Home Works! requested a brochure update. My client, Karen, rewrote the text and sent a new Word document. The assignment was to replace all the copy. While we were discussing the project on the phone, I asked Karen if she had new sponsor logos. “Uh oh,” she answered. “I forgot to do that! I’ll send you a list of sponsors right away.”
Update the sponsor logos
Half the logo files were in our archived folder from the last version of the brochure. Because we were adding more logos and needed more space for ten more sponsors, I deleted the existing photo on the back panel and reduced the Home Works! logo and contact info. Everything was in place except two logos.
The phone rang
“Hi, this is Melanie from Home Works! What’s your fax number? My boss said to fax this logo to you.”
“No, no!” I said. A faxed logo won’t work. It will look fuzzy, distorted and it’s only b&w.
“What do you need,” she asked?
“I need a high-res .jpg, .pdf, or an Illustrator .eps file—a digital file that can be sent via email.”
“Oh,” she replied apologetically. “I was just doing what my boss asked me to do.”
It was a letterhead
Melanie mentioned the logo was on an award letter from the sponsor. I explained, “It needs to be scanned. Or better yet, tell Karen to contact the sponsor and request a logo file to use in her brochure.”
Solution
An idea came to me later and I called Karen. “Take a photo of the letter with your phone and email it to me. Get close and shoot as straight as possible.” It worked perfectly. The letterhead was a simple type solution with no icon. I identified the typeface and color and added a “faux” logo to the other sponsor logos. We used the same method for the final “missing” logo. The brochure was complete, Karen gave her approval, and I sent a high-resolution PDF to the printer.
Sometimes, to solve a client’s problem, we have to think out of the box. It’s amazing what we come up with when we let go of preconceived notions of what will work. Let Nehmen Kodner develop creative solutions for your brochure and marketing materials.
