Most Embarssing Moments as a Sign Maker?

[tuck]

Ok, I'll go first. A couple of years ago I got a job through another sign co. to design, rout, paint and install a 4'x8' 2 sided (back-to-back) HDU sign for a local dentistry office to replace a dilapidated large wood sign that was 20+ years old. I surveyed the old sign and made my recommendations, (trash the old, bring in the new), which was readily accepted. I did a design, printed it out, gave it to the sign co., who in turn gave it to the dentist, and all was approved. Wonderful. The sign was to say: "FAMILY DENTISTRY", followed underneath by both of the dentists' full names, DDS, etc.

Little did I realize (and no one else did either) that I had misspelled "Dentistry". I spelled it "Dentisry", leaving out the 2nd "t", because that's how we pronounce it here down south. LOL! Not only that, but I misspelled one of the doctor's last names,..."Knowles" instead of "Knoles".

Long story short, the dentist that owns the practice and the building (Dr. Knoles) had been there and in business for 40 years. My new sign had been up for about 2 months before one of his customers, of whom happened to be a family friend of his and there to get her teeth cleaned, noticed the mistakes on the fancy new expensive sign and informed the good doctor about it. I got a call from the sign co. soon afterwards and everyone was all in a huff. I ended up replacing the sign, but the sign co. I sub for absorbed most of the expense when I reminded them that they, as well as the dentist, had approved the inital drawing, although not in writing.

What's so funny to me until this day is that the dentist had been yanking teeth for 40+ years and he couldn't spell "DENTISTRY" either! Heck, he couldn't even spell his own last name!!! LOL!

Moral of the story: Get your drawings/designs approved and signed and be careful where you get your teeth worked on!

Tuck

P.S. Oh yeah, "spellcheck" is a handy thing, but it won't do you much good for things like tricky last names!

[paco]

I point out such error more than once on sub contract for signs business. So far, on my own "creations", double (and triple) checks has prevent such flaws.

[David Arde (Unregistered Guest)]

I once cut a large sign on a glulam beam 20' long for the glulam company. It was for a school and after they installed it they decided that my english was not correct. I am from Canada and this sign was in the US. I spelled Center as centre. I just had to redo the routing and the glulam company absorbed the cost of a new beam.

[wcsg]

Here's mine, see if you can find it.

http://www.thesignsyndicate.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=694

The correction is at the bottom. No one noticed for weeks then someone did.

[gerald_d]

That jewelery struck something 2 months ago - then I thought it needed to be jewellery

[wcsg]

See, I've done plenty of "Jewelers"(3 "e"s) Signs in the past. SO I figured, "Jewelery" (3 "e"'s also) just add "Y" at the end. Yeeee, no big deal when you got your own CNC though but just time consuming aaaaannnnd embarrasing

[gerald_d]

On this side of the Atlantic the words jewellery and jeweller are the norm.

Mark, did you see the "sign" that YOU put on this thread: "Most Embarssing Moments as a Sign Maker?" - what is Embarssing?

[tuck]

I did that on purpose, Gerald, just to get your attention. A good sign man knows how to get attention with hiz signs! LOL! YOU NOTICED!

[rg_engravers]

Mine was I spent 2 days on a sign.
He wanted the sign to say "I Ride This Steal Horse"
I assumed he ment STEEL and Not Steal.
So I made it
"I Ride This Steel Horse"
He said his spelling was right, he stoled the bike from a friend.

[tuck]

"He said his spelling was right, he stoled the bike from a friend."

ROTFLMAO!

Howdy, RON!!! Good to see your face in the place!

[wemme]

Assumption is the mother of all errr hmm yeah.
Always double check with the client before changing anything as they know the full story.
Have a proof copy signed.
Happy sign making.
Bart

[joe]

Big problem, That:

I bet you could weasel out of any responsibility for spelling with a good legal disclaimer autographed up front.

I'd never, ever, stiff a client that way.

My customers are my friends. All of them. They've help me build my business. They regurarly introduce me to their business associates who become my supporters also.

We have a good laugh at my mistakes or my customers mistakes, then make the necessary changes and go on.

I couldn't stand it, driving by a customers business with a misssspelled word.

You guys need to re-think your values. If you make a mistake, correct it. Even if the customer bought into it. Two mistakes don't make it right.

