Rack Card - Front & Back

So it’s no secret I do graphics.  It’s also no secret (on my part) that I do graphics for 3 other small print shops in the area.  I don’t feel like we are competitors, we are friends who help each other out and scratch each others’ backs when needed.  I got a call from my friend Deb, who I’ve known since I was 4 years old.  Her daughter and I went thru elementary school together, and we are all in the same Bunco group, too!  Anyway, she needed some help with client supplied artwork that was not print-ready.  It was slightly worse than I expected, it wasn’t just a matter of cloning in some art to make bleeds so they could produce it right.  I had to redesign the rack for several reasons: 1. the supplied file was 4 x 9 and the order was for 4.25 x 11; 2. the photo on the front was sloppily cropped from it’s background obviously with the magic wand tool in photoshop (big rookie move); 3. the backside was typed out in size 6pts font with serifs (a huge no-no when you go that small– I guarantee arial or verdana is easier to read at 6pts than times or goudy); 4. the “layered” photoshop file they supplied was NOT layered, in fact– each file had 3 layers, two copies of the background (the entire artwork flattened & rasterized) and the 3rd layer was a white box (wtf?); last but not least, and certainly the most important, 5. the whole thing was riddled with typos! (wtf to the 8th power!!!)

They were unable to get the person who supplied the files to work on them again (not sure why).  So, in my Mighty Mouse voice… “Here I come to saaaaaaave the daaaaaay!”  I really enjoy working on political stuff now & then, because not only do I learn something about a candidate, I get the feeling of pride that my design is going to be viewed by so many eyes in our area (even if there is no shameless plug for me at the bottom of the ad).  When that solicitor comes to my door with one of those, I can say “hey, I designed that”… and my friend Deb can say, “hey, I printed that”!  Thanks for sharing your work with me guys.

I often do jobs for fund-raisers, and KIXE is no stranger to fund-raising.  Our local public tv station (KIXE – channel 9) is having another sweepstakes this fall… This year’s offer is a little relief from the “so called” recession.  They are giving away a bunch of gift cards, for gas, groceries, etc.

Just like last year’s “Water Wise Landscape Makeover”, we did the graphics & printing for their flyers, entry forms & tickets.  Although we had a completely different concept for the graphics on this job– a pile of money in a life preserver floating in an ocean, they had a concept of a money tree in mind.  At first, Tony & I were like, “…a money tree??? really???”  We were trying to imagine how a money tree related to the words “recession” and “relief”… I admit, there is some relation there, but we just weren’t “into” the money tree idea.  So, we had to ask what was up with the money tree thing…  Apparently, a money tree is not real, and neither is the recession. HA!!!   I can say, I’ve used better client-supplied graphics, but we were asked to “please use the tree graphic the client picked out”.  I think we made the best of it, and they were very happy with the final products, which is all that matters.  If my client is happy, then I am happy.

KIXE Channel 9 is having another sweepstakes contest

Sample of the flyer with attached entry form for the sweepstakes