Finicky Client’s Decal Turns into Shop’s “Most Expensive Bumper Sticker” Ever

The Tree Is A

In our first year of signshop ownership, my family and I encountered a number of odd clients. One in particular got his own “complimentary” bumper sticker added to our wall of ridiculousness after wrapping up a custom truck-decal job: just an ellipse with two lines of text and a simple tree icon, applied to the cab doors. At the conclusion of the job, this client had racked up a chain of 36 emails, 14 phone calls, six hours of design work, and two hours of travel. At one point, after about a week of silence from the client (and our last interaction having been a phone call), we got an email out of the blue from the client that read “the tree is a!” No subject, no context, nothing. Simply “the tree is a!” This prompted phone call number 15. What he meant was that he liked the tree icon (but not the text) from the “A” design version of the original three-design spread that he had been sent. Roughly 20 emails, and several new design versions had been sent since he saw the version that he was referring to. To cap off the experience, the last few emails and phone calls were to figure out (and then double-, and triple-check) the final scale that he wanted: 11 in. wide, because he wanted them to be “tastefully sized on the door.” We installed the decals — he even paid for us to travel the hour round trip to his business site so he didn’t have to bring his truck to our shop. From 10 ft. away his decal was not readable and looked like a joke on his monster F550, but he was thrilled and happily paid every dime of his bill. That decal was the most expensive bumper sticker our shop has produced to date. — Jake Zani, Rule Signs & Graphics, Randolph, VT