When inspiration strikes and causes you to embark on a new adventure, sometimes it really pays to get a second set of eyeballs on what you have planned before you commit to going any further. When you are focused on what you are doing, it can be like you’re wearing blinders and it then becomes all too easy to miss the obvious.
When you’re totally engrossed in what you’re doing, and I know this all too well, it can become hard to see the forest through all the trees. And when we don’t take into account the whole picture, horrible mistakes can be made.
Most of the time these mistakes can be caught and corrected, but what about the ones that maybe aren’t caught until later, when everything is pretty much set in stone? Then the results are a source of embarrassment to you, your company and/or your designer.
Here are some examples that illustrate the need to have someone take a fresh and unbiased look at your best laid plains.
This Italian website had a logo produced to present themselves with. I’m still not sure if this was intentional or not, but the a-style logo is all too often visually interpreted as something entirely different. If you don’t see it, think of stick figures and then take another look.
The Computer Doctors could have prevented a lot of internet ridicule had they had a teenage boy look at their logo and describe what they saw. Or at least finish the drawing to show a complete computer mouse and not a partially drawn one.
Lettering can pull one over on you as well. Check out what I assume is a video rental store. Don’t know how this one got past the owner, or even the sign guys, but somebody should have mentioned something about letter spacing or kerning or something.
And just when you thought that you found the perfect domain name for your new website, there may be a reason that nobody bought it before you found it. Pulling these straight from Independent Sources, here are a few gems of domains that never should have come to life:
- A site called “Who Represents” where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name? www.whorepresents.com
- Looking for a pen? Who isn’t? You can find one at Pen Island and their website is located at www.penisland.com
- When you’re down and out and in need of a good therapist, you can locate a good therapist with “Therapist Finder” at www.therapistfinder.com
And since we just mentioned rapist, this wouldn’t be complete without this example of how not to conjoin words:
Moral of the story? Sometimes it pays to get somebody else to take a look at what you’ve got going on before you fully commit.