Speaking of stupid...... here's a stupid one......................

[Gino]

We've had the same fax number for about 35 years. Have it on business cards, brochures, stationery, and just about anything you can think of. We don't use the fax near as much as we used to, but we get customers who only wanna depend on the fax, so we accommodate. Monday, someone was trying to fax us an approved quote back to us and they called and told us our fax isn't working. Turns out, our fax is working fine, if you dial the correct numbers, but you can't dial the right numbers, if they're not written correctly on your fax sheet. Must be over 30 years we've been using the same jpeg for this section and it's been wrong all these years. This is the first person to ever tell us, so.

I corrected it, since..... but I just can't believe someone transposed two numbers all those years ago and no one else ever had a problem..... or at least informed us.

What dumb things have any of you done over the years that took decades to catch up to you ??

​

 

[Billct2]

There's a sign or two (or more) we've made that have spelling errors that no one has ever noticed....
One is a liqour store where the category sign is "NON ALCHOLIC", been there for 10 years.

 

[oldgoatroper]

I didn't do it, but I know who did.

4'x8' on the exterior wall of a bank : CUSTOMER PARKNG ONLY

Was there for years.....

 

[oldgoatroper]

My second-ever sign job... was up on a scaffold doing hand-layout and painting in four-foot letters a company name on a concrete-block wall. When I'm done, I get down off the scaffold to view my handi-work.
It says:

LO-COST BODY & PIANT

I fixed that right away....

 

[Marlene]

my worst on was on a sign for a weight limit on a bridge and I spelled strictly "strickly". the local paper took a photo of it and it was on the front page of the local news, ugh. in my defense, I made the sign on a 4B no spell check back then

 

[JohnBFryJr]

Saloon instead of Salon
Libary instead of Library (the librarian's didn't catch it for over a year)
Maragorda instead of Matagorda (county)

 

[Pauly]

Made new business cards. Printed out proofs so we all could approve and check for errors. Everyone seemed happy. got the OK. sent off the files. got the cards back. Phone number is wrong. i checked my proofs. number is wrong.
Not 1 person noticed the number was wrong, including me. That was an expensive mistake.

 

[oldgoatroper]

Libary instead of Library (the librarian's didn't catch it for over a year)

Libary? a place for Libations?

 

[Gino]

Libary? a place for Libations?

Now we're talkin'...........................

 

[JohnBFryJr]

It was embroidered on their shirts for over a year. I had nothing to do with it. Promise

 

[ikarasu]

We do a lot of transportation signs. Not sure if they're popular in USA... But at least here in bc Canada, Everytime there's a construction project on the highway going on there's big "xx to xx project to be finished in year xx! Total cost: x million. Creating xx number of jobs!"

One was a rush order. Our receptionist took the order over the phone, read everything back and confirmed it.. no time for a proof, it had to be printed, applied to a 4x8, and shipped to the island all within a day or two.

Art department gets it... Completes it, sends it up. I compare everything to the work order notes since there's no proof... Looks good. Print it, apply it, ship it, all is good. A week later we get a call..

"One of my guys just asked us why we're spending 120 million dollars on a highway repair, and only hiring 30 new people... It's supposed to be 1.20 million!"

Our work orders have squares in them. And the receptionist put the "." Right in the corner and on the line, and it didn't clique to the art guy, me, or the installer or the shipper something was wrong..

You'd think 120 million project would hire more than 30 people. I just figured they were all going to get 4 million each for working hard

Customer understood since it was a rush and there was no proof. But our boss called us an idiot for not thinking 120 million was a bit too much to spend on a highway. I argued "1.20" million is stupid, and it should be "1.2" million, then we'd have caught the mistake, but the customer wanted 1.20, so that's what it was.

A mistake all of us should have saw.. but sometimes when reading proof/work orders word for word, your brain freezes and you don't realize a mistake, no matter how dumb it sounds.

 

[GaSouthpaw]

Too many to count- I'm harder on myself than I am on anyone else- except, maybe, when I specifically point out errors to a designer and it doesn't get corrected before production.
Another favorite is when the customer tells you to word something a certain way, you suggest a clearer (and more grammatically correct) way, or the correct spelling, and they insist on it reading the way they gave it to you- only to come back a week after you've put their sign up and say "one of my customers didn't understand the (xx) sign- can we get that redone?" and they're expecting you to do it for free because you didn't correct it before producing it.
Recent example- customer wanted a sign that read "Picadilly Circus" and I told them, multiple times, "it's 'Piccadilly'- or are you trying to set yourself apart with an alternate spelling?" and they insisted they had spelled it correctly. Until their boss saw the sign a few weeks after it was affixed to the wall with VHB and silicone, and started raising hell that it was spelled wrong. So they got to pay twice for the sign- and twice to have the wall painted and repaired where they'd torn up the drywall while removing the sign.

