: Looking back at work you want to change but its gone to print? I have recently just started at a new company as an art worker. (My first ever artworker job) I get given small jobs which

@Annie732

In my experience it is almost impossible to perform an artwork which will be 100% perfect, especially, when one's experience is limited and most of imperfections are typical to starters. This is why when I want to press "Send" button I take a break of 10 minutes or so and refresh my mind - after that I re-look at the work and almost always find something to improve - it can be endless actually, but somewhen I have to stop and push the Button.

The good thing - to learn from your and others mistakes and try to minimize them in your next work.

The second good thing - most of small inaccuracies do not catch the eye, thus there is the probability you will be the only person who knows about the mistake. If you think the mistake is not critical - let it go and do not do it again. Everyone did a lot of mistakes - this is the base of a learning.

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@Radia289

There is always some cut-off point in the graphics industry - a Point of No Return. What that is, depends entirely on the total workflow. Not everything will get printed right away (unless it's a real rush job). Even when it's already printed, not everything gets cut and further prepared. Even when it's already cut and packaged, it doesn't get send to the client right away. And so on. Even when already sent off to the client, he's usually not going out the door immediately and paste the posters onto various walls.

At the office I work for, we can send the printer an e-mail or call them by phone. Our first question is "did you already start on this job?" Then, "did you already make printing plates?" If so, we ask to put the job on hold and contact the client; from this point on, he's has gotta pay or tell to go ahead with what they've got. [1]

The most extreme case but one was where a client wanted one specific page replaced in an already bound book. We had that done by cutting out the offending page and pasting the new one in (all by hand).

The utmost extreme case was the client throwing away the entire print run and having reprint everything from scratch.



For you, it's when you send your document off. It may not get printed for several hours, or even days, but if you have no direct connection to the client or printer, there is nothing you can do anymore.

Chalk it off as a valuable learning experience.

I have a habit of leafing through the books I designed, as soon as we receive a few sample copies, and at times I also think "well maybe I could have done this a bit better".



1 Unless it's a blatant error on our side (which is quite rare). We always send off various kinds of proofs to our clients: print ready PDFs, 'soft' proofs (the actual bitmap files that are going to the platemaker), and print run samples. If the client approves everything, then at least my conscience is clear, even though I may not like it.

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