I learned a valuable lesson today, one that I always knew. One that I constantly advise my clients on a regular basis.

PROOFREAD and then PROOFREAD again. And when you are done…show it to someone else and have them proofread. Do not trust your writer, your designer or even yourself. Let at least 3 separate eyes view your material because we are only human and mistakes do happen. Even mistakes that spellcheck will not catch, like a word spelled right but misused.

Now I consider myself a decent writer and though there are a few words I tend to misspell regularly, I am an above average speller. I think my grammar is decent. And I generally am very meticulous and look things over several times to make sure everything is perfect.

But alas…even in my own marketing material I erred…and I did so because I did not take my own advice. I showed it to no-one. I simply designed it and sent it off to print and printers do not spell check ever. Almost a year later a kind person finally pointed out my mistake and as a Graphic Designer whose own material promoting myself should be perfect, I was horrified. That for almost a year not one person pointed it out means either this error slid by, or it was noticed and no one was kind enough to let me know. It makes me appreciate the times when I do share something on facebook and I get a message, sometimes even from a near stranger, with a correction.
Nevertheless, the cost of reprinting my marketing material is nothing compared to how disappointed I am with myself for not having someone else carefully proofread my own ad.

So lesson learned the hard way! And I now have a story to share with my clients that will prove to them that you can never be too vigilant.

Below is the version with the mistake. Can you find it? It is so obvious to me now which shows how easy it is to miss something crucial.