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screen printing => General Screen Printing => Topic started by: Shanarchy on March 29, 2014, 01:46:36 PM
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Hey gang,
I've been making a lot of mistakes lately. This is a somewhat new problem for me and I obviously need to put a better system in place, as this is really becoming a problem. It seems the art end is biting me in the A lately. Not doing it, but missing mistakes. I ran 300 shirts with an obvious spelling error. I was so dialed in on recreating the artwork I guess checking spelling didn't happen. Yesterday I printed 100 shirts and I did not properly prepare the artwork. It was a lot of lettering with an outline. I printed the inside of the letters (think of the letter D) with the fill color when it should have been open and shirt color. I've also made a couple of other art mishaps in the past couple of months.
I'm a real small shop, so there is not a lot of departments to handle them all. It's me doing the bulk of everything and I have a part timer (cleans and coats screens, learning to print) and my other half (girlfriend/boss) here part time. Like every other shop it's go, go, go. But I don't find myself rushing that bad when I make these mistakes.
Help! What are you doing or can you suggest I do to stop making stupid little errors that are very costly in material, labor, and production time.
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I try to have another person proof all art (internally), and I literally never print a job without emailing the client a digital version of the final product and have them respond by email with approval (for my records). Only one glaring mistake has made it through this process, which was on a small order and correctable with a q-tip and some quick color matching (fortunately). Here and there small art defects slip through, but nothing glaring or obvious, and the times I have noticed and brought it to the attention of the client it has been a non-issue.
I would be very careful NOT having the client proof and formally approve artwork prior to printing.
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A second set of eyes is key, but to catch separation mistakes they need to be someone familiar with the process.
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slow down.
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i second the slowing down..and sending mocks to the customer...holy crap has that saved me a few times!
but i did just do the same last week...when i sepped the art the 'D' s were filled in...even with the mock in front of my printer and she been told to do a test and then scan it to see if it looks good, well she assumed it was fine looking at it upside down...only 15 shirts but i got on her about it too..
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You have too much to do Shane, me too, as I'm typing this on Sunday in my office. I'm here to work on quotes and and I have an 8 color sep to get out. Also, looking back through emails to find if anything fell through the cracks (I know there's stuff there). For art, we send proofs to the customer for their approval. We implore them to look everything over carefully, and that no question is stupid if they need an answer. But then, after they sign off, and they must reply to the email with the words "It's approved" or similar, it's their responsibility. And Homer nailed it, slow down. By the way, I misprinted 800 hoodies in early December, but it wasn't so bad that they wouldn't take them for cost, labor included. Why? Because I didn't send a proof, because I was going too fast... Lastly, even if they approve it, take a few more seconds to look it over again. Good luck.
Steve
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For all those not printing your own art, also make sure to include an 8.5x11 of just the art (on the shirt color). Printers need to see what it is to look like. Sometimes blue is intended to print over red to create purple. If they don't see (purple) on the art, they more than likely will print blue to look blue.
Just another example.
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I always try to print out a color proof. If i send orders out to contract or if it is a complex design i will print out seps on paper first. I have kept an old tabloid laser printer just for this reason. Most of my customers will swing by and look at digital and paper proofs. I have also started telling customers should not use phones for proofing artwork.
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After separating out spot jobs from illustrator, I'll drop each page of the PDF in InDesign and use it's Separations Preview. You can know do this in Illustrator, though. Amazing how many paper white vs spot white mistakes I've caught. Quickly clicking through the C,Y,M,K panels will reveal non spot junk in the art.
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I do have all customers approving the artwork via e-mail. The spelling error was approved. However, I was recreating their artwork where they had it spelled correct. It was my mistake so I did the right thing.
The other issues I don't see being an approval issue. It seems to be dumb mistakes in separating the colors and printing the films. Not adding proper outline stroke. It looks fine on the screen, but not for print.
