I screwed up - help
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- Helvetica
I made a rookie mistake, missed the safe copy guidelines for a street ad and now the copy has been cropped off the page. Problem is the new manager has been trying to axe me to use her own design team and here is her axe on a platter. Can the media sellers take any responsibility for this for not enforcing their guidelines, or am I falling on my sword here? F*ck this is my biggest client and I'm buying a car tomorrow! Mothersucking c*ckf*cker!
- skt0
who gave final sign off?
- 23kon0
If they gave you the guidelines then they expect you to follow them - so its your responsibility that the artwork isnt right.
yes it would have been nice if they had phoned you and said "did you know some of the text is outwith the crop" though.
- nib1010
Sorry to say it doesn't look good. If they are looking to axe you they may use this to their advantage.
I would argue your case and try and shift the blame as much as possible! Good luck!
- SkyPoo0
Mate, hate to say it but 23kon is right. You can try and push the blame but it will probably make you look worse. If she wants you out and is looking for a reason then you'll spend the rest of your time there in fear of errors. Just man up to it and take it on the chin with dignity.
- Kidswift0
Yikes create a big office fire as a diversion....
- thebottlerocket0
From seeing how account managers do things I would recommend the following tactics:
Show no weakness. You must maintain the facade that you did nothing wrong. Infact, act surprised that this has happened.
Be proactive, say things like "Someone has fucked up here, we need to get to the bottom of this..." This immediately reflects blame onto something else
Let 'process' be your friend. Suggest flaws in the process. How were these guidelines communicated, who at the media sellers in responsible for ad control. Perhaps they got an old file, or used an and surely they should have contacted you if there was a problem. Highlight that you are a champion of good process and you're just trying to sort it out for the future.
Take the clients side. Say that this fuckup really reflects badly on the clients brand. Position yourself as the guardian of their interests and position yourself as the person who really has the clients interests at heart.
But remember, show no weakenss
What car are you buying?
- 23kon0
bottlerocket is right haha, account managers can wangle out of anything - you hear them argueing away on the phone in the background in any office.
play it like bottlerocket says ;)
- Raniator0
going back to what skt said, who signed it off?
if your boss/manager/whatever signed it off, technically it's their fault. you can 'blame' them.
you do have a sign-off procedure in place, don't you?
- chossy0
Did you get a proof to look at?...
- Helvetica0
Oh dear. I took SkyPoo's advice, albeit not based on his name. I have turned the cheek with this response and await my killer blow with dignity, but no strategic kudos:
HI Laura, I'm afraid I have to take responsibility for this. I checked my files and the text overlaps the 100mm guidelines.
Laura let me know what I can do to fix this problem. Obviously I withdraw my fees for this.
Yours sincerely, Paul- I admire your sincerity. But I think you made a mistake here.thebottlerocket
- I never said write to them and proactively take responsibility up front, just that there's no point...SkyPoo
- ... trying to push the blame where it doesn't belong, thats all. Good luck.SkyPoo
- SkyPoo0
This reminds me of a marketing jobbie I did for a record label. I had specified a (four colour) black and white image to be overprinted in parts with a flourescent pink.
To my mind "Overprint" was a term that conveyed the general approach but was open to technical interpretation by a skilled printer who knew his inks.
This job went off to Hungary to be produced though so they literally overprinted the flouro pink on all the CD and 7" sleeves, all the 7" labels (which they attached to the vinyl) and all the CD ondisk printing too.
The problem was that flouro pink is totally opaque, so instead of just making the white of the paper pink and leaving the text and graphics showing black through... it just obliterated everything leaving no band name, no track title, not codes... nothing... just pink.
They entire run, of fucking thousands and thousands of units, was printed and delivered back to the UK for distribution.
By the time the mistake was discovered, I would have been liable for all reprinting, all vinyl and CD manufacture, all collation and packing, all transportation, and the distribution costs. All that is aside from the fact that the band would have missed their publicity slots, radio slits, PR slots, and sales slots.
I sweated long and hard with no sleep for many days, desperately trying to build a defence for the term 'overprint'... I asked people in the record manufacture business how they would have interpreted the 'overprint' request and they all said without fail they would have looked at the job and underprinted it... so that was all I had to hope for, that if I got sued in court I could call on a number of expert witnesses who would testify that any printer worth their salt would have underprinted the pink. As a safe guard I told my missus to look into having the house put exclusively in her name so we wouldn't lose it.
I thought I was going to die with worry. I got a call to say I had to go to the record label to discuss the situation, and I got on the train.
By the time I had arrived, they had decided to play one of the 7"s and had discovered they had pressed the wrong tracks on it. That changed things in my favour and made the production outfit look really incompetent.
I was off the hook.
- CUCKY LUNT!!!!!!23kon
- Aye.SkyPoo
- I guess the moral of the story is, its never too late to avert your worst nightmare Helvetica.SkyPoo
- you don't send proofs to a foreign printer so he knows what you expect it to look like?mhr
- Yes. There were many things I could use in defense, but at the end of the day, my instruction was to overprint...SkyPoo
- so it was one of those ones where it was so much money that each side was going to fight as hard as they could.SkyPoo
- It was clear on my proofs how it SHOULD have looked. It was negligence on their part I am sure, but legally it was a murky situation.SkyPoo
- situation and the person who could afford the best representation would have won I am sure of that.SkyPoo
- great story...Mishga
- Holly shit man your lucky.roundabout
- great story agreedpoolio
- aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa the fucking suspense!!!!! amazing story! turn it into a short film or something._niko
- chossy0
Good luck though, I have been making shit loads of mistakes last week, the other editor was off and I had to do the work of two people which was shite, hence all the mistakes, thats what I am saying anyway.
- johnnnnyh0
I do feel for you but don't really have any more advice than others have given. We all make mistakes from time to time, normally they can be rectified by a bit of extra work and effort. Makes me glad I'm not doing so much print work these days.
- Spanna0
Is there a chance that the ad is not cropped in all the publications, just a rogue batch? We get that wibble off printers all the time.
- Helvetica0
I feel like I'm in an episode of "the Wire", it's play politics or stand tall and take the shots. Am I Rawls or Freamon? Can't I be a little of both?
- mhr0
Is nobody using proofs or what? Proofs are the fail safe rope to use, but i guess in todays design world where everything has to be finished the day before the product manager noticed the deadline is tomorrow. Blame them.
- calculator0
so what do you think OVERPRINT actually means?
- I know what it means. I failed to recollect that non-process inks are totlly opaque.SkyPoo
- Is that always the case? ive just overprinted 2 spots fine? hmmmm... now im worried!JamesBoynton
- Always ask the printer to check the viscosity as it may need to be underprinted!SkyPoo
- roundabout0
You made the mistake, but the person who sign off on the final project should be responsible for the checking everything, no.
- Totally agree, your mistake but not really your responsibilityharmsie
- Not entirely sure I agree...you can't be absolved of all responsibilitybabaganush
- SkyPoo0
@ Roundabout... I think that's the narrow zone of possible debate that Helvetica has just closed down forever by emailing the client to volunteer full responsibility for the mistake.
- That would do itroundabout
- Apparently that was on my advice!SkyPoo