That time my whole logo fell apart on a client call in Denver

I was in a coffee shop near Union Station last winter, showing a final logo to a big client over Zoom. Halfway through the presentation, the vector file just freaked out and started showing jagged edges and missing letters. Turns out I had used a free font that wasn't properly embedded, and the client's system couldn't read it. I had to pause everything, rebuild the whole thing with a standard font, and reschedule the meeting for the next day. Has anyone else had a font file just betray them like that mid-presentation?

2 comments

2 Comments

charles_henderson13d ago

Oh come on, "free fonts are built kind of sloppy"? That's way too broad of a brush. I've used tons of free fonts from places like Google Fonts and Font Squirrel for years and never had this happen. The real problem here is that you didn't test your file on a different system before the big meeting. Free fonts arent the issue, its about doing your homework and making sure everything works cross platform. Some of the most popular fonts out there like Open Sans or Roboto are free and theyre rock solid. Sounds more like you grabbed something sketchy from a random site and didnt check the license or embedding settings.

adams8213d ago

I actually read something not too long ago about how free fonts can cause weird problems in client environments. The article was saying some of those free fonts are built kind of sloppy and don't handle embedding or cross-platform compatibility well. Your story totally backs that up from what I've seen in my own projects too. I had a similar scare once with a gradient overlay that just vanished on a client's monitor, so I feel your pain on that Denver call.