Going slower and paying more attention is definitely the key here, but I honestly didn't feel like I was rushing. I wish I was then I can understand why I made these mistakes. It really seem like dumb/air head mistakes. I feel like I need a better double check system in place.
I may need to look into doing my seps like some of you are doing. How does the AI sep preview work?
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We've had numerous jobs that had mistakes that we emailed the proof to the customer and they don't look over them too closely. And even though they approve it and there is a misspelled word or something, it's still on us to make it right and we replace the shirts even though all the fine print on the proof tells them to look at it carefully and that they are giving us the ok to print it just like that. I guess I'm saying that we have more jobs go bad that the customer misses the problem on the proof than we do where a customer finds an issue within the proof. Ultimately you need to do what Homer said and have more than one set of eyes look at things. Two heads are better than one and 8 eyes are way better than 2.
We lost $1700 on Friday because of a misspelled word on some embossed padfolios that we did the artwork for and an ASI company decorated them. We sent the art to the customer for approval and they said it looked great and there was an obvious misspelling on there that my artist and the sales guy didn't catch, nor did the customer. It hurts that at least 3 people looked at it and it still cost us a lot of money. I saw it within 1 second of looking at it when I was told we had a problem. I still don't know how it got through, but I bet if we slowed down a little bit then it would have been caught.
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One more thing is never, never, never do seps when your tired...I do some of my seps at my home office because of customers coming in and out all day and when I feel my eyes close I stop!!!!. Sending a proof to customers sometimes ain't worth a hill of beans sometimes they look at the art and not the wording, so I always but in bold letters PLEASE CHECK FOR ALL CORRECT SPELLING, you cats know I can't spell LOL.
Darryl
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I had this yesterday, posted it in the shoutbox....
We get art on Tuesday, needed shirts on Wednesday, so I came back to the shop on Wednesday night so they could pick them up. I get an email yesterday that text was missing off the back. I reopened the file to try and find it and I couldn't. I think they either sent me the wrong file or something...of course it was a power point file as well.
I had sent them a proof and they approved it....with changes, so I know they actually looked at it.
There was nothing I could do to fix this. I turned the shirts in 24 hours from receipt of art and we even proofed it. You will never stop mistakes from happening, you just have to try and minimize them as much as possible.
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I do have all customers approving the artwork via e-mail. The spelling error was approved. However, I was recreating their artwork where they had it spelled correct. It was my mistake so I did the right thing.
The other issues I don't see being an approval issue. It seems to be dumb mistakes in separating the colors and printing the films. Not adding proper outline stroke. It looks fine on the screen, but not for print.
Going slower and paying more attention is definitely the key here, but I honestly didn't feel like I was rushing. I wish I was then I can understand why I made these mistakes. It really seem like dumb/air head mistakes. I feel like I need a better double check system in place.
I may need to look into doing my seps like some of you are doing. How does the AI sep preview work?
You may not feel like you're rushing, but there is some distraction or another (or 100) that's taking you off focus. That's what I find in my case anyway. I feel like I'm in control, but no down time between "events". That's rushing. It's not easy to do what we do, especially when you wear a lot of hats. I can do all jobs from head to toe, but there is so much that without the other 8 people around here, it wouldn't happen. You'll be OK I'm sure...
Steve
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We are working on an online proofing system. we are emailing huge attachments that are getting snagged by spam filters. it would be easier to have an online place where our artist and other staff can see comments left by a customer or their approval and not worry about emails. It is also a great way of organizing all of the open projects.
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I hate when people proof there art on a cellphone, I tell them please view art on a larger screen...
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There was nothing I could do to fix this. I turned the shirts in 24 hours from receipt of art and we even proofed it. You will never stop mistakes from happening, you just have to try and minimize them as much as possible.
This is definitely true.
Sbrem, you're right about distratcions.
