Samples: The Biggest Source of Stress for Creatives

I had planned the project with the kind of precision normally reserved for military invasions. It was Christmas, after all, and I was in charge of dessert—a serious undertaking, I know you’ll agree.

I had hunted down the various ingredients and set aside the better part of a day to prepare 14 little French apple tarts. I roasted the hazelnuts, sautéed the apple slices…and if I say so myself, the first few tarts that came out of my oven looked fabulous—pieces of art.

Somewhere around tart number four, however, I started to wonder what they would taste like. I had never made this recipe before, and it was so elaborate that I did not have enough time for a dry run… They looked fabulous, though, smelled divine and tasted...horrible.

I was a bit dumbfounded, I have to admit. With a list of fabulous ingredients, how could this have gone so wrong?

Consider us the Client’s 'Taster'
And this is pretty much how we designers feel every time we send something to press.

We know what the finished piece should look and feel like. We have touched and approved the paper, know the individual print and finishing processes—our list of ingredients, if you will. And based on all this we expect a certain end result.

But no matter how much we like to trust that you, as a printer, know what we have in mind and that you will provide a more-than-perfect product, we like to be the first ones to see the piece—to "taste it" to stay with our tart analogy.

Like my tarts, I want to make sure they taste perfect before any of my guests (or clients) are exposed to them. So why does it seem to be so difficult for many printers to give us a taste before our client sees it?