I work for a design firm. We’re in our weekly team meeting. My manager is reviewing project timelines, and everyone’s half-awake until one coworker, who’s been with the company for two years and understands roughly 3% of her job, suddenly chimes in:
Manager: “So, we’re aiming to have the client deliver final assets by Friday so we can start design on Monday.”
Coworker: *Interrupting.* “Wait, why are they sending us stuff? Shouldn’t we be sending them the assets?”
Manager: “No, we’re designing their product. We need their branding and content first.”
Coworker: *Squinting at his notes.* “Oh. I thought we already had their logo.”
Me: “We have a placeholder logo you pulled from Google Images.”
Coworker: *Nodding confidently.* “Yeah, that one.”
The room goes silent. Our manager takes a slow breath.
Manager: “Please tell me you didn’t send that to the client.”
Coworker: *Grinning.* “Well, I figured I’d save us time.”
Me: “You sent the wrong logo to the client. To save them time.”
Coworker: “Uh… yeah?”
The logo is a classic escutcheon, basically the heraldry shield you see on educational institutions, flags, government departments, etc.
Me: “The logo literally had lorem ipsum where their Latin motto will eventually go. The client thinks our final design is lorem ipsum?!”
Coworker: “Do those things mean something?”
Manager: “[Coworker], didn’t you go to Harvard?”
Coworker: *Proudly.* “Yeah!”
Manager: “You didn’t come across ‘Veritas’ written anywhere during your time there?”
Coworker: “Oh, yeah! I remember all the girls in my sorority saying, ‘In Vino Veritas’ or some s*** like that.”
Manager: “Well… anyway, we’re getting side-tracked. [My Name], call [Client] immediately and tell them what we sent was a placeholder. [Coworker], the text on the logo does mean something; it’s in Latin. Don’t assume it’s gibberish.”
Our manager manages to bring the meeting back on track. After the meeting, I go up to my manager:
Me: “[Coworker]’s Latin earlier, did she say—”
Manager: “—”In wine, there is truth”, yes, I caught that too. If that was her sorority’s motto, it explains the rest of her education…”