Mistake = lesson

[DrummerHead]

We all make mistakes. Luckily, we learn from them.

Which mistake you've made in your career you think teached you a reeeally important lesson? Like, the most relevant one. Cause I bet you had more than one :D

[Buda]

There's another thread here somewhere on this, but it must have died...

I've learned that clients that approve artwork instantaneously have mostly likely not opened the attachment let alone proofed the artwork. Pure laziness. Too bad when there are mistakes in the copy. What can you do about this?

When I suspect the client hasn't proofed the art work at all, but has approved it anyway I get someone else at work to proof it for me. It's hard to proof something you've been working on - you tend to miss stuff out.

We also have a client that sets white text to overprint. Thus the text doesn't print at all. That is a costly mistake...We printed business card shells, so all the shells we had done had to be thrown out. Unfortunately, you can't overprint white text!

[CamDesign]

Overprinting white text.. ugh, thats gotta be one of the biggest rookie mistakes there is.

I also get a lot of clients that say they love stuff in their first email, then send one an hour later wanting a bunch of stupid revisions that mess up the overall flow, so I make the changes, then it looks worse, then they want more and then, I basically just say... OKie dokie...... you know Im being paid hourly right? then no more revisions. hehe.

MY worse mistakes are always typos :( and its really hard for me to pay attention to that when Im the only designer here, no copwriters/extra proof readers...I hate proof reading... can I get a copywriter pleeeeeease?

[Buda]

Yes...typos...I'm pretty good I'd say. Considering the amount of written text I get given to retype. My clients sure are lucky that I can type fast!

[Patrick Shannon]

I've told the story before, but when I messed up Tony Twist's (http://www.hockeyfights.com/players/655) business cards, although that was due to my ex-boss writing the wrong zip code! Fortunately Twist didn't come around and added me to his fight record.

[Red Kittie Kat]

Not ironing out little contract details such as .... oh little things like ... payment..... before I started a job :rolleyes:

[Ned]

I just made one today. I took a logo, threw it in my Illustrator document for 4-color press, and failed to convert the spot color to process. Of course, this wasn't exactly a big mistake, as a two second glance at the finished PDF with half the logo missing lead me to correct the error within 20 seconds time.

[capezio]

Overprinting white text.. ugh, thats gotta be one of the biggest rookie mistakes there is.

MY worse mistakes are always typos :( and its really hard for me to pay attention to that when Im the only designer here, no copwriters/extra proof readers...I hate proof reading... can I get a copywriter pleeeeeease?

Me too, you read what you know you think is there especially if you've read it a great many times before.

At a printers that I use they have on the desk a piece of copy full of typos. Its making a point to proof read 'cos at first glance it looks ok then you realise the mistakes, reversed letters, missing letters etc.

Has anyone else noticed that you can post here then read it, its ok you think, then the minute you click to post and you see it again there is a glaring typo or grammar thing. Sometimes the next day its even more obvious.

It must be really hard for dyslexic designers....I know too that art colleges etc have more dyslexics and left handed than other institutions.

[Samakimoto Graphics]

I once forgot to use my check list after laying out the French version of a report, and ended up having the layout sent to the printer with the same ISBN number as the English version - 3000 copies in all were printed with the error! The publishing department found a way around it, but I also had it on email record as having requested for the ISBN number sent to me twice...so I could live it down.

It was the first job I'd done in that org.

[PrintDriver]

Every mistake in wide format is a painful and costly learning experience. (echo echo)

[CtrlAltDel]

Ah, yes, typos...

In television, the whole country sees your mistake quickly, if no-one else catches it.

Makes the whole network look like idiots.


Thus, 1st typo - verbal warning.
Second - written warning.
Third - fired. And they mean it.
(At this station, anyway)

I've been there 5.5 years, and I can happily say I can count the number of boo-boos I've made on less than one hand...

[Buda]

In the last year or so I have become very good at spotting typos. I find at least one in every publication I read...

[Vikia]

Why make typos on your own...when you can generate them:
http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-typo-generator/

Who knew?