WOW did I make a mistake on a recent project. I was working for a client that publishes textbooks, posters, training materials, and other items. The professional they hired to produce this material had no experience in publishing. She had access to the entire suite of Adobe products but preffered to use Word and Powerpoint, even though these were being printed commercially. The products were sent to press without a press proof; “What’s a press proof she asks?”
Recent project, this person’s self-described best work, was a poster with umpteen different fonts, every box had a gradient, a different color, no borders between text boxes. No style guide rules for grammar or design were followed. So, I tried to offer some suggestions. It was not received well, so I assembled a number of reference sites and sent them over. The strategy was that this would take the “personal” out of the dialogue.
It was like gas on the fire. I started a war, even though I did not actually throw my Chicago Manual of Style. The question is, how bad do we let something that is in our skill set get before we speak up. I probably butted in where I did not belong since I was the web developer but holy-cow, they were charging for that stuff.