Friday, October 18, 2013

4 Times The Customer Isn't Always Right

We've all heard the saying "The Customer Is Always Right..." and in most cases, we really do try to follow that at RHD. After all, we are consumers too, and we like to be treated with respect and courtesy just as much as the next person. But sometimes, admit it, we've all be in the situations where sometimes, the customer isn't always right.

Face it, graphic designers, advertising professionals, and many marketing experts are snobs. We know what works and what doesn't. We know how things are usually done yet we are always looking for ways to do something differently or better. So when a customer goes against what we recommend, it's hard.

Now let me back up by saying, never once in my entire career have I ever had like a knock down drag out with a client over something that they wanted, and we didn't recommend. Most of the time, if there is something we disagree on, we respectfully tell them what we don't recommend, and why, and then go from there. If it comes to be a big issue, we usually go with what the customer wants and simply don't put our logo on the ad or project, or don't really advertise that we did that project.

(Any of our customers who are thinking right now...wait...there's no RHD logo at the bottom of my print ad...don't get worried!. Honestly we have done so many print ads sometimes we just simply forget to put it on there. Don't freak out.)

So here are some of the top things we tend to have to disagree with our "customer is always right" rule, and why.

1. USE OF ALL CAPS. Unless you are Cindy Cagwin. Then you can all-caps it all day long, because you're Cindy Cagwin and you're the bomb. The reason we tend to avoid ALL CAPS is because that is viewed as YELLING AT THE READER. It's also kinda viewed as spammy. So avoid all caps. And we get pretty firm about this.

2. Use of Crappy or Over-Used Fonts. It never fails, one designer finds a really cool new font, then within 3 months every other designer on the planet is using it. In 2007 it was Bleeding Cowboys. Honestly I'm pretty sure Stephanie Steck first found this, and used it in the August Show Circuit for one of her clients. By the Fall Sires edition, every ad in there was using Bleeding Cowboys. Then it was Myriad Pro, a simple but totally awesome font. Now it's the LHF fonts. Everyone has them. So, we just tend to avoid those at all. Or wait 5 years til people are over that font, then re-introduce it again. And our cardinal rule. We will NEVER, ABSOLUTELY NEVER, use Comic Sans :)

3. Copyright infringement or other ethical concerns. This is another one we are really firm on, and through the years, has cost us some clients. Usually this occurs during bull promotion season when someone has a bull named after a popular brand, entertainer, or movie. They come to us and say...I named by bull after (INSERT CURRENT BLOCKBUSTER MOVIE NAME HERE) and I want his bull banner to look just like the movie poster. Yeah, not gonna happen with us. Unless things are done above the board and done correctly. For example, years ago we did a promotion for a bull named Bazooka Joe. We had to go through that firm's legal department to get clearance. Same for when we originally promoted Monopoly. We had to get a written sign-off from Hasbro, and if you notice in some of the early ads there was a disclaimer that Monopoly was a registered trademark of Hasbro.

4. Unrealistic Demands. On a few rare occassions, we have clients who are so creative that they are actually more creative than what we are. And in these cases, we just have to honesty say "We can't do that". For example, one time I had a client tell me that they wanted to use an ad background that had a father and son walking in a pasture, with a barn with a Texas flag painted on the side, with the father pointing to a black baldy calf, and the son looking up at the dad wearing a (RANCH NAME) baseball cap, and the daughter doing a cartwheel in the grassy bluebonnets next to the calf. Okay the cartwheel part I made up. But I was like...."Okay are we going to stage this photo shoot?" and the client said..."No, can't you find a stock photo like that?" Ummmm, sure. There are tons of stock photos out there of little kids wearing baseball caps with your ranch name on it that I can find online. And no I'm not that good at Photoshop. So, sometimes, we just have to say...that's beyond our capabilities.

Of course, other than these 4 areas I mentioned above....we definitely feel that the customer is always right :) And we work our tails off to do everything possible to make sure that each and every customer knows that at the end of the day...we work for you, and thus, you're always right! 

Monday, October 7, 2013

By Popular Demand: The Art of the Mix CD's...

A few weeks ago, I posted a facebook status stating that I had recently found an old Mix CD, and that I wondered how teenages or college students these days formed new relationships (or broke up with someone) without the assistance from a strategically mixed "Mix CD".

For you young people....a Mix CD....which was preceeded by the "Mix Cassette Tape" is a personalized collection of all of your favorite tunes....prior to the iTunes playlist. And let me say, as you can see from the comments to the left, I have a reputation as quite a Mix CD DJ.

