What a Mess!!! Our Artist is Out Sick

[alan802]

Our artist has been out for a week because he was hospitalized due to a rare strain of mono and strep on top of that and I knew he was a vital part of our daily operations but god damn this ain't easy managing all of this crap when all I can do is barely print out film.  Half the time I try to do that something doesn't work right and I have to ruin a few pieces before I get everything out right. 

How in the hell do some of you guys without an in house graphic designer get through a day?  I'd like to know for my own sanity if it's even possible long term for a shop our size to not have one on staff.  Our guy only works 32-35 hours a week but since he's been gone, this place has turned into a zoo and our sales staff and owner are panicking.  I'm doing my best to facilitate the artwork and doing repeat jobs is obviously no problem but the other 75% of what we do is custom artwork of all kinds.  We have some help from a neighboring shop but they got their own problems and he doesn't work in Illy so that's a small barrier we have to navigate.   We are getting by but I can't work like this for much longer.  I know there are quite a few of you guys who can do artwork so I may have to get the checkbook out and start sending a little bit this overflow to you guys.  My artist is working a little from home but I don't want to give him too much work, he's damn near dead.  I can hear him laboring to just breath when I have him on the phone.

[jason-23]

We are all here to help. I dont work in illy but everything i've done in corel transfers to illy with not to many issues.

[Homer]

start listing your issues, we can nail them down one at a time. . .

[3Deep]

Alan, here is a simple answer for you, learn your azz how to draw LOL  really its a task I,ve been doing for many years art, seps & printing it can be a hand ful and make you want to pull your hair our.  Reach out to some of these cats on here I,m sure someone needs a little extra work and can help you out in a tight.   Hey don't help kill the poor guy LOL hope he gets better soon.

Darryl

[Socalfmf]

that is total bullshit...WTF..takes time off cause he is sick...no way...get your ass back to work kid....

I know the pain...we are going through it as well...but that is about to change....make sure you check your PM...

Sam

[inkman996]

Our artist has been out for a week because he was hospitalized due to a rare strain of mono and strep on top of that and I knew he was a vital part of our daily operations but god damn this ain't easy managing all of this crap when all I can do is barely print out film.  Half the time I try to do that something doesn't work right and I have to ruin a few pieces before I get everything out right. 

How in the hell do some of you guys without an in house graphic designer get through a day?  I'd like to know for my own sanity if it's even possible long term for a shop our size to not have one on staff.  Our guy only works 32-35 hours a week but since he's been gone, this place has turned into a zoo and our sales staff and owner are panicking.  I'm doing my best to facilitate the artwork and doing repeat jobs is obviously no problem but the other 75% of what we do is custom artwork of all kinds.  We have some help from a neighboring shop but they got their own problems and he doesn't work in Illy so that's a small barrier we have to navigate.   We are getting by but I can't work like this for much longer.  I know there are quite a few of you guys who can do artwork so I may have to get the checkbook out and start sending a little bit this overflow to you guys.  My artist is working a little from home but I don't want to give him too much work, he's damn near dead.  I can hear him laboring to just breath when I have him on the phone.

Sounds to me Alan like you now can make a great case for going CTS, that atleast will solve one variable if the artist is out. I know printing films is such a freaking hassle sometimes.

[Gabe]

no disrespect
the artist look a Lil` pale and thin when alan shot the shop video
early this year, I remember his walk was like my grandma`s
hope he gets well, otherwise boss hands are gonna fly all over the place

[Croft]

On the other hand if your an artist you find out what your boss can't do ,
I started as an artist and learned screening we once went through some restructuring and they asked me for my key and laid me off , well I was pissed but had been working for years so what the hell my wife and I went on a last minute holiday , this was pre cell phones well I returned to  desperate answering machine messages asking for me to return , I guess they had never took the time to learn how to use a stat camera.

Have you thought about maybe getting the artist a laptop to get some of the most needed jobs out, theres sick then there is laying on the couch sick watching TV maybe they would be able to do something?.

[alan802]

I'm trying to keep my head out of water right now.  He's doing what he can at home but I don't want to add to his misery, he spent a week in the hospital then got strep the day after he got home.

There was a reason why I haven't wanted to learn the art side of things, but I never thought he'd be out for 2 or more weeks so that changes things.  We've been able to get by without him for a few days here and a week there, but not for this long.

Sam, I'll give you a ring when I get more than a few minutes to myself.  Hell, it took me 45 minutes to type this post out.

[Sbrem]

I'd recommend you become fluent in PS and vector program of your choice, I use Illy, and I'm on a Mac. We lost a full time artist this year who had been with us for over 10 years. We haven't tried to replace him. Our remaining artist is very good, but Illy only, she hardly touches PS. But, I can separate almost anything, and create simpler designs, and have a decent eye, which I'm sure the real artists here will tell you is probably the most important thing. I'm not an artist, (a musician at heart) but as the screen guy for many years, learned how to produce the art, first with a camera as Croft mentioned, then later switched to digital when it came along. Get some art skills, Alan, I'll bet you'll do fine, even though it's at the worst time of the year for it. As someone else mentioned, feel free to ask, you know there's a ton of help here...

Steve

When you're the boss, you need to know how to do everyone's job just in case they all tell you to go F yourself someday...

[Croft]

another option may be to start cultivating some freelance artist contacts, little late now but for the future maybe throw some artist in the area a job a week to get them in the loop, probably wouldn't offend the artist and may help out in the future during holidays and unforseen absenses.

[alan802]

another option may be to start cultivating some freelance artist contacts, little late now but for the future maybe throw some artist in the area a job a week to get them in the loop, probably wouldn't offend the artist and may help out in the future during holidays and unforseen absenses.

You know how sometimes people just kind of show up at the right time?  A guy dropped by a few weeks ago with his resume and it looked impressive.  I emailed him a few days after Steve was out and he is living in Utah but he was in town for a job interview and he came by last Friday and did a ton of work for us.  He's got a full time job but he has done more than a few things for us since Friday.  He's the main reason why I haven't reached out and told any of you what was going on until now.  Steve has been out for two weeks now with a brief appearance two thursdays ago.  I knew y'all would be eager to help and I was a little hesistant about posting this here because of everyone's generosity, I didn't want to cry wolf when I knew we'd somehow get by.  I'm not saying we are covered 100% so I mean it when I say I might have to call on one of my buddy's here to get us out of a jam.

I like being able to tell you guys what's going on and get the great advice we all see everyday.  I will be learning how to run the art department.  I might not ever be able to sep a 7 color sim process job but I'll be able to do the bulk of what we do.  This was just what we needed to kick us in the ass to get all of our weaknesses covered.  We have more, but this is by far our biggest.

[ZooCity]

Crazy how much of the process is just in the mocking up/drafting, etc.  I do all of ours currently with the occasional help from other local designers.  After getting my feet wet with my first outsourced sep job, I'll be doing that more often for sure.

Good luck man.

[Chadwick]

Yeah, them artists/prepress guys..who needs em...
 
Hope he gets better soon, and you keep your sanity.

If you need any help, my email is on here.

[mk162]

you need to work up an operations manual for things just like this.  go with a freelance person until he is back, but at least you can get films and seps done in house.  Every artist has their own way of prepping a file, try and either make it standard, or have him write down every single step

I was the main art/film guy here for a while and when I left for a week, it fell apart.