettering ) so that it can be cut and applied to a window for a customer of ours. My artist says it is not possible due to the fact that there are so many open sections, she can't outline it, and that doing it manually will take hours (and the customer was told it would cost $40 for an 18" decal! My bad!)

Bottom line, is there any easy way to do a cut line on this without spending a long time or having it look crappy?

We have illustrator, photoshop, in design, quark/

Thanks guys!:thankyou:
 

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GoodPeopleFlags

New Member
It's possible. Get the original, vector artwork from your customer. Don't worry about getting the text (that's Murray Hill); just the tooth. Either someone designed that for them or they found it online. Tell them that you need that or there will be a $75 (or whatever $$ you need to get) setup charge. Then open in Illy, put the text in, do an outline path on the text, then use the pathfinder tools to knock out the images in the tooth from around the outline.
 

petepaz

New Member
if you have illust. you can out line it manually, or use offset path and then manually fix the line work where need be or try the tracing option (depending on what version of illust you have)
 

HaroldDesign

New Member
Your artist should learn to use the pen tool in Illy. She would have had it done in less time than it took to tell you she can't do it.
 

brdss

New Member
Thanks Bluefish, we do have the EPS file and have illustrator 5. Will forward the response to her, as well as the others.

As for the unhelpful, unasked for opinions from signguy 55 and ChicagoGraphics, didn't your Mama teach you if you have nothing nice to say, then don't say anything at all? I guess not. I really don't care that you do not like the white tooth with the grey dental tools. I am just trying to give the customer what they want without spending an hour or more on the file.

Now, if you have a good answer to how to easily place a cut line around the whole tooth, then feel free to comment on how to do so. If you want to hijack the thread on the quality of the logo, then please go elsewhere.
 

brdss

New Member
d Flemming, yeah, I know! Seems like it should be a 5 minute job, and one of the reasons I am posting it here, to see if it SHOULD be a 5 minute job.

How long should it take?
 

Smacka

New Member
Hey guys! My graphic artist is stumped on this one (and I know very little, but am learning) and was wondering if anybody knows a quick and dirty way toget the end result that we are looking for.

We need to outline this tooth in the shape of the tooth (with a bump out for the lettering ) so that it can be cut and applied to a window for a customer of ours. My artist says it is not possible due to the fact that there are so many open sections, she can't outline it, and that doing it manually will take hours (and the customer was told it would cost $40 for an 18" decal! My bad!)

Bottom line, is there any easy way to do a cut line on this without spending a long time or having it look crappy?

We have illustrator, photoshop, in design, quark/

Thanks guys!:thankyou:


My first suggestion would be to get a new graphic designer. This is Illustrator 101 stuf. A good designer can redraw this in under 20 minutes.
 

signguy 55

New Member
With a snotty attitude like that you won't get very far. You post a crappy design asking for help then cry when we are honest that it looks like crap.

I suggest you learn the software yourself and learn to do the stuff you're asking about or just tell the dadgum customer to give you a file you can use.
 

GoodPeopleFlags

New Member
I misread the first post. I thought ALL of the images inside the tooth needed to be cut... but you just need a line all the way around the outside of it, right? And you have the vector? There's a tooth in there. Copy that one, rotate and size it to the one with all the stuff in it. I bet they'll line up. Then do an offset path on that.
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Basically, it sounds like a lot of mistakes made on your part, brd. The simple pointing out how to do a simple outline and a few suggestions that this thing is going to look hideous should be a red flag for you to look a little further into your staff's qualifications and the customer's wanting of this thing at 18" on their front window. It is going to indeed look bad on there. So, being the good businessperson you are trying to be, why don't you re-evaluate this graphic and warn your customer of the problems this is going to cause for people's eyes. Not to mention.... $40 for a $125 job.
 

brdss

New Member
Signguy, AGAIN, nobody asked your opinion of the artwork!!!!!!! Take a walk!!! Please point out to me where I asked you ANYTHING about how the artwork looked??????? Was not snotty at all until UNWANTED opinions were given on the quality of the artwork. We did not do the artwork, just trying to please a customer.

