full identity systems
Out of context: Reply #7
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- gramme0
^ Interesting to hear Exp. Jetset's frustration put into writing, and through a non-enforceable style guide no less. I would've thought a simple letter to the culprits would be enough, but I understand where they're coming from.
I felt that way when I saw the graphic manual for Formica after it went live. I'd spent over 1.5 years working intermittently on the project (sometimes feverishly for several days straight, at all hours of the day and night). We specifically designed the manual in a horizontal format that would be screen-friendly. It started out as a two-page overview, and turned into a 70-some odd page book. Not a major problem, but as I recall we ended up moving through about 24 versions before it was declared finished, or dead depending on one's perspective.
Working under the direction of my boss, I designed over 20 product logotypes. Everything else too: stationery, presentation templates (I've since sworn off PowerPoint), email templates, building signage and truck livery; t-shirts, mugs, etc. The product logotypes had to be re-done at least three times due to disagreements about nomenclature, largely affected by a brand-new legal department half-way through the project.
The horrible decision was made to house the piece in one of those proprietary page-turning e-zine sites I've come to loathe. Some of you know what I'm talking about. Cumbersome, slow to load, takes forever to download and print even a single page. Text and images in those sites renders terribly (not just in the specific brand we used). Also, before leaving my former job, I had specifically asked the site developers to NOT use the spreads option which was their default viewing scenario. Looking at the style guide in spreads made it totally illegible. It would've been only a marginal catastrophe if they'd built the site in single pages as I intended, but I think after I left some things fell through the cracks, and my instructions were forgotten or ignored. I only found out all this after stumbling across the style guide site a few months ago.
So: we spent all that time writing, designing, rewriting, redesigning, navigating bureaucratic landmines, weathering an international buyout, and somehow managed to finish the project—but now you can't even read the damned thing. All that back and forth, all that building and rebuilding for n o t h i n g .
I didn't realize I was still so pissed about that project.
- so it wasn't printed ten million times? That's very good for the environment.Pupsipu
- It was never supposed to be printed. It was merely supposed to be produced correctly.gramme
- i.e., online.gramme
- i feel much less stressed about everything after reading your post. thank you.mydo
- agency life.. makes you slowly cynical about life.janne76
- thsnks for share...many of us in the same way–!miesvan