I had a nice conversation with Bimridder. He called to scold me (Thanks Dave!). He gave me a great idea about creating checklists. I'm going to do this for all areas. The quick one minute to peak at the list and make sure I didn't skip an obvious step will be way better than getting to press with a mistake. This definitely won't end all mistakes, but I'm hoping it can eliminate a couple. Thanks again for taking time out of your day Dave!
I'm going to also try to set up a system to have someone double check the artwork. May help pick up a dumb mistake that I can't see from staring at the screen for too long.
The customer sign off/approval of artwork. To me, all it really means is the customer is happy with the design and can't say after they don't like it. I feel it also covers us against misspelling of names. Although I will ask the customer to double check spelling of all names to make sure they are correct. But for basic spelling mistakes, I feel it's on us. Even if the customer approves it. The part of customer approval I feel I need to improve on is color. I know I am walking a tight line on it. I put a color close to what I will be printing with and it an vary from screen to screen to phone! What do you all do for this end? Is there a way you can create a color swatch set in illustrator of the ink colors you use? Do any of the ink companies have info (pms/cmyk/rgb number) available to us to help with this?
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What do you guys do if there is a misspelling on a proof that the customers gives the OK? We have had customers take full accountability a few times but most of the time if we told them it's their fault it doesn't end well. So now days to not lose a customer we usually try to work something out with them and see if they'll help with a little of the reprint costs but we always take the majority of the responsibility and the costs to reprint. Does anyone put it ALL on the customer?
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What do you guys do if there is a misspelling on a proof that the customers gives the OK? We have had customers take full accountability a few times but most of the time if we told them it's their fault it doesn't end well. So now days to not lose a customer we usually try to work something out with them and see if they'll help with a little of the reprint costs but we always take the majority of the responsibility and the costs to reprint. Does anyone put it ALL on the customer?
The last time this happened to me, I misspelled
"incurable" as "uncurable". T's, and fleece, large enough order for me to have farmed it out. They missed it too.
The custy said that he was only looking at the design and colors, and missed it.
We compromised with a smaller additional run at close to cost. I was grateful, whether he missed it or not, it was my blunder. (btw, I ran these)
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We have been in your situation more than once in the years that we have been in business. The best lesson that I have gotten is that we learn from our mistakes and take action to correct them for the next time. I have made a very extensive proof sheet that every customer MUST sign and since the customer never reads the fine print I always explain to them what they are signing and why. On top of that, I tell them to look at the spelling first, then the overall layout of the thing we are printing. Customers get caught up in the layout and dont look at the details like spelling.
Our policy is that if the error is our fault, we will replace it, but if the error is the customers fault its on them. When they sign the proof that policy is told to them. There are some that slip through the cracks and we do pay the price for those. Being a contractor, when art is sent to us I vary rarely make a proof, because the broker usually has done that part for us.
We are in the business of getting customers what they want and we have to remember that they have not all made shirts before and will not understand the whole process. If the expectations are laid out beforehand there are none to be broken.
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Double signature checklist. Art and Production. Sometimes Sales if its new and important. Even if we've done it hundreds of times over and over. Namedrops can be misspelled etc.
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If we miss it and it was OUR art then we would correct it under most conditions even if a customer missed it. If its art supplied we make no warranties. I would eat nothing, may offer a discounted rate to reprint but it would be above costs for sure.
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What do you guys do if there is a misspelling on a proof that the customers gives the OK? We have had customers take full accountability a few times but most of the time if we told them it's their fault it doesn't end well. So now days to not lose a customer we usually try to work something out with them and see if they'll help with a little of the reprint costs but we always take the majority of the responsibility and the costs to reprint. Does anyone put it ALL on the customer?
Some get it, some don't. With the ones that don't, I carefully explain that they are the very last line of defense for this kind of issue. But, we will reprint for a very cheap price to try to smooth it over, which I personally find fair. It's not easy, you have to weigh it out, consider the personality and you're relationship with them, and make some kind of final decision. Hopefully, reason wins out...
Steve