There used to be a sign on the wall in my office that said “I love deadlines, especially the wooshing sound they make as they go flying by.”

Now I don’t really love missing deadlines, but it happens. While graphic design is a deadline oriented business, the organizations we work for often are not. Any designer who says they’ve never missed a deadline is either lying to you, or to them self. Too many aspects of our work are beyond our control for this not to happen occasionally. Even if we had every aspect of production under our control, from design to delivery, things can go wrong. Clients. Clients can go wrong. I go to great lengths to train my clients on the subject of deadlines, but that’s not always enough.

I missed a deadline last week. Not huge, but a good sized project. As the first part of this project, I’m designing an invitation for an annual event. The key there is annual. It’s been on my production schedule for months, and since I’ve done this several years in a row, I knew of the possibility of this upcoming project well before it made it to my schedule. I know that my in-house proofing process can take several hours. I know that this client’s approval process, with corrections, will be at least 72 hours, and traditionally it’s more like a week. They are fully aware of how long this process takes, because I do a fair amount of work for them.

The printer is chosen. The colors are chosen. The design is mocked up, and I wait for final copy. And I wait. The deadline to get this to the printer is Wednesday at noon. I mocked up the design more than a month ago, I’ve been waiting for final copy since then. I talk to the client daily. I warn of impending deadlines. I remind them of the time proofing and approval takes. And I wait.

I received final copy four hours before the printer’s deadline. Final layout too forty five minutes, proofing took another hour. Approval took a week. Woosh!

I love deadlines, especially the wooshing sound they make as they go flying by.

Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, basil’s blog, Shadowscope, Thought Alarm, The Bullwinkle Blog, Cao’s Blog, Jo’s Cafe, Maggie’s Notebook | Conservative Blog, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, The HILL Chronicles, Faultline USA, Woman Honor Thyself, stikNstein… has no mercy, Pirate’s Cove, and The Pink Flamingo, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.