Graphic Design Bloopers Competition Results

Thank you to everyone who took part in the Graphic Design Bloopers Competition.

The entries were as follows.

Steve at http://www.cymru66.com
Nearly 2000 Shamrock Marathon finishers (me included) are now the proud owners of a one of a kind race medal. The not so deliberate mistake is the missing “I” in Virginia. Yes, that’s right, the Shamrock Marathon was held this weekend in Virginia Beach, VA, not Virgina Beach, VA…..
Race Director Jerry Frostick was quick to take full responsibility. Shortly after the race he explained that he’d had proofs of the medals for three months which he’d checked and double checked but still didn’t notice the glaring mistake. In all fairness, it is actually quite hard to see if you don’t know it’s there.

Also from Steve
I’ve noticed this painted road sign before, but always thought it was my mind playing tricks on me. I saw it again this morning and couldn’t resist taking a quick pic before someone realizes the mistakes and fixes it. The sign is at Janaf Shopping Center in Norfolk, VA, in between the soon to be closed Circuit City and Old Navy stores.

Santosh P at http://www.santoshp.com
I made a big mistake in my early days..
I made a design for a company in other city, with venue details on it.. and after few months a client (my college then) asked a design for a fest, I used the background which i used for the company, and it was all mock design. I was glad that they liked it in the first shot without any corrections. As they paid a good amount, I sent them the eps, and they got it printed on a huge flex.. and That huge printout projected venue details of the old company.. near the banner line.. I figured it out when I looked at the flex. I could do nothing, my friends figured out.. but had to bribe them with a party

Look for the part of the background ”Manufactured and Packed by:” and another address below

Ahsan at http://www.ars.barelyaverage.com
I found a blooper that I’m actually quite embarassed by, but figure that it’s better if I call it out rather than someone else!

The story:
About six months ago, while I was still in the employ of an agency and attended office daily, I got a call from my wife. She said that the partnership she was entering into with a local fashion designer had come through and she now needed a logo — by the evening, if possible!

I was in the middle of a ton of stuff, but figured that if I pushed this task, I’d get hell when I get home. So I thought about it for 10 minutes, had a sort-of-obvious idea, found a roundish font (Bauhaus) and went to work. My wife’s name is Batul and the fashion designer is named Umar. He’s more prominent, so I knew his name was going to come first. The symbol was going to be UB in lowercase letters — ub — followed by their respective first names.

15 more minutes editing the letter shapes and I was done with a B&W version. I sent her an SMS telling her it was done and to check her mail. She checked and messaged back — “Looks great. Thanks” . I got home and she told me she wanted it to be blue and green. This is what it ended up looking like.

The next day, she got someone in her office to create the bags, labels, tags, etc and the art was sent for printing.

That was that.

About a week later, I was at work where a visualiser and copywriter were asked to work independently of the rest of the department to come up with some concepts and layouts. I walked in the room to check on them and saw a full page ad printed in the Dubai newspaper, Khaleej Times.

I stopped in my tracks. I looked at the paper a little closer. I crapped my pants. I then caught my breath and moved on to find out how they were progressing with their task.

This is what I saw.


Lauren at http://www.laurenmarie.net
I got this Victoria’s Secret catalog in the mail the other day, and I don’t know about you, but I sure don’t want to buy girly things from Victor! At first I thought someone just missed it (the model’s head hides the full name of Victoria’s), but then with a closer look, it seems they actually had the type overlaid on top the picture instead of putting a mask on the model’s head and having the type behind it. You can see this in the inset I created on the left, the “S” is actually on top of her hair. Usually the designers of this catalog put the title on top of the models’ heads, but maybe the picture didn’t give them enough room to move it down far enough to have the type not running across her forehead? But how hard would it have been to move her down and clone stamp the sky to make the picture bigger? The image doesn’t even follow the rule of thirds; her eyes should actually be about 1/3 the way down from the top anyway. The other inset is just a little thing, but with all the Photoshoping they do to these models, you would think they might remember to get the reflection out of her sunglasses! It doesn’t look obscene or anything, but it does look silly to see a bunch of people standing around on the beach watching the photo shoot.

Asgeir at http://www.asgeirhoem.no
There was once a new headache pill to be released world wide, and it had this cartoon’ish advertisement.
The cartoon had three frames:
in the first one there’s a guy with a headache,
in the second one he takes the pill,
and in the third one he is happy and well.

The problem was, when the ad was published in Eastern countries, the message seemed a bit off.
They read from right to left.

Ann at http://www.stilldottie.blogspot.com
After a exhausting, stressful, yet relieving weekend, divya & I enjoyed a nice long pedicure. I usually opt for celebrity or fashion magazines in this sort of occasion, but decided to pick up i.d. magazine. it was a very interesting issue, covering things from designing for senior citizens to 6 designer’s take on the ideal setting for sex. I did however notice that my issue (maybe all) had some repeat text in their article about design schools and their catalogues. the two page spread had identical text on both sides, online you can read the whole story. where do things like this get missed?

The winner of the competition is Ahsan from http://www.ars.barelyaverage.com. Congratulations a $50 Amazon voucher is on its way.

Don’t forget to try the “Do Designers Think Alike Experiment” for 29th May if you have time.