Get the details right to create the perfect picture

I’d been away for two weeks and on my return I picked up the two issues of Design Week that I had missed out on.

I was met by the usual mix of informative news and thought-provoking discussion. In fact, I was quite enjoying grabbing ten minutes catching up on what I had missed out on while I had been away.

Then I saw the work for The Family Friendly Film Festival ’08, designed by Wonder Associates (DW 17 July). The copy on it promoted Stories on Screen and celebrated the National Year of Reading.

All good stuff, except for the apostrophe in front of the 08. It actually wasn’t an apostrophe at all, but an open single quote – that is to say a six and not a nine, to put it in simple terms.

The designer who set this obviously let his or her copy of Indesign or Quark correct the apostrophe regardless of the consequences, resulting in this error.

It’s not a big deal, but sloppy work like this

underlines the prejudice that graphic designers can’t spell or understand grammar – but just as long as the pictures are pretty, then it really doesn’t matter.

Mind you, the client missed it as well, so perhaps there is no hope at all.

This is especially galling as the festival was celebrating the National Year of Reading. Obviously not a National Year of Proofreading.

Ricky Oh, Director, 3 Fish in a Tree, London SE1