It may have just been the pressure and overtime hours these past weeks. At least that's what I'm going to blame it on.
I put together three major proposals with concept drawings. On each one I made at least one spelling mistake... sometimes more. On the biggest one ( with three expensive digital prints) I didn't notice I had inadvertantly neglected to reverse some of lettering after I had flipped the image. I noticed it right after I had sent the copies (with no time to spare) via courior to the client many thousands of miles away. It was too late to make the changes then.
On two other draft proposals for different clients I also made mistakes. One spelling the street name wrong on the concept art. The other I added an 's' to their name on every sign in the building rendering.
Its all easily fixable as it was all just concept art thankfully and not a finished sign. But I certainly didn't make myself look too intelligent on the proposals...
-grampa dan
[ December 19, 2005, 12:20 AM: Message edited by: Dan Sawatzky ]
Posted by Doug Allan (Member # 2247) on :
I arranged to work with an old employer this coming year on any jobs requiring a sign contractor license. Actually I already considered him first in previous years as well, but since my business is growing & he chooses to keep his business small, I asked him about my using his contractor license in my yellow page ads.
I did the research & learned that he can be the RME (responsible managing employee) on any jobs where my company runs the job under his license.
Anyway, the first of 3 Maui phone books came out the other day & the ad in this one was built, with changes, off the first ad I designed this year.
I noticed that the contractor license number had 2 extra digits tacked on the end ...now I remember designing the small "Since '78" bug to be opposite the equally small contractor lic. #. To match the size I added a 78 to cut & paste for the year... but I must have copied instead of cut ..and since it's not my number, I wasn't familiar enough to catch it when proof reading.
I wasn't feeling too intelligent after that either.
Posted by Carl Wood (Member # 1223) on :
Hey I wond the spellin B in the 3rd gerade - -
Posted by Ray Rheaume (Member # 3794) on :
Your not alone, Dan.
Back in the days when I was printing tshirts, we had a few classics.
Northeastern Anniversity...500 shirts lost Scott Bailey Road Roace...200 shirts lost Northend Equiptment...144 shirts lost
What kills me is that 10 years later, I did the "equiptment" typo again on the hood of a race car. When the last race was finished and the driver was taking a bow for winning the championship, a woman in the crowd pointed it out to us.
Rapid
Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :
Now I'm not feeling so bad.
I had 400 large cadaver bags to print. Half through the job, someone pointed out that I had misspelled a word.
Talk about feeling sick to your stomach.
Its even worse when you are screening some t-shirts for your own company as give-aways and just as you finish the last shirt, someone points out a misspelled word. Grrrrrrrrrr........
Posted by Jill Marie Welsh (Member # 1912) on :
So far, the only sign I spelled wrong was a small freebie add-on at the church...GMYNASIUM ...luckily in vinyl. I once painted a phone number wrong but caught it before the client did. I am a better speller than a business person. Thanks to Nuns with rulers. Love....Jill
Posted by Mark M. Kottwitz (Member # 1764) on :
Thats why I have a sign in the shop that reads "We don't make no misteakes." It's right beside my "Caution: Dry Paint" sign.
Posted by John Deaton (Member # 925) on :
I once lettered a sign ( by hand ) and spelled chapter wrong. Spelled it chaper. The customer didnt spot it for over two years and neither did I. Never did go change it. Sure glad they finally tore the building down. Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
I just had a lady come look at her layout in my computer where I spelled 'Chesterfield" with the 'e' before the 'i' so I had it wrongly written, very beautifully tho' . . .'Chesterfeild' . . .
I'm SO glad she caught it because I likely would've never noticed, and later, I would'a hit 'plot', cut the mask, and painted it wrong!!
AND . . . it's being painted on a 10'x 25ft peice of green satin she sewed together and it would have been entirely UN-fixable!
Dan, I think these little blunders come from havin' too many things on our mind . . . either that, or it's alzheimers . . .
or is that alzhiemers??
