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I've been working in the graphic design field for many years, now - in fact, more than I care to think about - and I can tell you Crissy doll few things are more upsetting than seeing a mistake that makes it into print. Probably the only thing more upsetting Batman model kit when it continues to be printed that way.

I was listening to Mike & Mike on ESPN radio recently while driving my son to school. They were talking about the calendar put out by the Detroit Lions football team. Someone had seen a copy hanging in a place of business and noted that wide-receiver Roy Williams was on the Barbie This is noteworthy because Williams was traded to the Dallas Cowboys in early-to-mid-October. The Mikes were making fun of the Lions' incompetence as an organization for allowing this to happen.

As someone who has worked with printers and in the production of promotional pieces I'm somewhat less surprised. That calendar was probably being worked on during the summer and needed to go to print in September to make it into the gift shops in time for Christmas and the New Year. It's almost inevitable that at least some copies of the calendar made it out into the world.

However, I am amazed as I look around on the web that the Lion's apparently never bothered to go to a second printing with a different cover. The Roy Williams calendar is the only one I see for sale anywhere. I would think that most organizations would have trashed their remaining calendars back in late October/November and W S Kimball Champions with another player on the cover. However, the Lions were 0-16 this year and the owner, Ford Motors, has their own problems, apparently, so ........

I recall a similar situation a number of years ago where Coca-Cola, through the local Philadelphia bottling company, had a promotion for the Franklin Science Institute on the labels of their two-liter bottles. The wraparound labels had a band around the top that said "Franklin Scienc Institute" (sic) I remember thinking at the time that I whomever designed that label must cringe whenever he saw it. I was more amazed, though, when I continued to see that exact same label for about two years. Ouch!

It does help to put the errors we designers make that actually get printed into perspective. Most of the time the mistakes are things that nobody will notice but us. Sometimes they are worse, like the time years-ago when I was responsible for the Thor on two boxes being accidently swapped. I felt absolute horrible about this, but ultimately, it was the responsibility of the client because the mistake was in the proofs and the client was responsible for reading and approving them. I believe the company I worked for at the time helped offset some of the reprint costs.

The lesson here is: "Designer Protect Thyself."

When I say that, I don't mean, "Don't take any responsibility, blame everybody else," what I mean is, don't forget to involve the client in the process. You can't take on all the responsibility. Proof, proof and proof again, be as careful as you can be, but make it clear, in writing - even if it's only in an email - that the client has the ultimate sign-off responsibility. Don't be lazy and let the client talk you into being the last person to review the file.

In the era of the paperless-workflow, where PDF files are routinely emailed out to clients for review, things have gotten easier. It used to be (back in the day ;-] ) that you had to print out a proof (or - worse still - pay to have a print made) to send a client by snail mail, or Fedex or by courier. Sometimes I would even take time out of my day to hand-deliver the print to the client for their review. Then, if a mistake was found, or the client needed to make a change, the whole thing had to happen again, adding hours, or days to the time needed to get something to print.

These days, the approval process is much easier, but it's no less important. As a graphic designer your job, of course, is to make the client look good. At the same time, however, it's important to protect yourself.

Off course, I'm talking mostly about print. Mistakes on the web aren't (or shouldn't be) a really big deal since there are no printing costs involved. Of course, fixing mistakes in a complex Flash presentation is no picnic either. That's a whole other article, though.

Pete Glaze is the creator and author of the blog href="elementarystudio.com/theelementaryblog">elementarystudio.com/theelementaryblog, a blog written about graphic arts, graphic design and other creative outlets

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