What's your biggest signmaking mistake

[Mosh]

Did 50 instruction decals for a "CAR WARS"...

 

[Speedsterbeast]

cant remember any huge ones off the top of my head, but plenty of classic measure once cut twice problems

edit: really need to invest in one of them board stretchers I've heard about =)

"I cut it twice and it's still too short!"

 

[ProWraps]

had a business partner. HAD.

 

[particleman]

Well, everybody has made typos. Not a specific story but most mistakes I dealt with were somehow related to failure to deliver what the customer expects because of proofing issues. I know it sounds simple, but rock solid proofing practices will save a lot of headache. Conveying to the customer that they are approving the layout and spelling was important. We went so far as to send pre production samples for larger jobs after getting burned a few times.

 

[kanini]

Didn't think it was necessary to put out all support legs on the lift (the kind you tow behind a car) since it "felt so sturdy". The safety switch was conviniently bypassed with a switch by my granddad =). Went up in the bucket, turned the boom on the lift to the side and got a "sinking feeling". The lift tipped over and hit the shop van parked below. Luckily it wasn't THAT high and I just hit the fender on the car that got a nice hole, but a very scary ride down. Never ever cheating with supports etc. again!

 

[TopFliteGraphics]

Not listening to my "inner voice" that told me a customer that I had the other day would not be worth doing the work for. First of all, he has a heavy Middle Eastern accent so I have a really hard time understanding what he is saying. Finally figure out what he wants and I tell him I will meet him at the location at a certain time. I get there and he's not there. i call him and he explains over the phone what he wants. I get back to my shop, send him a quote. Let him beat me down $50 and agree to do the work. I send him a proof with the phone number x'd out because he does not have it yet. I say, okay as soon as you get the number, I will do the work. He says, he can't wait and wants the rest done right away. It was slow, so I said ok. I spend a couple of hours cutting, weeding and transfer taping the lettering.

I get to his place, start installing the vinyl lettering and one of his guys hands me the phone. It's the customer asking what I am doing? I say "installing the lettering." He says, "no it was supposed to be painted. If I wanted cheap lettering I would have gone to Kinko's." I say, "no you asked for lettering." He starts giving me attitude, I said, "Fine. I am done. You'll have a refund of your deposit as soon as i get back to my shop" I told my helper to start removing the lettering. Got back to the shop and looked at my quote - sure enough, it says right on it "design, cut, and install vinyl lettering on wall."

Now the S.O.B is calling me several times a day. Guess can't take a hint that I am not going to deal with him at all.

 

[SignManiac]

Early days of HDU. Carrying a finished $2,500. carved sign out the door to install and lost balance. Snapped it right in half. Just one of way too many costly mistakes over the past 38 years. I could write a book I bet.

 

[niksagkram]

As particleman stated above, typos are the single largest contributor to mistakes in our industry. A couple of years ago I tested our proofing procedure with the attached file. 3 out of 4 people only saw one mistake.

 

[J Hill Designs]

heh nice

 

[MikePro]

Planet Video.
massive, rapid growth, lots of signs, and then BK's/sells-out to Blockbuster.

I learned the value of a down-payment, at the age of 14, and how easily illuminated sign cabinets can be regraphic'd/discounted rather quickly when you've got a LOT of em

 

[niksagkram]

Left the r out of shirts. Didn't get caught until we were hanging the banner up.

:Oops:

 

[round man]

Back in the day I painted quite a good many billboards across the Carolina's, Georgia,Tennesee,Virginia,etc,...well I usually started drawing my layout from left to right as one would normally write a sentence,but this one day I was painting a 20'x80' billboard atop a very high hill just as you cross the state line from Georgia into South Carolina,...the copy read "THIS EXIT" in 12' high letters and underneath it read "Truck Parking" in about 4' letters,...well after painting the logo for the motel chain I got to figuring that it would make things go faster if I just hung my 20' stage dead center of the "THIS EXIT" so that I could skip having to hang my swing stage 4 times and get the job done in three falls(a fall was the term used to denote the space that could be done with one drop of the swingstage in this case it translated to about 24') Well this biilboard was way atop a hill and could be read by oncoming traffic for about 7/8 of a mile just after they crossed the state line. the road up to it wasn't much more than a timber road that had been cleared for our access and the electrical companies meter reader,...the rest of the hillside was brush and small trees. well I started work and around noon just as we sat down to eat our lunch 50' up in the air there comes this mini chevy truck with a camper shell crashing thru the bushes and honking it's horn,...out jumps Grand Pa with the red dot in the middle of his forehead with white flowing robes and about five of his son's nephews and first cousins all shouting "stop! stop! you have to change that!!!" ,....well I yelled back down and explained that I was eating my lunch and we had a layout that had been signed and approved by them and I wasn't going to lower 500 lbs of painters, stage and paint because they couldn't make up their mind and wanted a copy change. They would have to call the main office (halfway across the state) to authorize a work order and then pay me for any work I had already done,...Well Grand Pa with the red dot was well beside himself cussing me in some foreign language and waving his arms trying to pull on my falls(the ropes that dangled from my stage to the ground) I let him know that that was not wise as we had about 5 gallons of open paint buckets up there with us and he was starting to annoy me,...he promptly backed out of range and shouted one more time NO NO NO you have to change that,...pointing at the sign behind me,... well by then he had me mad and I dropped the stage down 15' so we could get to the top of our ladder and stomped down demanding to know just what the hell his problem was as I had an approved signed by him layout,....I get down and he leads me out 25 yards to look back up at my efforts thus far and realized his problem,...the sign read
"S EX" in 12' high letters with "truck parking underneath it in 4' letters,..all this beside the logo for a major motel chain I won't mention,....After showing me that they pointed across the road to the ramp off the expressway in front of their motel which was full of big rigs backed up on the ramp because their parking lot was too full for the lunch crowd that had seen my sign,...well after a few phone calls to the main office I got authorization from my dispatcher and we changed the copy,...they ended up paying me for the sq ft that I had already painted because they wanted it painted out immediately even if it was totally like the artwork and correct,...it had to go.

 

[John L]

Huge, prominent channel letters... "RENT IT CENTER".

We installed it but didnt have the right size transformers to light it all up. So my guy wires it up to read TIT CENTER for the night.

 

[thewvsignguy]

What's your biggest signmaking mistake

my spelling really sucks, thank god for spell check (my wife)!

 

[legacyborn]

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