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
The only sign I ever mispeled a werd on was a campain sign.... mispeled Dick Cheneys' name; "Chenney". Since I hav OCD, I duble and triple-check evritheng I do......
The only sign I ever misspelled a word on was a campaign sign.... I misspelled Dick Cheney's name; "Chenney". Since I have OCD, I double and triple-check everything I do.
The only sign I ever....
Posted by Jerry Hudson (Member # 1995) on :
Try this one...
About 7 years ago I painted the name on a vessel in the Port of Long Beach. My friend worked for a ship services company and they provided a boom lift on a barge to get the job done. Being an uneven surface, I decided to lay it out with a scale sketch in lieu of a pattern. The ship was scheduled to leave at 5:00 pm that afternoon and needless to say, time was tight. Much to my chagrin, when finished, I had a nagging feeling that I left a letter out on the port side where I started. Being that The ship sailed immediately on completion of the job, I wasn't able to check it out, so it left port with the name mis-spelled on the port bow. The ship's mame was Hansa Stralsund, I forgot the "t". By the way, they fixed it at another port. I never got paid for that job.
Posted by Doug Allan (Member # 2247) on :
quote:Originally posted by Sheila Ferrell: I spelled 'Chesterfield" with the 'e' before the 'i' . . . it's being painted on a 10'x 25ft peice of green satin
Posted by jake snow (Member # 5889) on :
When I worked in the Dollywood sign shop I used to have to do story boards (beside all kinds of other goodies). These are line after line of around 1" one stroke lettering. Always laid them out with charcoal. Nuff said.
Luckily for me the lovely lady running the shop learned that I generally get in a hurry (and couln't spell) when doing these kind of signs and would come behind me (when she had time) and proof me as I was lettering. This could have been her full time job! Now that I'm out here by myself again I don't have her a my luxury. Miss that girl . She still gets to give me crap on occasion when I do some work for Dollywierd. She even sent be a e-mail when I first got my web sight up and running with all the spelling and grammar mistakes I made on that! (Still ain't got em fixed)
Miss ya Karen O.
Edit to say: we all should have a Karen O. standing over our shoulder...and yes I used spell check before I posted this Posted by Kathy Joiner (Member # 1814) on :
I spelled my own name wrong on bus. cards. Ask Sheila, she found it!
Posted by Karen O'Connell (Member # 2593) on :
Dear Dan, you misspelled courier. (Just picking)
Jake - you know I love you and miss your sorry behind around here. No one can take your place. I tried to get Jake to use a dictionary, but he couldn't spell the word to find it in there, so it was a futile effort. It was easier and less stressful to stand behind him and shout out changes as he lettered.
By the way, you and Morgan owe me a couple of drinks! I'll be over soon. Love ya, k
Posted by jake snow (Member # 5889) on :
You got em K ... just say the word!
Posted by David Harding (Member # 108) on :
A fellow signman told me years ago that if a person couldn't spell any word two or three different ways, he had to be awfully ignorant.
That means, the least ignorant person on this board is...
OP!
I'm sure he'd agree. He might even say something like: "BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND"
Posted by Frank Magoo (Member # 3950) on :
My mis-spelling days came early; as a member of a journalistic family, one of many jobs I was allowed at newspaper office was cub reporter when doing any cub/boy scout activities...my very first report told of a weekend campout and mentioned that Eddie Smith was the camp burglar; in the retraction a week later, it listed him as the camp bungler, finally the following week, I got it right and Eddie got his due as camp bugler...been slingn' mis-spelled words out since, absolute worst was 18'x48' wall, black over yellow, left out an "A" in Yamaha......DUH
Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :
If I misspell something it's... well.... the only way that's gonna happen is if it's intentional because I check and re-check 10 times to make sure it's perfect. I also proofread everything that customers bring in.
It's probably the main reason why even short posts like this one take me 10 minutes.
Posted by Jerry Starpoli (Member # 1559) on :
I have made my share over the years but... I nominate OP. Joe the King where are you?
