Oh the tangled web (of lines) we weave!!

[custom sign center]

Seriously,

Are there any "Designers" out there that design so their designs can actually be produced?

I have received 3 deigns like this in the last 2 days! Soooo FRUSTRATING!

My customer actually wants me to plot this! He can't understand why I need to modify the design so I can do that...."What do you mean you have to modify it??? I just paid over $600.00 having that designed!"

He should have looked at it in wire frame first before he paid.

 

[2B]

he paid $600 for THAT!?

since he wants it plotted, why not select all and weld it. that will removal all the cut lines and only leave the outside contour

 

[petepaz]

aside from the fact that they paid $600 for a sketch my 8yr old granddaughter could have made.... the customers never understand what goes in to reproducing logos/designs and they never take in to consideration where this will be used or how many different ways they will be printing it. then they complain when you have to make adjustments to make it work. i blame the designers just as much. they should be asking the customer what they are planing to do with there design and take that in to consideration while creating for them. maybe i can just say that because of working on the end of the business that prints(or cuts or installs) but when i started doing this 24years ago when ever we designed something for a customer we did it so it could be used on a letterhead or silk screened on a nameplate or magnetic sign. i put this up there with the designer that sends you an In-Design file and you can't open it in illustrator or the fonts default because they didn't create outlines with the text and then they blame you because it doesn't work or you have to make changes.

 

[ColoPrinthead]

Nobody teaches design with/for production anymore, just software operation.

 

[Biker Scout]

Unless a "designer" has specific hands on experience with plotters, screen printing or other output devices, they don't have a clue. Also, I should point out that 99% of all schools that supposedly teach design and even offer it as a college degree now (something I don't agree with, but that's for another discussion) they aren't taught how to output to devices, and even aren't made aware of all the ways art can translate to tangible items. Some will have a semester in High School about t-shirt printing, but that's a pretty rare elective these days.

Just get used to seeing strokes, fills and blends.

Honestly, it would be better in this particular case to just rasterize this file at 600 dpi black and white, then auto-trace. Call it a day. And say, well hey, this is exactly the artwork you paid for and gave me. See...

 

[graphicwarning]

We used to get those all the time, and sometimes I'd call the designer directly and just to ask if they had a better/cleaner file that we could use for output. It was often a rhetorical question of course, but sometimes they actually did have better versions and sales simply hadn't gotten their hands on the good one. However, more often then not, the typical response I'd get was "Well it looks great on the business cards and brochures we had printed, and on the website, so I don't know why it won't work for the signs you are doing. Can you use the one from our website instead??"

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Nobody teaches design with/for production anymore, just software operation.

With everything being more web based (or even just plain digital) design, I think this is pretty much the problem. I deal with this almost on a constant basis when it's a file supplied to me. Most designers don't take into account production limitations and this is even if I get a good clean vector file.

 

[custom sign center]

I am the Lone Ranger at my sign shop and thank God, I'm very busy, so taking the time to modify these designs that come through like this really takes a bite out of being productive. I'd love to hire a designer but ..... need I say more?
Well, back to the drawing board...literally.

 

[shoresigns]

I don't understand why this artwork is difficult to plot. Just expand the strokes, merge/weld, etc. and send to the plotter. This is something you deal with every day and should take no more than a minute or two to set up.

 

[spmracing]

Open it in illustrator and auto trace.. then copy and paste into flexi and auto trace it.