posted
Way back BC {before computers), a customer would call and expect me to jump. You know, ‘stop what you’re doing and come over here and take care of our sign needs’. I would respond sometimes with a ‘where and how high’ and get right on it. Especially if it’s one of your best customers.
One day I got a call from one of my boat dealers. They needed a quick lettering job on the transom of a boat they were delivering that evening. When I got there, Wayne, the boat salesman was gone to lunch. When I asked for the name of the boat another salesman came out of Wayne’s office and said the name was “Sea Envelope”.
I whipped out my sign kit and proceeded to ‘jump’ right on it and letter the name. Two color name and hailing port, took me about an hour and a half to complete.
As I was cleaning my brushes from the back of my truck, Wayne returned from lunch and asked where the boat was. I said “Over in the corner”. He came back and said, “Where?” I again told him where the boat was. A minute later I heard this yell that everyone in the building could hear. We all ran up to Wayne and he said. “What is this! This is not the name I wanted!”. The other salesman said, “You left a note that said Sea Envelope for name on boat”. Upon further explanation, Wayne had left instructions of what the customer wanted and placed it in an envelope. Then he stuck a note on his desk that read, “See envelope for name of boat”. Wayne wrote the note so fast the word ‘see’ looked like ‘sea’.
After the anguish subsided we then started laughing. I quickly removed the wrong name and relettered the correct name. Everybody agreed that the first name should have remained for it was a good story for the boat.
-------------------- Ray Skaines League City, Tx www.srsigns.com Posts: 130 | From: League City, Texas | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
That's a good'un! I had a guy call me on the phone one time and said he wanted to drop off a boat and wanted Jack LaLane painted on it - remember the health guy? He never showed and after lunch when I came back - there was a huge yacht parked behind the shop, so I painted Jack LaLane on it. Of course when he showed up it was wrong . . .he wanted Jacqueline and pronounced it Jackwalain. Got me.
I remember a story years ago in SignCraft Mag where the sign was for a Halloween party and there was a note by the copy that said "Drawing of a big pumpkin." The sign man thought they must be raffling off one of those giant prize winning pumpkins so he wrote that on the sign - but no, the customer just wanted a GRAPHIC of a big Halloween pumpkin on there.
I did a design for a restaurant billboard once and the customer said "Put Pancho up in the corner" - so I put "Pancho" in the corner - maybe he's the owner? He wanted a graphic of a peon, asleep leaning against a cactus. To him that would be Pancho. Who knew?
Posts: 1859 | From: / | Registered: Nov 1998
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