Posted by Donna in BC (Member # 130) on :
One of my customers ran their vehicle around for a few months before they realized I had one too many numbers on their phone number! Wonder how many calls got through in that timeframe. Posted by Frank Magoo (Member # 3950) on :
Allow me one more; one of my favorite 18whlr. customers, brings me a new truck every two years from Nebraska to letter/stripe, been doing this for years, always open ticket, and creative license...this one time aligned timing wise, w/pinstripers meet up north, a heavy event...as it turned out, I finished his truck and left for event in same hour, developing film of truck in quiky-joint after arriving in city of meet...not looking close at pics, I put them in portfolio to show to others, as many meets do...it was during this, someone noticed I had left a "g" out of fire extinguisher inside lettering, very embarressing.....So, when I got home, I lettered that "g" on a piece of vinyl close to color of his truck and sent it w/letter to him; letter stated that a lady from Kingman, Az, had found this letter on roadway and returned it, if he expected me to do further lettering for him, he had ought to take better care of what I'd already done for him, and here was the missing "g", in case he wanted to correct error......heheh....I still letter/stripe his rigs, but!!! I'm now relegated to leave off a letter somewhere in copy, sorta tradition now............
Posted by Jon Butterworth (Member # 227) on :
I is a nowen FACT: Signwriters are natoriously bad spellers!
My "biggest" mistake was painting "TOOWOOMBA" in eight foot high letters above the top of some aircraft hanger doors. Scaled it on and came up 8ft short of where it was suposed to fit? Could hardly see the chalk marks from the ground so it wasn't until I was half way thru painting I realised I was one "O" short.
Big work up high is hard to check ... you can't step back from your work!
Friend of mine ended up with "ANDERDERSON'S CARPETS" in 4ft letters along a wall once. Took him a while to correct that one.
Another time a customer phoned to say I'd made an error on his window "Splash". Don't bother fixing it tho .... got all these people coming into the shop to tell me about it!
But you can always rely on the "helpful" public. "hey mate ... yer spelt it wrong! Hahahahaha" Get this all the time don't you? Persistant dude at the bottom of the ladder when I was lettering a new shop awning one day finally said "You do have that wrong ... it's my wife's name!" Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
I had an antique shop to correct some years ago- the previous signie spelled it "antigues", with a g instead of a q. The owner got years of free publicity over the radio etc from people who noticed it & phoned in on 'spot the spelling mistake error' days.
I had a spooky error a few years ago- I put a totally wrong fax number 14 ft up on the side of a building, on corrogated iron. I have no idea how the wrong number appeared. I was sure it was what I'd been told to do. It wasn't noticed for a week, then I went back to paint it out & fix it. One week after that, they told me that Telstra (the phone company) contacted them & mentioned that the number they'd been given was in error, and the current fax number was going to be changed to- guess- the wrong one I'd originally put up there!
Somewhere I have photos of a few signs seen in travels- in Cairns, on a door "No Addmittance" also "Enterance", and in South Australia, "Lake Bonnney". There have not been corrected!
My worst error was leaving out a letter on a sign painted in reverse inside perspex (acrylic) for a light box. The only easy fix was to do it in white vinyl & stick the repair on the outside. It worked! At night when it was turned on & looked silly, no one was around to read it. In the day it seemed fine.
Posted by Doug Allan (Member # 2247) on :
The first time I screen printed a bunch of second surface signs, & cut the copy in rubylith, weeded, & burnt screens... then set-up the jobs 7 printed them... let dry & painted background color. Then when all that was done, I finally peeled the protective sheeting off the front of the plexi & sure enough... one of the reverse cut films got flipped at the screen burning stage... seemed so normal to see it right reading I never took notice through so many steps. That was back when I worked for Island Sign, so I actually got paid for that one (still got it around here somewhere too)
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
. . .lol Doug . . . see I can't help but think SOMEWHERE along the line somebody else spelled that word wrong and it's accidently gone down in dictionary history as 'pIece' . . . which for the life of me looks like 'PIE-ce' and would rhyme with ICE. 'They' then further confused the issue by saying it is a 'rule: "i before e except after c" which is FINE . . .
