After reading Fabricio Teixeira’s “You don’t learn anything from design inconsistencies that go unnoticed” I started thinking about when I worked in a prep house stripping 4/c film for offset presses printing national fashion magazines and how the lessons I learned about quality control from yesterday in the offset printing world are just as important today in the digital world. Maybe more so due to the worldwide reach of the internet versus the limited reach of the locally printed press sheet.
The shop I worked in at the time had a dedicated department for the sole purpose of Quality Control. All jobs big and small did not leave the shop without their seal of approval.
Fabricio is right, nothing is more embarrassing then having a QC person, or worse yet, the client come out and show you your mistakes with your coworkers around you by virtue of you all shared the same open workspace. It wasn’t intentional humiliation having your faults laid out in front of your coworkers, but a public lesson to us all on what to look for in all the jobs coming through. It was embarrassing, but you did learn fast to check and recheck your work.
In that company from start to finish everybody’s job was Quality Control, from the president right down to the person packing the film and the proofs for shipping to the various print shops across America.
So embrace the embarrassment as a lesson that will make you a better designer and garner you a reputation as one who strives to give nothing less than his best.
Have you had an embarrassing moment like this, or what are your thoughts, please let me know in the comments
