How to get it through a clients head that their artwork is useless!!!!!!

[heyskull]

How do I get it through a clients head that their artwork is useless!!!!!!
They are claiming it has been designed in photoshop and illustrator.
But when I get the artwork it is 72dpi and 3" x 3"!
This is to be printed at 5'x5' and is completely useless for what I and they want to use.
How can I educate numpties like this, that owning these programs does not make you a designer.
Also not setting the resolution and size to a descent size when setting it up you are wasting your time.

I realize that this has been asked loads of times before, but how can I educate Joe public that artwork stolen from the internet and low resolution images cannot be made to print on a wide format printer?

Help or I may end up killing this customer!

SC

 

[Jillbeans]

Mention the price to re-draw. If it is a "real" logo that they paid a designer to do, usually they manage to cough up a usable version of it once price is mentioned.
Usually.
:ROFLMAO:
Love....Jill

 

[HDvinyl]

I always zoom in to show them equivalent...

 

[MagnetStew]

We send out our art guidelines to every customer and charge them art fees if they don't want to comply. It has helped tremendously.

 

[heyskull]

One of the main issues is with

Adobe Illustrator CS5	ai, eps
Adobe Photoshop CS5	psd, tiff, eps, jpeg*
Adobe InDesign CS5	indd - version 6
QuarkXPress	qxd - version 5 - 8
Adobe Acrobat	PDF**

All the customer does is insert the raster file which he has originally made and saves it as any of the above.
Making me all excited and then trying to explain to them that all they have done is resend me the original file.
I cannot get it through to anyone the difference between a raster (dots) and vector (lines)!!!
I physically have to get them in front of my computer to show them that when I zoom into any part of artwork I have created in vector it does degrade.
Only then does the penny drop! and by that time with all the messing about with the customer sending he same file in a different format and me ranting at them, I could of redrawn it!!!!!!

SC

 

[CES020]

All the customer does is insert the raster file which he has originally made and saves it as any of the above.
Making me all excited and then trying to explain to them that all they have done is resend me the original file.

That's the issue I've had too. Nothing like getting an eps file, opening it, only to find the JPEG of the logo Honestly, some times it's just easier to vectorize it from scratch and be done with it. Messing around with customers and trying to explain it is time wasted, and we can easily spend more time trying to make it happen than it takes to redraw it, so it just saves the hassle. We don't do it that often, but I've gone both ways on it and seemed to like the path of least resistance much better

 

[Billct2]

I also will send a zoomed in close up of a section of the image to show them the issue.

 

[GVP]

The funny thing is, an awful lot of poor files seem to come from so-called "designers" and marketing departments - people who in theory should know better!

 

[signage]

Size to full size and print a small sample and ask them if that is what they want! It takes ess time than posting a thread and waiting for answers. Most customers don't understand until they see it! This small sample of print can be done on you desk top printer to save on time an materials.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

The funny thing is, an awful lot of poor files seem to come from so-called "designers" and marketing departments - people who in theory should know better!

I have found 90% of the time when this happens. They used a shop to design the logo. The designer sends them a .jpg of the file and makes them 1000 stickers. Now all they have is a designer they can't find and a useless .jpg that they are going to send to you and say a designer made it.

 

[PRS Bryan]

I have found 90% of the time when this happens. They used a shop to design the logo. The designer sends them a .jpg of the file and makes them 1000 stickers. Now all they have is a designer they can't find and a useless .jpg that they are going to send to you and say a designer made it.

I strongly suspect that the designer sent a crappy jpg intentionally. It is a way of making sure the client comes back to them. More than once I have sent out a crappy pdf as a proof only to never hear from the client again. Weeks later I see a crappy reproduction of the design that was likely blown up from the 6"x6" 72dpi image I had sent out.

In the end, the client is correct the artwork was done by a designer, a designer that knew better than to give the client a reproducible image.

 

[TXFB.INS]

I always zoom in to show them equivalent...

+1 at least to the intended size, we usually over size it to really show how bad the pixelation will be

I strongly suspect that the designer sent a crappy jpg intentionally. It is a way of making sure the client comes back to them. More than once I have sent out a crappy pdf as a proof only to never hear from the client again. Weeks later I see a crappy reproduction of the design that was likely blown up from the 6"x6" 72dpi image I had sent out.

In the end, the client is correct the artwork was done by a designer, a designer that knew better than to give the client a reproducible image.

+1 we as designers / fabricators use the files to make a living and when a customer wants the file to go elsewhere why should we make it easy for them to do so especially when we took the time to set the files up and create the look that appeased the customers taste.

This is not to be confused with holding the design hostage, as we are more than will to send them the desired design it just wouldn't be in the production format.