BUT THEN they made exceptions to THAT alleged 'rule' which in turn means absolutely no one, really mostly me, can never remember which way it is in all applications . . . and really makes it NOT a 'rule' at all.
Therefore, I write it the way it's LOOKS right and the way I would'a spelled it eons ago before Webster (not to discredit the gentleman's character or hard work, but the only reasonable excuse for the craziness of the various spellings is...)his delirium and obsession drove him to the bottle, thus he wrote such words both ways (among other strangely spelled words where he tried to respect geographic origin) in the dictionary (ei & ie) and then when he noticed it, he goes, "Ok, so THOSE coupla' words will be the 'exceptions'....
So then was created the adage: 'Exception to the rule' which in turn caused the beginning of the breakdown of proper society many, many moons ago and the creation of such moving and stirring songs as: "~~WE DON'T NEED NO ED-U-CATION~~~ ~~~HEY~~~teachers!!! ~~~leave those kids alone~~~"
Posted by Jon Butterworth (Member # 227) on :
What makes it very confusing nowdays is the diversity of cultures spelling the "English" language in different ways.
With the onset of the internet this has become even more so. After zillions of hours here, I find I have to stop and think quite often if I'm using the "local" language.
Slang and abbreviations are an accepted way of communication today. SMS Messages and Chat rooms have taken this to the extreme.
Fortunately the human brain is able to recognise words spelt as they sound, or even look like, especially when used in context with the subject.
But where will this end? For example we (Britain & what was the old British Empire) spell the rubber ring that goes on a vehicle wheel "TYRE". Americans spell it "as it sounds" ... "TIRE". But it really sounds like it should be spelt "TIER". But the dictionary says "Tire" means to become weary and "Tier" is a row or level. Should it therefore really be spelt "TYER"?
Confusing?
Posted by Bobbie Rochow (Member # 3341) on :
I had a sign in my shop that said, "50% deposit, Remainder due Apon Completion of Job" My awful sister-in-law came in & laughed her butt off at me.
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
LOL Jon . . . consider the sentence as follows could be a viable sentence . . .(assuming you would strip a bear). . .and the only thing easy to understand is that the 'english' language is impossible to understand . . .
"I can hardly bear to bare the bear"
Here's a feasible paragraph using your words: tear, tear, tire, tyre, teir:
I had to use my car-jack due to a tear in my tire (caused by me tearing thru the woods) which caused a tear in my eye and made me tire easily being a tyro at tire changing, and the new tire price was on a 3-tier type scale . . .
Incidently, 'tyre' aside from being a rubber wheel for the Brits, is also an often mentioned city in the bible. A woman in the bible might have her head 'tyred' meaning she had an elaborate hairdo.
If you like to read books, you have probably read many. Were any of them red? Have you read any books about reeds? Well, were they about grasses, or horns??
This is a never ending source of amusement for me just wondering who started this mess of fun . . .
No wunder lysdexia is the munber one cuase of mispelt werds . . .
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
...now I remember designing the small "Since '78" bug to be opposite the equally small contractor lic. #. To match the size I added a 78 to cut & paste for the year... but I must have copied instead of cut ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
..and since it's not my number, I wasn't familiar enough to catch it when proof reading. ![[I Don t Know]](graemlins/dunno.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
. . .'Chesterfeild' . . . ![[Embarrassed]](redface.gif)
![[Applause]](graemlins/applause.gif)
![[Bash]](graemlins/bash.gif)
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
. She still gets to give me crap on occasion when I do some work for Dollywierd. She even sent be a e-mail when I first got my web sight up and running with all the spelling and grammar mistakes I made on that! (Still ain't got em fixed)![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
. . .lol Doug . . . see I can't help but think SOMEWHERE along the line somebody else spelled that word wrong and it's accidently gone down in dictionary history as 'pIece' . . . which for the life of me looks like 'PIE-ce' and would rhyme with ICE.