Thinking in vain...

So it seems we are designing a high school sports program insert for my boss's brother (see: a boss's pet project) as the school's brand new stadium will be named after his favorite coach.

So last Wednesday we (my boss and I) had to meet with the printer to see exactly how long we got, what kind of files they needed, etc. So we get there and they know about as much as we do about the actual program. So we're trying to ask about paper and what size and the girl who is in charge of the graphics department keeps saying she doesn't know where her boss gets the paper, but she thinks most anything will fit through her printer.

Since we have to go to her office to get a CD of logos we just ask to see the printer.

So we walk to the graphics department which is in a separate building. You walk through a door into a little room where a desk is crammed in at your left with an old iMac on it. To the right is a hallway and in front of you is another tiny room.

The hallway to the left leads you to the production area and the printer. So since they kept saying printer, my boss thinks they have an offset press, I had my suspicions to the contrary and they were confirmed when she pointed out a laser printer to us. This was her printer and the one we have at the office is better.

The second tiny room (the one to the front of us when we walked in) is crowded with 3 small dilapidated desks. Their desktops were crowded with not only a tiny monitor and a scanner but since the room was so small their G4s were on top of their desks too. Now add the keyboard and these people had absolutely no room to move.

This was where the high school sports programs get "designed." Then they are run off on 11x17 sheets of paper, folded and stapled together.

Now on top of that the poor girl in charge was just sort of winging it. I asked her if we could bleed colors on just the insert since there would only be 150. She said yes we could get about a 1/4" from the edge of the paper.

So we got the files we needed and left. I mainly felt sorry for the girl in charge. No doubt they were hired without any experience and sat in front of the computer and told to learn it.

When we got in the car my boss looked at me and started going on and on about how that must be what design hell looks like. This is when I felt obligated to do the whole, "yes, I'm so lucky, I love my job" speech.

So there, was it as interesting as I made it sound? I should've written more last week when I hadn't been trying to not think about anything work-related.

So when I get back, my time will be spent laying out an 8-page insert all about a football coach. I'm going to try to pawn it off on the intern. After I teach him how to use the programs.