Gino, thank you. I KNOW what you are saying as far as the staff needs to be looked at. That is also one of the reasons I posted this here, so I can verify where the problem lies. I already stated in my first post that I do not know illustrator. That I am paying someone who always has the first response of "It can't be done" or not easily, is why I posted it on here. I also have to convince my partner that we need to look elsewhere for a knowledgeable designer .

Also, this is not going on their front window, but they want to put it on the sliding glass window inside, by the reception area.

So far, she has about a half hour into outlining it, and not done. Will see how long it takes here and go from there.

Thanks to all the guys that offered helpful advice, and Gino, I do know what you are saying.
 

SignosaurusRex

Active Member
I misread the first post. I thought ALL of the images inside the tooth needed to be cut... but you just need a line all the way around the outside of it, right? And you have the vector? There's a tooth in there. Copy that one, rotate and size it to the one with all the stuff in it. I bet they'll line up. Then do an offset path on that.

+1
 

brdss

New Member
Gino, you say it is going to be a problem on people's eyes? That is better than just saying it is the worst thing they have ever seen. Can you expand on that?

This is going on a tinted sliding window inside a dentist office. Originally, they wanted all the grey parts cut out and then applied. I did talk them into going with a white outline of the tooth, with the grey printed on that.

Not being a smart arse at all, but since you brought it up, I would like to learn from it.

And for the price (before I knew we were going to have the time into changing the artwork) I priced it out at $40 to print out the 18" tall decal. Not installing it. You say that it should have been $125 for it?

Thanks
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Gino, you say it is going to be a problem on people's eyes? That is better than just saying it is the worst thing they have ever seen. Can you expand on that?

This is going on a tinted sliding window inside a dentist office. Originally, they wanted all the grey parts cut out and then applied. I did talk them into going with a white outline of the tooth, with the grey printed on that.

Not being a smart arse at all, but since you brought it up, I would like to learn from it.

And for the price (before I knew we were going to have the time into changing the artwork) I priced it out at $40 to print out the 18" tall decal. Not installing it. You say that it should have been $125 for it?

Thanks


Okay, here we go.

You say tomato, I say tomato..... you know the saying. It's all in how one words it or says it. I said the same thing, but wasn't trying to be funny.

Anyway, when you print the light gey on that huge white background, it's basically gonna look like a large white blob.... or tooth. In order for the light grey parts not to dominate the copy which is far too skinny and weak, you'll only see a large blob. Once you're up on it, you'll see the copy. If you make the grey too dark in order to show up, it will totally take away from the copy.... guaranteed.

The grey cut-outs would look better in a medium grey with no white whatsoever connected to the tooth portion. Beef up the copy or use a better style and outline that in the white, but not too heavy. This would read much better, but you really sounded like you were interested in just making this as easy as possible for yourself without any regards to an end look. This sort of consideration [or lack of] results in unsatisfied customers.

As for your price, $40 for something like that and you aren't going to instal it sounds cheesy. Any professional would not let a customer instal a window graphic. That's just not smart or nice. If you're that lazy, then fire your graphics person and learn her job and go hire an installer.... or someone that can help make your business appear to be professional. Anytime you do a window job or door lettering for under $125 or $150 no matter how simple or easy, you're sending a signal that this isn't worth chit. Then you won't get chit and if something goes wrong, which it did many times over, you look like a dolt changing horses in the middle of the stream.
_________
We are in the process of doing 8 windows today as a matter of fact. Each one is 44-1/2" x 87" We quoted $4,750. plus travel time. The job was accepted. I got a call about an hour ago that something is wrong with one of the prints. Turns out, they gave us the wrong measurements. They are 45-1/5" across, so with our overlap the words are stretched a little too far out for our liking. Called the customer and told him his measurements were off. This is going to cost them, but I have enough built in to do this completely over a second time and still make out. However, I can look like a hero by saying we won't charge him the full amount for 'Their Mistake', but we'll still get more.

You have to make your product have value and at $40, I can get just about any whitening, cleaning, clever tube of tooth paste and mouthwash for almost that.


You asked. These are things that should be running through your head from the gitgo. Pricing, possible mistakes, changes, professionalism.
 

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