Moreover if they are willing to pay for the release rights and sign the contract then we supply a CD full of different formats, sizes and color codes to ensure that every place they go to will be getting the best file type for the intended product.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

I strongly suspect that the designer sent a crappy jpg intentionally. It is a way of making sure the client comes back to them. More than once I have sent out a crappy pdf as a proof only to never hear from the client again. Weeks later I see a crappy reproduction of the design that was likely blown up from the 6"x6" 72dpi image I had sent out.

In the end, the client is correct the artwork was done by a designer, a designer that knew better than to give the client a reproducible image.

Agreed I also do the same thing, if I feel little iffy if a client is going to buy or not.

 

[Mosh]

I also will send a zoomed in close up of a section of the image to show them the issue.

I do this on a daily basis. Seems to get the message across.

 

[Gino]

We just had the opposite happen. Client came in, gave us the file and it was full size at 300 dpi for the side of a box truck. It was so huge a file, that it took forever to just open it, let alone try to rip it.

Here's the good part, his designer made it the wrong size by a few inches. I told him, since you supplied it, let your designer re-do it.




Whenever possible, we just show the client on one of our computers, what it's gonna look like. We have a cheat-sheet explaining all the do's and don'ts, but honestly, that's expecting too much from someone who doesn't do this for a living to comprehend. Heck, look at all the so-called designers and graphic artists already here participating who can't do it.

We gently tell them how they can do it themselves, but quote them what it will cost to have us do it, but do it right. No hassle one-stop shop at your service. We charge out at $145.00 an hour for this stuff and we usually get no grief from the customer for doing this. They usually cut their loses at that point and just say, do it.

 

[FireSprint.com]

I really don't get why this irritates so many people in our industry.

That's a HUGE reason why we're paid to do what we do. If we don't provide a calm, welcoming level of an explanation why we work with good artwork (Good in good Out), what's the point in working with someone face to face anymore?

They can get a low level of service and a crappy print online anywhere. We are in business to make them look good! We need to be able to explain that, and if we can't, we should do something else.

It's not a "Problem", it's THE opportunity to do what we do.

It's silly to get on here and complain about how the internet printers and lowballers are killing the industry in one thread, and then get on another thread and complain about our customers not understanding what we are ultimately paid to understand.

 

[Marlene]

when I get these low res jpegs, I ask them to send me the file they can't open. 9 times out of 10 they have an .eps and since they can't open it they send the one they can see which is the crappy one.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

when I get these low res jpegs, I ask them to send me the file they can't open. 9 times out of 10 they have an .eps and since they can't open it they send the one they can see which is the crappy one.

Yep had that happen a couple times also.

But that was the only one that works.

Ok send me the ones that don't work and I will see what I can do.

 

[phototec]

I really don't get why this irritates so many people in our industry.

That's a HUGE reason why we're paid to do what we do. If we don't provide a calm, welcoming level of an explanation why we work with good artwork (Good in good Out), what's the point in working with someone face to face anymore?

They can get a low level of service and a crappy print online anywhere. We are in business to make them look good! We need to be able to explain that, and if we can't, we should do something else.

It's not a "Problem", it's THE opportunity to do what we do.

It's silly to get on here and complain about how the internet printers and lowballers are killing the industry in one thread, and then get on another thread and complain about our customers not understanding what we are ultimately paid to understand.

YEP!
This is the best reply to this post..........

Killing uneducated customers is NOT the answer! (IMHO)

 

[XtremeXccessories]

I'm sure this has been posted somewhere here before, but I didn't see it in this thread:

http://nojpeg.org/

 

[threeputt]

..but how can I educate Joe public that artwork stolen from the internet and low resolution images cannot be made to print on a wide format printer?

SC

Ha, ha I feel your pain. We have a print of Marilyn Monroe ("stolen from the net", ie: google images) that is meant to show precisely that!

On this print we have the original, about 2"x2" at 72 dpi. It looks pretty good. Right next to that print is an enlarged print of it and the client can clearly see what happens when ol' Marilyn's face gets enlarged about 10 times at 72 dpi.

 

[heyskull]

I really don't get why this irritates so many people in our industry..

I know why this irritates most sign guys and gals, is the fact that the low balling (and their are lots and lots of them) customers who thinking "I can save myself some money here by giving or creating my own artwork". Are just taking the p***!

If I use their artwork it makes my business look bad and a bad sign reflects more on my shop that a good one.

SC

 

[Billct2]

I only find it irritating when the customers acts like I'm the idiot because I can't just "make it work" because after all it "looks great on my computer".
The original question was how to educate the customer and most of the replies gave various ways to do just that, while venting a bit about the hassle.
And as many pointed out the client often has the correct files, they just don't want to take the time or effort to find them and send them.