Murphy’s Graphic Design Laws

Posted in Graphic Design, Humor by Grafiko on April 30, 2008

While browsing the web doing research for a project a came across this list of Murphy’s laws applied to graphic design. Some of them are really funny and sadly true. Here are some of the best ones:

Your fonts will default.
If you have two versions of a photo, you will send the wrong one to the printer.
Promises made by the salesperson never make it to the pressroom.
If the text consists of two words, one will be misspelled.
Speed. Quality. Affordability. Pick two.
If the run is wrong, it’s never the press operator’s fault.
Spell checkers don’t.
Grammar checkers don’t, either.
Global search-and-replaces aren’t.
The index entry you leave out will be the first one the client looks under.
Optical Character Recognition is good comedy.
If three designs are shown to a client, your least favorite will be chosen.
If two designs are shown, a third will be requested. If provided, then one of the first two will be chosen.
Blueline proofs reveal previously invisible errors.
The best designs never survive contact with the client.
Your best idea is already copyrighted.
Creative inspiration flows in inverse proportion to the distance from the studio.
No matter how detailed the tech support FAQ is, nobody has ever heard of your problem
The number of colors in a client’s design will equal the number of colors in the original bid specs, plus two
The client’s disk won’t run on your equipment
If you purchase new equipment to read your client’s disk, it will be the last disk of that type you will ever receive