 

[Johnny Best]

Hand lettering on the inside of glass for a small pastry shop and wrote the word DESERT instead of DESSERT. Some nice old lady walking by came in and tapped me on the shoulder to inform me of my mistake.
The only good thing is that razorblades take off glass lettering mistakes quickly.

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

I have a window lettering & art work I painted a year ago which has been photographed by alot of people & I still have not changed my number to correct lol

 

[bob]

Hand lettering on the inside of glass for a small pastry shop and wrote the word DESERT instead of DESSERT. Some nice old lady walking by came in and tapped me on the shoulder to inform me of my mistake....

I've seen this particular error many times. In both directions. In Coeur d'Alene there was a cast brass thing. it was either a door push bar or a plaque, it was over 50 years ago. It was supposed to be the 'Desert' whatever but it read 'Dessert'.

Point being that those who make signss rarely, if ever, actually read them. It's not necessary to the task of placing objects on a canvas. Hand lettering was far worse than digital work. Since you're only dealing with one letter at a time you'd be lettering merrily along and include an extra letter or leave a letter out.

 

[myront]

Made my family a banner for my stepsons Air Force Basic Military Training graduation ceremony. As part of the ceremony the new trainees run in formation through the crowd of families. Everyone holds signs made up of crayons and glitter and such. I was quite proud of my full color banner with his squadron logo and such.Keep in mind I'm retired Air Force. All was great until someone pointed out that "Congratulations" was spelled wrong. Talk about an instant red face.

 

[TheSnowman]

We do a lot of transportation signs. Not sure if they're popular in USA... But at least here in bc Canada, Everytime there's a construction project on the highway going on there's big "xx to xx project to be finished in year xx! Total cost: x million. Creating xx number of jobs!"

One was a rush order. Our receptionist took the order over the phone, read everything back and confirmed it.. no time for a proof, it had to be printed, applied to a 4x8, and shipped to the island all within a day or two.

Art department gets it... Completes it, sends it up. I compare everything to the work order notes since there's no proof... Looks good. Print it, apply it, ship it, all is good. A week later we get a call..

"One of my guys just asked us why we're spending 120 million dollars on a highway repair, and only hiring 30 new people... It's supposed to be 1.20 million!"

Our work orders have squares in them. And the receptionist put the "." Right in the corner and on the line, and it didn't clique to the art guy, me, or the installer or the shipper something was wrong..

You'd think 120 million project would hire more than 30 people. I just figured they were all going to get 4 million each for working hard

Customer understood since it was a rush and there was no proof. But our boss called us an idiot for not thinking 120 million was a bit too much to spend on a highway. I argued "1.20" million is stupid, and it should be "1.2" million, then we'd have caught the mistake, but the customer wanted 1.20, so that's what it was.

A mistake all of us should have saw.. but sometimes when reading proof/work orders word for word, your brain freezes and you don't realize a mistake, no matter how dumb it sounds.

Every single rush project for me goes this way...makes me just cringe cause they rarely go through perfect.

 

[Tim Aucoin]

A number of years back, I was using business cards for around 3 years with our city spelled wrong! Instead of "Calgary", I had put "Caglary"! I guess no one ever really paid attention to it, or they skimmed over it quickly and assumed it was right. One day, a friend who I handed my card to pointed it out. It's funny how we see something that is wrong but don't really notice it!!

 

[Gino]

Okay, we all have the spelling error ones, so I was lettering this dry cleaners sign and spelled the word 'Special'..... Specail'. I was sitting there, painting further down the sign and someone was parked in a car at the curb. Psst...... psst...... I looked over and the guy whispered.... you spelled special wrong. I looked at it, then back to him and said..... shhhh...... don't tell anyone, but the owner here wanted it that way on purpose. Anyone who comes in and mentions that... gets an extra 15% off their bill that day. Quite a nice advertising stunt, huh ??

Never told the owner that, but can you imagine what took place when that guy tried to get his 15% ??

It also happened the tailor was my cousin. He was right off the boat from Italy and had a very thick accent, but didn't take no sh!t from anyone.

 

[GaSouthpaw]

Ooh... I got one...
Back when proofs were faxed (pre-email), we had a customer that wanted just the most godawful color combo on his sign. I put a Post-it note on it saying something like "this color combo is f@cking terrible" to encourage the salesperson to talk the customer out of it.
They left the Post-it not on the drawing and it got faxed to the customer.