Catalogue letdown

First Country Catalogue since DCN demise...
Our efforts put towards the new Country Catalogue were visible in the flesh today, with the pallets of catalogues arriving on the truck. We opted to try out a new printer - The Northern Star in Lismore. Tim's decision was again a money decision, which I accept and understand.

However, they quality was very disappointing for me. There was a LOT of colour casts, colour overload, set-off and more. Then there was the mis-registration. It probably wasn't quite as bad as the Mailbox Shopper usually is, but it's sad that we've headed a step closer towards it.

Tim defended the printers, saying that in the end it's a free paper we're producing and the saving we're making on printing is enough to forgive the printers for a less-than-impressive job.

I'm afraid I can't agree on that... It might be a free paper to the readers, but it's certainly not free to our valuable advertisers. I don't think we can afford to tempt them into having to make a choice between us and the Shopper - the comparison SHOULD be chalk and cheese like it has been in the past.

Tight ship...
With the loss of DCN and a lot of staff, and the very lax atmosphere in the building, I've been mindful that we're getting a little slack - perhaps complacent or even lazy. I've decided to try and keep the design department honest in what we do each day, and professional in how we do it.

For this reason I emailed to Brad some rules about things we both need to be mindful of, and things we're to avoid. That included excessive use of chat programs like MSN (which we both use) and IRC (which Brad uses).

I also stressed the need to be punctual, regardless of the workload, and to keep a professional appearance in dress standards. (Now I'm tucking in my shirt!)

Unfortunately, Brad reacted defensively and even recklessly (declaring he didn't care about some of the things I mentioned). I was disappointed, as it wasn't the mature response that I'd expected, since over the last few months he'd appeared to be maturing quickly.

In any case, I assured him it wasn't a personal attack, but a call for us both to smarten up for the benefit of the company. Let's hope he can start to see it that way.

Going to watch Marat Safin v Rodger Federer now. Not sure who I'm going for!