Perhaph I'm too much an artist and not so good a business person. Then again, I do rather well and don't see any reason to change in the immediate future! Twenty five years and going strong.

Don't Weasel around. Do good work and be kind while you have the chance.

[tuck]

Joe,...who you calling a weasel? LOL!

In my case above, the sign co. supplied the materials and I did the re-work for free. It was a mutual agreement that we had all been stupid, including the dentist. We're just sharing "embarazzin' moments" here is all.

I have another one from years back when I was working as a designer for a large sign co. in S. Fla. The client ordered 2 large (6' x 12') pan-formed and embossed plastic faces for an existing D/F internally illuminated pylon sign. Quite expensive. In my design, I "mizzspelt" the word "Balloons", leaving out one "l",..."Baloons". Although I had worked on the design for hours on end (humped over my drafting table), I missed it, my boss (who had to approve everything), missed it, the salesman missed it, the customer missed it, as well as the fabricators, spray painters and installers,...all missed it. The sign faces were up for several weeks and lit up like a Xmas tree before the mistake was pointed out to the customer, who naturally wanted the faces replaced @ no charge. My boss, the company owner, refused because he had a drawing signed by said customer that had approved the design. I felt like an idiot, but no one could get too mad with me because EVERYONE had approved it prior to fabrication and installation. I DID, however, get a 10 lb. Webster's dictionary slapped down on my drafting table shortly thereafter by my boss with the curt remark; "Tucker, don't you EVER design another sign without studying THIS FIRST!" LOL!

Stuff happens, Joe, and that's all this thread is about.

BTW Joe, I visited your website, "Norman Signs". Beautiful stuff. VERY NICE!!!

[Mayo]

The very first van lettering job I did after getting out of sign painting school (yeah, there WAS such a thing back then...) provided a few lessons for me.

This van was lettered right on the street in front of the customer's business.
I started lettering the first side of the van, and of course being new at it, I wasn't very quick about it. By the time I was ready to letter the other side, the sun had fully baked it to probably 200 degrees farenheight since it was a dark blue van. It was impossible to get my brush to move the paint on the hot metal since it wanted to flash dry.

No problem... I'll just turn the van around so that the "hot side" will be in the shade. So I get in the van, back it up a bit, do a 3 point turn and get the thing turned around. I thought I heard a noise but didn't see anything until I got to the shady side of the van.

I had run over the corner of my metal tool box of brushes and knocked over my cup of paint (both of which were on the sidewalk). Being the professional that I thought I was, I picked up everything just like nothing had happened, got most of the paint up with solvent and rags, and waited until the van was cool enough to finish lettering.

Thankfully I only crushed the ferrule on one 3/4" flat lettering brush - a brush which I still have in my kit, now 28 years later and I can't believe it was that long ago.

So, I learned not to work in front of the customers business unless it was ON his business (window lettering or putting up a sign on their wall, etc) and I learned paint doesn't flow or blend with a brush when applied to extremely hot surfaces, and I learned lemon yellow 1-shot never covers dark blue in 1 coat, and I learned how to price a van lettering job incorrectly!

[tuck]

Haha Mayo! I'm pretty sure I saw a video clip of that just the other day! LOL! (J/K)

Reminds me...about 25 years ago a "friend" of mine had purchased a big blue Ford van from a local dealership and had all kinds of problems with it. After repeated and unsuccessful attempts on his part (so he said) to get the problems resolved with the dealer, he "commissioned" me to paint, in big yellow letters on both sides of the van; "This van is a Lemon, (insert painting of a large lemon) purchased at XXX Ford!" He paid me about $100.00, which at the time was good money. I didn't think anything about it, did it, and went on about my business.

About a week later, he went tooling into the dealership lot, sporting the new paint job, with a loudspeaker in his van and screaming, "This van is a Lemon! Purchased at XXX Ford!" Some salesmen corralled him, yanked him out of the van and beat the snot out of him! He pressed charges for "assault" and it all went to court. The dealership had $$$ for good attorneys and my "friend" ended up with a public goof-off. When the judge asked my "friend" why he painted the slanderous signage on the sides of his van, he said, "I didn't do that, Your Honor! Mark Tucker did!" LOL!

I got subpoenead, had to go to court and testify that he paid me to do it, of which he of course denied and even tried to say that I put him up to the whole thing!

Lesson learned? Yes. Be careful what and where you paint. You might get some on you! HA!