To put it in perspective, chances are you have a Mix CD from me if you have ever gone on a road trip with me, dated me or any of my closest 5 girlfriends, or attended an event I hosted prior to 2008. One of our college traditions was to make a "Mix CD" to commemorate any and every possible event.  For example, if we were going to Louisville, we would make a "Louisville Mix" that contained our top 16 favorite songs of that time frame. Or, say we were having a girls night out, we would make a Mix CD of all our favorite girls-only songs to listen to in the car while we drove around from place to place that night. For example, some of my better collections were "Great Shorthorn Revival Mix" "Dallas Mix" and a very special summer mix called "Tanlines." I was even so thoughtful that I would personalize the CDs with special songs for special people on the trip. For example....on our Great Shorthorn Revival Mix, I included TuPac's "California Love" in honor of Brooke Bennett who was one of the 3 partners in crime on that trip. And thank goodness our rent-a-car had a CD player!

My affinity for Mix CDs went to a WHOLE new level when things like Napster and Kazaa became readily accessible while I had the dangerous combination of 1)My Music Knowledge and 2)High Speed Internet Access in College Station, Texas.

So as I mentioned in my earlier post, while cleaning out one of my old desks, I found an un-labelled Mix Cd and it was like musical gold! This prompted Crystal Blin to suggest I post my favorite Mix CD table of contents on a blog. To which I replied.....I'm not sure the contents of my best mix CD's are all that professional!

However, after sorting through a few of them, I found out they actually aren't that bad! So here are a few of my favorite Mix complitations...Enjoy!


Freshman Mix (Circa 1998)

  • Bye Bye (JoDee Messina)
  • Are You Jimmy Ray?
  • You Shook Me All Night Long (seriously what college mix doesn't include this)
  • Sangria Wine
  • Don't Wanna Miss A Thing 
  • Kiss The Rain
  • I Love Rock & Roll
  • Redneck Girls (This was a staple of every mix CD ever made by me)
  • Fightin Texas Aggie 
  • My Body
  • My Heart Will Go On (How embarassing)
  • This Kiss (Faith Hill)
  • TubThumping (as in I Get Knocked Down....)
  • County Fair 
Wow how old do I seem now?

Karaoke at the Kolle's Mix (Circa 2001) This is our all time go to favorites that we would Karaoke too
  • Just Like Jesse James (Cher)
  • Save Up All Your Tears (Cher)
  • Leaving On A Jet Plane
  • Sweet Child Of Mine
  • Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (of course)
  • You Can Eat Crackers In My Bed Anytime
  • Playing With The Queen of Hearts
  • California Love
  • Thong Song
  • Country Grammar - Nelly
  • Oops I Did I Again
Living In Michigan / Wishing I Was In Texas Mix (Circa 2002)
  • Three Days (Pat Green)
  • Texas On My Mind (Pat Green)
  • The Bluest Eyes in Texas
  • Feet Don't Touch the Ground
  • Look At You Girl
  • I'm Real (J Lo)
  • Lie To You For Your Love (Bellamy Brothers)
  • My Hometown (Charlie Robison)
  • Please Come to Boston
  • Riding For A Fall (Chris Ledoux)
  • Stars on the Water
  • Southbound 35
  • Texas Women
  • Anything Destiny's Child
  • Total Eclipse of the Heart
  • What I Like About Texas


As Heard At the Dixie Chicken - I never went, I have just heard these are the songs they played :)
  • Amie - Pure Prairie League
  • Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On
  • A Big Ball in Cowtown
  • Corpus Christi Bay
  • Don't It Make You Wanna Dance
  • An Empty Glass
  • El Paso
  • Gringo Honeymoon
  • Guitar Town
  • Lone Star Beer & Bob Wills Music
  • Lookin for Love
  • Pancho & Lefty
  • Rancho Grande
  • She's Actin Single
  • Wagon Wheel (Yes, I knew this song before knowing Wagon Wheel was cool)
Feeling Pathetic Mix - This one is a guaranteed tear jerker, used especially for troubled dating or when you're feeling especially sorry for yourself. 
  • Against the Wind
  • Some Fools Never Learn
  • I Wanna Go Back - Eddie Money
  • Nothin's News- Clint Black
  • A Feeling Like That  - Gary Allen
  • I Go Back - Kenny Chesney
  • I'm Coming Home - Robert Earl Keen
  • I could list about 10 more but I don't want to look THAT pathetic.

So....there you go! You're welcome iTunes. If I see Thong Song in the Top 100 on iTunes I'll know this blog was a success.