The Tyranny of Typos

I've been doing label and graphic design since day one of Cantrip Candles- it's one of my favorite parts of the process - figuring out how to represent an imaginative scent through visuals, choosing stylized fonts, and adding those special touches you've come to know us by. What I absolutely hate about the process? Proof reading. 

To date, Cantrip has experienced a handful of major typos. "Major," in this sense being typos that appear on our packaging and potentially affect how a customer interprets our product. Despite passing our work through five different sets of eyes, little errors manage to make their way to the final print. Infuriating doesn't even begin to cover it. 

Apparently typos occur because of how our brain simplifies familiar work. According to this blog, our thinking muscles are working to sort through related information as fast as possible, often mixing up similar spellings. Too complicate matters more, when the focus is on overall design- the spelling of things often fall to the wayside. 

By no means do I write this as an excuse. We hold ourselves to the best professional standards possible, and packaging errors threaten to chip away at the reputation of a company. Instead, I figured it would be an interesting look behind the curtain of small business growth. We're also well aware of the brilliant individuals known as copy editors - but we often work with such quick turnaround times that there's not room for outsourcing. Perhaps in the future! 

So please forgive us the next time you see an error on our fine wares. I promise you we've seen it and cringe with every glance. We've got bulk orders of prints waiting in the shelves, and as soon as we need to restock- we'll fix the mistake. Waste not want not right?

That being said - if you come across one you think we haven't noticed - shoot us an email and we'll eat some more humble pie.