When we think of bloopers, we think of the funny scenes at the end of our favorite TV shows or the clips they show us at the end of movies. Those soundbites are hilarious! And we love watching some of our favorite actors mess up. But there’s nothing funny about bloopers when it happens in print. In fact, these bloopers can be downright embarrassing for you, your company, and the brand.
At Davant, we’re all too familiar with printing bloopers. While many of our clients come to us after a botched in-house attempt to fix a blooper or design fail, some clients have no idea that we’re saving them from a blooper that is rather noticeable. Here are some of our favorite examples of bloopers and how using Davant can safeguard you from an embarrassing printing mistake.
Examples of Printing Bloopers
Poor Word Choice
Marketing is all about your word choice. Companies are always looking for quick, witty phrases to print and use, especially on t-shirts and flyers – however, word choice matters. If your witty and funny phrase is an inside company joke or incorporates an innuendo of some kind, it may need some rethinking.
Botched Photoshop
We see this all the time! Photoshop fails are extremely common, especially in the advertising world. One of the most famous examples of a photoshop fail was the Vanity Fair 24th annual Hollywood issue that gave Oprah Winfrey three hands and Reese Witherspoon three legs on the cover. People talked about it for months. Still, it could have easily been avoided and saved so much embarrassment for everyone.
Watermarked Stock Photos
Stock photos are easy to come by, and there are plenty of sites that allow free usage of their photos. However, some websites charge for each stock photo, and if you download without paying, you risk watermarks landing on your printed materials. Sometimes, these watermarks are so faint that you can hardly see them, but that doesn’t mean they won’t show up in print. These printing bloopers happen regularly, and when allowed to go to print, companies risk looking cheap or even violating copyright for images they didn’t pay for.
Screen Reflection
Screen reflection doesn’t always show up in photos, but it can give your competitors a big chuckle when it does. Whether you’re using an in-house photographer or having your pictures professionally taken, make sure that a strange photographic angle doesn’t land you with a screen reflection from sunglasses, a dark computer screen, or even a phone. While it’s entertaining to find out who’s around just by looking at the reflection, it may not be exactly the image you were hoping would go to print.
How Printing Bloopers Happen & How to Avoid Them
Printing bloopers happen all the time, so don’t feel bad if you’ve experienced one or two. Sometimes, it can be just a matter of simple oversight, while other times it can be because the material was rushed. With technology changing rapidly in digital, editing software, and photography, you could likely run into a scenario where the colors approved through email are not the colors that get printed. These scenarios can be few and far between, but they do still happen.
So, in order to avoid these mistakes, make sure you get a sample of your material printed before a bulk order is produced, have the text proofed multiple times by multiple people, and always pay for any images you choose. If you photoshop anything in or out, make sure a fresh pair of eyes proof the final image before printing. This will help you and your business avoid any unnecessary printing bloopers.
Send Your Files to Davant
At Davant, we have an entire team dedicated to ensuring that your marketing and print materials are of the highest quality and blooper-free. By utilizing the most up-to-date software, our graphics design team can transform any of your ideas and content into a stunning brochure, t-shirt, banner, and more. Contact us today at (317) 849-6565 to get started.
Photo Credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/1-1-3-text-on-black-chalkboard-374918/
