1. Agree to final edits of video production for “An Uncomfortable Truth” (yeah, it is SO a knock-off of Al Gore’s film title, but it works) and get it and the cover graphic to the production company. CHECK.
2. Sign off on design work of a huge project (magazine, poster, etc.) that will get mailed to 10,000 churches, send it to the printer, and pray to God they can print it before my trip to Toronto, where I’d rather not show my face in front of my staff if it’s STILL NOT DONE. CHECK.
3. Sign off on design work of the annual report for the year that ended five months ago (it’s not MY fault it’s late! And it’s a month earlier than last year, so this is an improvement!) CHECK.
4. Send graphics for envelopes, posters and other assorted items from our new “corporate re-branding” line to the printer. CHECK.
5. Sign purchase orders for spending a WHOLE WHACK OF MONEY on above projects and pray that it’s worth it and the donations start flowing in. CHECK.
6. Pray that the mistakes that we ALWAYS find on completed print jobs will not be major ones this time around – like spelling the board president’s name wrong, or something equally embarrassing. (It’s inevitable – there will be mistakes, even though we proofread about 10 times. I tell people we do it on purpose – like the mistakes on an Amish quilt – to keep us humble.) CHECK.
It’s been a productive day at work. I have no idea why every project reached completion on the same day, but the stars must have aligned themselves that way. I love creative people like graphic designers, but given the very nature of their creative line of work (and the way their brains work), they don’t necessarily follow the ordinary protocol for such mundane things as meeting deadlines, returning phonecalls, and all those other fun things that go along with big projects like all of the above. I will be happy not to live with this twitch I’ve had lately from all the waiting I’ve been forced to endure.
And next week, if the printer’s machine breaks down and every one of these projects is horribly delayed, I will run away to a beach in Costa Rica and never come back.