PSA - Dealer License Plates

Written by David Charney
Posted: July 3, 2007 (3 years, 2 months ago) | 0 comments

This is my first public service announcement!

Okay, if you ask my [many] friends to name something I don’t like, sooner or later they will mention how often I complain about those horrible dealer license plate frames you see on 70.3% (statistics created randomly by myself) of cars. Often times these plates will say “McMally’s Auto Showroom! (555) 123-4567″ or “Tenderton Tenderton Tenderton – Auto Emporium! Near the Zoo!”. I really, really don’t like these things. Why? Because they lower the visual quality of everything around them. Have you ever seen one of those in a well done car commercial or in a conceptual design for a new car? No because they suck, they are stupid, and I hate them. I know ‘hate’ is a strong word and that is why I am using it.

It is time for all of us to put aside our differences and join together. These license plate ads are a growing problem. We need to find screwdrivers, go out outside, remove them, and throw them away (or stab them in the heart with a wooden stake, or burn them).

Living in the Chicago area I constantly see cars all shapes, sizes, and price tags with these ugly license plate dealer advertisements. The most annoying to me is when I see an $80,000 BMW drive by with a $1 plastic license plate frame that reads “Falloway’s BMW Hotspot!”. Ugghhh. You have just lowered the cost of your car and cars around you. You might as well attach a lawn gnome to your hood. If anything, the car dealerships should pay you to advertise for them. You are a moving billboard. My friend and I recently saw a car that actually broke part of their license plate frame off so they could get a new yearly sticker on the plate. Removing the frame must have been way too time consuming for them. You are all good people… Don’t let the Man win this battle.

Now there are a lot of you who buy personalized license plate frames for your cars and, while many are still pretty ugly, I have no problem with you making your own decision in displaying something you want. This is against the stupid monster dealer ads. So please, PLEASE, spread the word to remove them before I burst into flames and burn down everything in my path. Make this world a better place for us, our children, and our children’s children… Say NO to dealer license plate frames!

Working With the Client

Written by David Charney
Posted: January 16, 2007 (3 years, 7 months ago) | 0 comments

This is going to be a short one. I often hear people in my industry (and many industries) chatting about clients and how the client is being difficult, confusing, and stupid. I hear people saying “The client just has no idea how it works!”… Makes sense they don’t, doesn’t it? We are the pros, not them. We should be working with them up front to help them understand what deadlines mean to us and the processes that can help streamline the development of the project. Why doesn’t the client understand that if they want a small change it could cause a lot of rework? Probably because they were not told this. We never say to ourselves “Oh you should have seen how stupid I was trying to understand my Client’s industry!”… Lead them in the right direction and don’t take them for granted. I just hear this to much and had to rant.