Rant
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- gramme0
Spookytim:
Of course we did a press check. We immediately saw that the type was too fat, but because that would have meant pulling hundreds of plates, my boss offered the executive input and the client agreed, that it was not worth pulling plates and taking over a day to reconfigure everything.
The type they fattened is 5 helv. neue bold, all in caps. It's the captions for photos (80% of the book). They thought the type would get lost. They were wrong, esp. since that type was printed in high-metallic spot colors that really stand out.
The reason it was trimmed too much was because it has 5 different paper stocks and needed 2 trips through bindery. Somewhere communication fell off that the bindery team needed to do the absolute minimum trim possible. Instead they took off 1/8" each time through. Apparently the binders didn't know or care that the book s/b the same exact size as each brochure.
I talked to my boss and she is of the firm belief that we bear no blame on this one. I've made mistakes before, but not this time.
- what happened to proofs before the press check, this must have been done well before going to presswordssssss
- chuparosa0
That is completely and totally unacceptable. If the printer was concerned about the type, they should have contacted you before adjusting anything. If your pieces do not match the ones you signed off on at the press check they have to make it right. A quarter inch shorter! Unreal! It should be reprinted at no cost. If that is not gonna happen then you should get a sizeable amount deducted from your bill.
- gramme0
On a general note...do people just not pursue excellence anymore? Do you guys experience this in dealing with various vendors/artists – be they printers or photographers? I'm not old enough to know, but is it really true that in the paste-up days this kind of thing just didn't happen? I mean...we only hire the best printers in the U.S. Does "best" mean anything anymore???
I just talked to my dad about this. He's much older and wiser than I. He used to work for a rinky-dink offset shop in Texas. He was livid on my behalf, and stunned that my boss did not squarely demand for the whole campaign to be recycled and reprinted at the printers' cost. He said they never would have let something like this occur, even at their po-dunk little offset shop – and if it did happen, they would eat the cost – call the insurance company, if they had to – rather than foist something so shoddily constructed on the world.
- Dennis_Moore0
I'm going to lighten this thread up with a business meeting that all of you must attend:
- creative-0
Burn down their print factory (but rescue your books first)
- gramme0
Our client uses a pre-press company that pulled in hi-res images. The pre-press people provided final files and confirming HP's to the printer. They told us they "did not have time in light of the quick turnaround to provide us with proofs before going to the press check."
We showed up for the press check and saw all this shit, and because of the hard and fast deadline for launch, we were only able to correct a few of the many errors we came across.
For example – some of the photos stripped in by the pre-press guy were not even the right photos. We fixed stuff like that.
- Spookytim0
Fair Do's Gramme. I didn't mean any offence, I just know that sometimes during moment sof anger we all cast about for someone to take the blame when we might need to share a portion of responsibility. I still don't think you're company are entirely faultless even after reading your explanation, but heck, lots of stuff gets lost in translation so what the hell do I know about being there and dealing with it. Hope you get soemthing sorted to your satisfaction with this and I hope it doesn;t eat you for too long... other projects, new opportunities, lessons learned to be applied to future situations etc.
Wow, how sanctimonious do I sound?
- gramme0
Seriously, I wonder why my boss is not more pissed. I consider myself a fairly level guy, and I almost completely lost it in front of the entire studio when I saw the books.
- gramme0
I hear you Spooky. Thing is, I'm not a finger-pointing kind of guy...when I screw up, I own up. I've made mistakes in the past and have been frank and honest about it with the necessary people. The primary source of blame resides in scheduling problems, I think. My boss was travelling a lot and often wasn't able to get me feedback when I needed it. The whole thing was really rushed. We found out 3 weeks before the press date that the entire book had to be translated into French and Spanish, all in the same thing, all while retaining the same format and page count. We made it look good, but going through numerous rounds of proofing with three different languages was a high hurdle in such short time.
I believe the client is getting some sort of discount, dunno how much.
- Then you did what you could, and one step removed I bet the project still looks great.Spookytim
- so applaud yourself for the huge acheivement despite the disappointment of the finishing issues.Spookytim
- does the client have a beef? or their audience? Sometimes, your perfection is their indifference. next time it will be different.capsize
- thanks man :)gramme
- creative-0
I have gone absolutely nuts for a lot less. The problem is the tight deadlines that are imposed on jobs such as this... if you had another 3 weeks, all would be fine. It's a real shame but there's nothing more you can do but go and have a scotch.
- Randd0
I don't even understand how this could have happened--it's outrageous. a job of this magnitude should never be rushed to the degree that so many things could fuck up!
- Spookytim0
Gramme, I would say that in my experience no, it didn't happen like this in the (relatively recent) past. The world of work is wound so tightly now that 'It will have to do" is the new benchmark for perfection.
My first job was in 1985. No Macs, all hand-made paste up artwork on boards with overlays. Typesetters set the type, finished artists prepared the boards that went to repro for tint laying and film setting, then to the plate makers, then to the printers, and always for wet proofs on things like brochures, never chromalins. Nothing could ever get through that wasn't 99.9% perfect. Of course, it took much much longer and the possibilities were more limited, but I for one would rather have that time and those restrictions again rather than having clients feeling everything is possible with digital work and no time is required to do it, and whatever comes out will have to do because there's ten other jobs needing to be pushed through the system just as frantically.
I soemtime wish I didn't know how it used to be but my dad was a printer too of the letterpress variety, so I knew print from day one really. Soon as I got told for the first time that I had to email a 5mb pdf directly to the printer and he would just run plates and print so my pdf had better be right or it would all be my fault, I decided me and design were finished.
- gramme0
^ ...made mistakes w/ print jobs, I mean. I make other sorts of mistakes as often as anyone else. I just realized that might come across as rather smug in my last post...
- Spookytim0
Randd, when you close the office, do you remain on the inside, or do you position yourself outside beforehand?
- gramme0
*goes and has a very large, expensive scotch.
- grunttt0
suX with a capital X!
- gramme0
Spooky – what do you do for a living now, if you've hung up your typographer's tackle?
- Randd0
out studio connects to our living space. the last time this happened I went into the living space, went upstairs and went to bed