What are your thoughts on it? Its just a rough at the moment. There are a lot of finishing touches that need to be done. The client is a general contractor who specializes in renovations. He wants some temporary magnetics for right now for his van.
Thanks.
Posted by jack wills (Member # 521) on :
Line at the bottom should not be script. A simple (all caps) type would work better.
Great layout..!
Posted by Dave Draper (Member # 102) on :
I can't read the bottom line either. Pretty neat layout all things considered. Do the colors still look this good in the final print?
Posted by Jeff Spradling (Member # 1615) on :
Glenn, I agree with the comments above, plus I think the outline/shadow on the Mincey & RENOVATIONS needs to be bolder as to make it come off the background better.
I think the bolder shadow on the background competes with the main copy too much.
I like the overall layout though.
Jeff
Posted by Joy Kjer (Member # 3026) on :
That's a really nice layout Glenn. The only thing that bothers me a little bit is the JW seems a little out of place. Maybe coordinate with Mincey a little more? This is nit picking though.
Posted by Tom Rose (Member # 606) on :
Overall a very nice layout.
I do not like the kind of " Olive " color on the sides of the oval. I do like the script at the bottom. I would change color of renovations to the same color as the name, so it reads as one message.
I really think your customer will love it !
Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :
I like it ... but brighten up the house a bit! Way too somber looking ... looks like the Munsters live there.
Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :
Sigh....to paraphase Linus VanPelt (Peanuts for those of you in Lizard Lick, NC)....
I love the sign business. Its the customers I can't stand.
The client rejected it. Said it didn't look at all professional and said people would think he just painted houses instead of renovating them.
Its a good thing I took a $250 deposit up front.
Posted by Don Hulsey (Member # 128) on :
Glenn, Make him one in Helvetica that says "Renovator Extrordinaire". That might be more to his liking.
Posted by Bob Sauls (Member # 11321) on :
Glenn, I suspect that what they meant was is did not look corporate. In reality it did not make me think of a company that does renovations in the broad sense. I know that you were going for a high end look.
Posted by Steve Luck (Member # 5292) on :
I hear you Glenn. It amazes me sometimes how a customer thinks they know everything about signs when you get rejected like this. This is a great design by the way. Tweaking things only makes it better. Did they give you any suggestions as to what they are looking for? I try and pick their brain before designing anything because this has happened to me.
I'd save that design for someone else in the future. Good work like this will sell to someone that appreciates it! Just put some more color in the house pictorial and it will sell!
Sign-cerely, Steve
Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :
Thanks folks. It's definitely going to the morgue file to hopefully be resurrected for someone else. I got an email from him a little while ago. Now he thinks he wants something more contemporary.
Sigh. I'll just add it to his bill.
Posted by Rusty Bradley (Member # 6938) on :
Well to start off with your client is just plain crazy...to say this doesn't look professional enough is just crazy.
Now my take on the design is this...as usual seems like I always like your designs...this one I like in the initial form you have presented...some of the suggestions might even improve on it...those you take or leave at your discretion...what I might add is my own personal preference...I personally do not find the decorative spikes flanking the oval attractive shapes...my personal preference would be to see more flowing shapes that were directed back to and around the oval rather than away from it.
Posted by Rusty Bradley (Member # 6938) on :
On second look the panel shapes are such that the flowing filigree I suggested would not be compatible...so forget what I said...sorry...but those shapes are still somewhat distrascting to me.
[ January 25, 2013, 12:34 AM: Message edited by: Rusty Bradley ]
Posted by Bill Wood (Member # 6543) on :
Try a medium green outline or red on MINCY. Also licensed contractor in eurostyle. JW in orange. I love the old house and the all over layout concept.
Posted by Kelly Thorson (Member # 2958) on :
I know it is a moot point,now, but I keep looking at that pictorial and thinking it should be done like a sign sketch, with a diagonal separation where it fades from dilapidated to full colour renovated.
Posted by Bill Wood (Member # 6543) on :
If this is to be "TEMPORARY",I wouldn't even waste my time on making it look great.If you can't please him tempoary,you aint gonna please him with the real thing.Leave this alone before he says..."You've just been licked".We here in the Carolina's know what this is all about!
Posted by Donald Miner (Member # 6472) on :
Before and after renditions of a smaller house might do the trick, just my 2 pennies, but this guy sounds to me like he will not be happy, no matter what you do. BTDT. Peace, Don
Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :
it looks more like a product label than a sign
Posted by Vance Galliher (Member # 581) on :
......that's a very good point rick !
Posted by Rusty Bradley (Member # 6938) on :
OK...now I'm confused...you guys sound like you know what you're talking about so somebody educate me on this...if you have a nice product label why wouldn't that also make a nice?
Posted by Bob Sauls (Member # 11321) on :
Rusty, I am leery of adding more but here goes... When the customer says it doesn't look professional I am not so sure they are talking about poor quality art they are purhaps saying that the design does not match there conception of what a renovator's (I say handyman) sign should look like. Glenn's art is very pleasing. I just expect that on a wine bottle. Not the side of a van or yard sign. I am guilty of trying to steer clients into art that I wish to do sometimes rather than what will best meet the need. My animal clinic sign was a good example of trying to do something that was "different" my client wanted a dog and a cat just like everyone else in that business. Sometimes society can throw curves into the design mix too. For example try designing a sign for a day care with one child's image on it. You will probably be asked to add one of the opposite gender and another of a different race too. Would a logical person ever assume that what you leave off of a sign could be making an offensive statement? Our customers are afraid of being too innovative at times....except when they choose their own fonts. that seems to be when they want to be different. hahahah.
