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I have to laugh (or cry). Darla does a bunch of 2' x 3' banners for the local sports backer group for the high school gym. Normally, one of the backers sell the banner, then bring in the artwork and all the copy and she does them for one of two or three set prices.
On one of the recent group of four banners, the person brought us a sheet the client identified as a "PMT" and wanted it back when we were finished. As the Subject line indicates, that PMT was actually something that had been faxed to the person. Resolution on a standard fax is not too high, so we had the normal jaggies. I figured that was the art they supplied, and I knew the sign was going to be up on a wall far from the viewers, so I just scanned the puppy and she cut it out and applied the lettering. She had to do some multiple cutting and even some hand lettering because the black and white Fax image was supposed to have green, blue, gray and yellow, based on a small flag they brought for to go by.
This one was a little more trouble than some we have done, but on average we do fine on them. Some are very basic. I guess the point of this post is to highlight how far we have slipped "due to technology". The original artist would probably cringe to see how bad his original logo has deteriorated over the 15 to 18 years since he designed it.
This is exactly what I dislike about the "technology revolution" we find ourselves in. The soft market requires us to bid accordingly, thus many timesit is faster to just scan and cut.
Now, if you make a fuss and try to charge for clean-up, you risk loosing the account because someone is always willing to do it regardless of quality. I too have an account that is steady banner work, but in my market you need this type of customer to keep the cash flow coming.
In the old days, the only way was to roll out the projector, and clean up the sloppy art with your stabilo, or on the pattern, whichever method you used. There was no alternative like scanners and plotters.
Denver Chapter of the Letterheads