In a printer’s defense too, people use billboards for all kinds of messages.
Some billboards with a lot of words may be taking into consideration daily traffic backups.
Or they may be a focused message to only a few people (or only one person in the case of those who would use a billboard to propose marriage. LOL.)
A printer isn’t going to second guess you on a billboard any more than they would on a magazine ad. A design professional is supposed to know the demographic and the medium.
Now the sales rep for the billboard might say something because he wants you to come back. Or not. I cannot figure out sales reps sometimes.
Speaking broadly about the industry in general, It’s always puzzled me why people accept certain kinds of advice, but get offended by other, equally, valuable expert advice. Telling a client their design would look better if it were green instead of red is one thing. An expert telling them the typeface used takes to long to read at driving speeds, however, is more than an aesthetic opinion — it’s a problem of function just as much as telling them their safety’s too small.
The following is sort of a tangent, but this discussion has got me thinking about a frustratingly similar problem at work I ran into.
About four years ago, our former director decided we needed to hire an outside advertising agency to help us on a big self-promotion initiative that he felt we were too close to the trees to do ourselves. He felt the outside company (not a direct competitor) would be more objective, offer fresh ideas and see things from a different perspective. OK, fair enough, I thought. I had my reservations, but fine. It would be interesting to work with another agency on a joint project.
Our director chose the outside agency (an established and well-respected one), then I was put in charge of working with this agency as the liaison. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get this outside agency to give us critical advice of the kind they suspected we were afraid to hear. They seemed constitutionally unable to accept the notion that we were after blunt criticism, critical advice and that we wanted our thoughts, processes and ideas challenged.
Instead, it was a long series of campaign ideas presented to us in typical fashion, as in, “We’ve had our creative team work up three ideas. Let’s set up a meeting and run through everything to see what you like the best?” During the presentation, I would respond that we were not interested in them catering to our perceived likes and dislikes and that we were after their insight about what we needed to do differently. They would act puzzled, go back to the their drawing boards and a few weeks later say they had three new ideas, that they thought we would like and that these new ideas incorporated just the right degree of challenge to please us.
Agggggh!
A couple of million and some odd dollars later, the contract period ended and we had a wrap-up meeting where they were glowing with pride over the awards they had won on the work they had done for us. I no longer had any reason to hold back so I told them their awards were nice, but that we didn’t hire them to win awards for themselves — we hired them for hard, solid, critical advice and insight on things they thought were we were doing wrong, should do differently and that all we got from them was what they thought we wanted to see and hear.
Even then, I’m certain they left the meeting totally puzzled and upset with me about what I’d just told them. I suspect that on the way back to their office, they were all complaining about us, how difficult we were to work with and saying all the very things that I had been asking them to tell us to our faces for two solid years.
It really depends on the designer. A long time ago I used to hang out on the AIGA boards.
Well, heaven forbid a lowly printer try to tell a designer there anything. After a few slings of that crap, yeah, have a nice day.
A lot of designers have never done wide format or broadcast work. If they ask if there is anything they should know about the process, they do get the “keep it legible, direct and to the point, and don’t forget your safeties and bleed” spiel along with the other tech specs (for broadcast there are other things like white point and blur…)
I will call broadcast clients to tell them their white point is too high or ask if they forgot their blur as those two things are sometimes forgotten as the last step in image prep. Especially if they are going without a camera test first.
Broadcast white point - if you look at what the white areas on that billboard in the photo above did to my iPhone camera, while it looks perfectly fine when viewing with the naked eye, that is what large areas of pure white will do to a studio camera when under studio lighting. It can be used for effect but is generally bad. 5-15%K, baby. Sometimes even more if the graphic is backlit. Studio cameras do weird things to graphics and even clothing patterns.
Way off topic.
I’ve mentioned before that I now work primarily for and among Engineers, and you’ve hit on the reason why I find it both refreshing and much more rewarding than my years in a Marketing setting. Challenging reviews and the questioning of every detail are staples of Engineering routine; integral parts of the common method.
It did take some time for us to adjust to each other, as my work was suddenly subject to unfamiliar levels of scrutiny, even as my clients anticipated more sensitivity on my part than I’d have ever displayed regardless of my feelings. But after both sides better knew what to expect, the relationship became ruthlessly productive, and the best possibly output quality is realized.