[ January 28, 2013, 03:07 PM: Message edited by: Bob Sauls ]
Posted by Ricardo Davila (Member # 3854) on :
Glenn,
My question, to you,is: If the customer asked you for temporary magnetic signs ( I am thinking, two magnetic signs ? ), for right now, why do you spend so much time in creating such a beautiful and elaborated design?.....It appears, to me, that your design is going to be worth a lot more than what you will be able to get for two TEMPORARY magnetic signs.....Unless, of course, your job order is for a much higher number of magnetic signs, which would, probably, justify spending all this time in their design......I am curious.... Is you customer going to order two or a lot more temporary magnetic signs ?.......Let's say, for a large fleet of vehicles?....Anyway,regardless of the number of magnetic signs ordered, by your customer, he already specified that he wanted "temporary" magnetic signs.......Have you stopped to think that you are telling this customer that this is what a temporary sign looks like, when you design it?......Doesn't it scare you to think about what you would have to come up with, next time, whenever he decides that he wants a design for a permanent and long lasting sign?.....Remember, you already showed him what your idea of a temporary sign is......Believe me, he is going to use this design as the yardstick to measure any future sign work....wherever he goes to order future signs for his business......In other words, Glenn, you may end up scarring this customer, for the rest of his life, with your beautiful design.
Personally, I believe that a design for a temporary sign should be simple, well edited and not so elaborated......We should be able to educate our customers by showing them the difference between a temporary sign and a long lasting or permanent sign.
[ January 28, 2013, 07:32 PM: Message edited by: Ricardo Davila ]
Posted by Bob Sauls (Member # 11321) on :
Great point, Ricardo. I am sure that Glenn has his reasons for doing what he has done. We probably lack many of the facts.
Posted by Ricardo Davila (Member # 3854) on :
Bob,
The man asked for our thoughts.....I just gave him mine....I am sure that he, probably, has a reason for this......What's your point?
[ January 28, 2013, 06:32 PM: Message edited by: Ricardo Davila ]
Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :
Ricardo, to me its more than just a pair of magnetic signs. It about upselling.
Not only did I sell him a pair of mags for $180, I was able to sell him a logo design for another $500. This in turn opens the door for me to sell him business cards, brochures, t-shirts/workshirts, caps and a website. Perhaps not today, but later down the road.
*****
An update....
The client came by the office yesterday to look at two other designs I had worked up based on some earlier comments he had made. He was very nice about everything. When I asked him what it was about the first design that was "unprofessional", he apologized. He was having a bad day. I left it at that.
The design he finally approved looks more like something you'd find online and totally unoriginal. I've had it sitting in my morgue file for quite some time and figured I'd throw it out there to see how he would respond.
Then I showed him how it would look as a mag on his van and then I showed him what it would look like as a fully lettered van.
He was a happy man.
Now we're going from a pair of mags at $180 to a fully lettered van for $700.
Posted by Ricardo Davila (Member # 3854) on :
Glenn,
There you go....My congratulations to you for a great sale !.....Way to go.
In the end, it seems that the amount of the deposit, the chance you took with the original design, when visualizing that it could bring a larger potential sale, and, of course, coming up with that clean, beautiful, simple, well edited and not so elaborated second design, paid off and closed the deal, for you.
I really like that second design.....Very cool !
Glenn, it seems that it was the angry old timer in me thinking, when I gave you my thoughts on your design for a "temporary" magnetic sign....My apologies, if I offended you in any way.
However, I have to say, that,in my days, you would have never caught a sign designer taking the chance of throwing it all out there, like you did, for a simple, temporary, magnetic sign....thinking that it could bring more business.......Regardless of the amount of the deposit received.
I guess, since the advent of the computer, that things have, drastically, changed the way we think, when we design. It sadly seems that it all boils down to the fact that WE CAN click and drag anything into our designs, now that we can count on all the bells and whistles that the computer brings to the table of design......Thus, making some of us lose the grasp on the meaning of a temporary sign.
Anyway, Glenn, I wish you the best. Good luck and lots of profit !
[ January 31, 2013, 02:35 AM: Message edited by: Ricardo Davila ]
Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :
No need to apologize. I wasn't offended in the least bit.
For what its worth, I'm taking a lot of what Butch Anton and Dan Antonelli have been preaching to heart and am putting into practice. I've always believed that we are our own worst enemy in our struggle to succeed.
Posted by Ricardo Davila (Member # 3854) on :
Glenn,
Thank you........You are a class act !
Posted by Rusty Bradley (Member # 6938) on :
Ricardo...are you misbehavin again. Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :
LOL! I wouldn't go that far, Ricardo. Raymond Chapman is class. I'm just a wannabe.
Posted by Ricardo Davila (Member # 3854) on :
Rusty,
No......just trying to help.
Posted by Ricardo Davila (Member # 3854) on :
Glenn,
Raymond who?
Posted by Bobbie Rochow (Member # 3341) on :
Glenn, everything you do is so very good! I like to sell them a nice design from the get-go, because if they only want a temporary sign for now & they like it that much, they always come back for the permanent ones.
![[I Don t Know]](graemlins/dunno.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)