The MOTHER of all Mothers............................

[Gino]

I've seen other people post up what they did for their customers.... some knowingly and some unknowingly hideous, but it's finally happened to me.


The client sent an e-mail to me with the copy she wanted on the front door. It was a horrible design and I thought she was just sending information, but wanted me to do a layout/design.
I sent what I thought she wanted............


Turned out, she wrote back that she wanted the artsy style she picked and would like the more upscale look she first displayed...............

​

May I pull my eyes out now or forever be known for not following my gut instinct of not doing 'Ugliness' ??



​

There is no way I can convince her without insulting her. We just did a $3,600 job for her and she allowed me to do basically what I wanted, but she feels she knows better on the main door. I told her, no one uses all caps in script type lettering and she said, well, I know what I want.

Ya can't argue with city hall, but ya sure can get in trouble if you tell them like it is. They're having a huge black tie party Open House Saturday evening and we're going. I just hope I don't puke while going in the door.

 

[d fleming]

I feel your pain.

 

[ddubia]

At first glance her "Amphitheater" looks like Anteater.

 

[michsanford]

Too funny!

 

[rjssigns]

I've turned in my sign police badge. Now I ask will that be cash, check or charge? Gave up trying to be the educator, sales person, designer blah blah blah...

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

OH. MY. LORD.

The worst part about that situation is it completely degrades your abilities as a sign shop. It's an insult and she obviously can't see it. But hey, if she wants zero legibility and lack of advertising effectiveness coupled with improper use of a script typeface, so be it. After all, she knows what she wants. It's just too bad she has no clue what's good for her business.

 

[TammieH]

She shows some promise!

 

[fozzie]

No win

Problem with these situations is you can't win. If you don't do it, you may lose her business. If you do it, sooner or later somebody will ask her who did the door and you won't get their business.
Similar situation years ago. Client insisted we make their sign with their design. We ended up doing it. About a year later had several businesses tell me they didn't ask us for quotes cuz they saw the "crappy design" we sold.
Of course the client never told them it was his design he insisted we use.

 

[2B]

Problem with these situations is you can't win. If you don't do it, you may lose her business. If you do it, sooner or later somebody will ask her who did the door and you won't get their business.
Similar situation years ago. Client insisted we make their sign with their design. We ended up doing it. About a year later had several businesses tell me they didn't ask us for quotes cuz they saw the "crappy design" we sold.
Of course the client never told them it was his design he insisted we use.

+1 if only we were able to place a decal on the sign that reads "customer supplied artwork/layout"

 

[binki]

Oh my....

 

[striper14]

ummm i think thats a ladder situation...maybe a palm tree too :ROFLMAO:

 

[GAC05]

You should resend all your correspondence with her in upper case, matching the script font she wants used on the door.
When she sees how lovely your emails are she might reconsider the door layout.


wayne k
guam usa

 

[HDvinyl]

We just did a $3,600 job for her and she allowed me to do basically what I wanted

Did you design something?

Why not show her what her door should look like?

 

[laserman70]

Feel your pain as well
Have a banner for museum.
4'X22'
She stretched the letters so bad you cant read them.
Gave her an option with text not stretched, creating simple color bottom and top.

"The purpose of the letters being so big, is so it can be seen from the road"

UUUUMMMMMMMMM OK

click print and if anyone asks, we didnt do it...

UGHHHHH

 

[Marlene]

Did you design something?

Why not show her what her door should look like?

he did, see the photo with the lettering shown on it as that was what Gino suggested. the pile of crap below is what the customer wants.

we all have at least one job we will never tell ever our best friends that we did. just do it and never look back. also ask her not to tell anyone that you did the job as it will wreck your rep around town.. on the the quote make sure to include a line item saying customer was advised against using this font all upper case and crushed to hell as it is unreadable. that way when she finds out the hard way, she can't blame you. I have also had people re-think a job when I've put that on the quote

 

[petepaz]

usually i will make a proof with their idea and some choices we come up with and go with what ever they pick. some take our advice and some don't but bottom line we get a job and get
paid. i have one customer that we do their trucks and all the owner wants is the company name big...BIG all over the trucks (company name is his and his brother's name) doesn't look great have tried to steer them in a different direction and was told "do you know i am the owner of the company" so i shut my mouth and continue to do $50k a year with them

 

[GWSigns]

We are cringing with a job now where they want one line in orange lettering bordered in blue - next line red lettering bordered in blue - next and following lettering in black. Included are two different images in the bottom corners

The skin crawls up my neck everytime I think about it

 

[gabagoo]

Gino, there's not much you can do outside of giving the customer your opinion on what will look good. I have toiled with some customers, but sometimes they know better than me..or so they think....

I remember back when I was first in this business with my 4b cutter ( 1987), I was doing a sub job for another sign company and he requested this double sided sign face to be done in Old English, all uppercase. I told him it was virtually unreadable, but he told me....thats what the customer wants!!!!. We even ran a pen plot for them to sign off on. OK I ran 3m cocoa brown 2 ml and it had an arc so I it wasted a lot of vinyl on a 15" machine and was costly back then.
2 weeks later he came in and told me his customer was not paying because you couldn't read the sign. HAHA doubled my money.

 

[fresh]

We've been getting more jobs from local design & marketing firms lately. My partner was very adamant that we NOT CHANGE THEIR ARTWORK. Because you know, they are the professional designers, and its insulting to say that we could do it better.

Anyway, we did a couple of real estate signs that had an extremely ineffective layout. The logo was great, but as we all know, design for signs is not the same as design for print or websites (but don't tell vista print that.) A few weeks go by, and his client wasn't happy with how they looked, so he sent me a new layout to remake the signs. I decided to change it further (flip the background and foreground colors, add a bar between the name and number, etc,) and send it back to show him what we would do. He and his client LOVED the new design, and was happy to have us share our expertise.

So now I just send "sign optimized" layouts back to these clients, and let them decide what to do. I've actually gotten thank yous for taking the time and initiative to show them a slightly different option they may not have considered. It doesn't mean they pick my layout, but at least I gave them the option.

As for the illegible door lettering, I bet they come back in a few months to change it.

 

[Jillbeans]

What a c*nt.
Did you show her that font in caps and lower case and not stretched/squished?
(I had something along these same lines, it's the UGLIEST sign I've ever made, and the lady was ecstatic over it)
Love....Jill