posted on Monday, Sept. 24, 2007 @ 23:25
my family sent me flowers for my birthday. any normal person would see this:
/flowers.jpg)
and then there's what i see:
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when you make enough signs, for every color you see you have to wonder, "what avery color is closest?"
UT has concocted this horrible idea of having everything on campus match, right down to the parking signs. we have to have thousands of signs around the place, and they expect us (parking) to foot the bill to replace them since it's our area of expertise.
campus planning has picked three awful colors for these signs. one's orange (go figure), one's a navy blue (i dislike most blues), and this hideous green that looks like a baby puked up peas. it's just disgusting, and everyone i've spoken to about this agrees. avery doesn't even make a color near this. i know they're limited, but there's usually at least something in the neighborhood.
i had a meeting with dennis and a graphics designer from CP, wherein i heard the most ridiculous idea for these signs. they want to take a reflective metal sign and adhere a 12"x18" piece of vinyl with letter cut out to show the sign beneath.
1. it will never go on smoothly without air bubbles or creases.
2. it will never go on straight.
3. the orange layer will have to be stuck on top of the blue layer.
4. if a sign ever needs changing, the entire sheet of vinyl would be trashed.
5. this will take literally years to do.
6. the life span of this vinyl is only 7 years!
7. directional arrows weren't even included in the design.
i don't know about you, but when i make 1000 signs, i want them to last forever. through some sort of miracle, my distributor in town (regal plastics) actually carries the shade of orange and blue (terra cotta and, simply, dark blue). i've already got at least 50 yards of terra cotta, so i just bought one yard of blue for $6. that'll make two sample signs.
the designer, frauke, actually gave me a beautifully measured sketch, down to the letter height and spacing. only a few areas weren't measured, which were easily extrapolated. i must have worked creating my first try for two hours, and it's amazingly close. i've been using my endless supply of white vinyl that i never use to test it. i've already cut two that are ever so close. hopefully this third one i cut just before leaving work will be even better.
i tried touching upon how stupid of an idea this whole thing was. i mean, why are we not painting the signs blue and putting on reflective white vinyl (which avery makes)? i didn't press the point because i wanted to accept this challenge. i've discovered having a concept on paper materialize onto a sign fills me with pride. it's the whole creation process. it's truly fulfilling.
christ, and this fucking truck purchase that tortured me for a month. finally climbing into the bed of that 5.8L V8 chevy silverado and rubbing my toes against the fresh textured bed liner...it was heaven. it did smell a touch like dead skunk, having traveled the highways all the way from caldwell, but that wasn't anything a quick hand wash couldn't cure.
i dunno, dealing with something that's a complete pain in my ass gives me a lot of energy. my limited involvement in graphic design is super fun, too.
on a mostly unrelated note, here's a picture of on of my bosses.
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some chick from HR commented on how our entire department really values a sense of humor. in reality, i think most of us are just fucking crazy.