work ≠ personal satisfaction
- Started
- Last post
- 57 Responses
- hargbine0
that's exactly it animated...it seems to me that's the consequences of their thinking
- hargbine0
@peter agree on the drinking part. and about the islands of satisfaction in a sea of hard work.
[pours a glass of whisky]
I'm not saying that that design work (the results) should be personal expression or a personal playground.
But I think that the creative connections (personal) you come up with through the design process (univeral & personal methodologies) in the service of your client (their business and objectives), is ultimately, a personal endeavor.
...
I get the service industry part, and coming up with efficiencies based on client constraints via design is awesome. Strive to do your best for all of your clients within their limits and yours.
But giving away logos no better than clipart because you're just pulling something out the archives, and continually making excuses for disrespectful clients is not "the Business of Design".
That's where I'm calling bullshit.
How can you call that design?
Don't slam your designers for trying to implement basic design strategies for projects and call it "work".
- zoozoo0
your boss is telling the truth.
in the end your a barber.
- uan0
he says "shouldn't expect", doesn't mean you will not get some sometimes...
- hargbine0
I'm just finding that their approach seems like a huge dead-end.
I've worked in San Francisco, New York, Cincinnati for years (10+) and never heard anything like that.
Yes, we're in a service industry, but if you don't get satisfaction of a job-well done with a client, then fuck it. Why are you working for them?
- Peter0
Well there you go. With the (personal). Again: it's never personal. if the person that ultimately pays your bill is after those clipart, not our own ideas about good design, then that's what the billpayer shall have.
You can try to fight that, and kudos to you for demanding more satisfaction, but after a decade in you'll have the experience of knowing that most of the time the billpayer often asks but rarely wants what's ultimate. ...often regardless of the logic and reason you present behind your actions.
The Business of Design? Any business is business. Whether finance, pushing coke or pushing pixels.
- hargbine0
it feels like it's just this place churning out work just to get paid and trying to justify "design" as a business
- monospaced0
Your boss and former AD seem bitter.
- _me_0
i always make logos 10% smaller and text 1pt smaller - so the client in their wisdom, "can you make make it bigger by 10% and 1pt size bigger? ". Beat them at their own game. It gives me much satisfaction.
- hargbine0
^ yep, and me and the other designers are fighting to not be bitter
its a very odd thing to fight
- jtb260
You get what you put into it.
Saying you're here to 'serve the clients' can either mean your there to pusha da pixels for some ass hole in an office or it can mean that your a valued partner and consultant.
If you accept that the former is true than your absolutely right. If you strive for the later you'll find it really rewarding. Being invested in your clients success and creating beautiful work that helps them succeed can be very personally rewarding.
For me, I've been on both sides of it. I worked in-house for people who don't understand or value design. My misery there was probably in my own failings to create work that was meaningful and strategically relevant. I've been lucky enough to end up at an agency where the people 'get it' and are passionate about the work.
- scarabin0
i get very little creative satisfaction from work these days. i blame the fucked up infrastructure and poor creative direction, but it has driven me to do my own personal pieces, from which i derive massive creative satisfaction, making me happy at work. go figure.
- <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Knuckleberry
- What Knuckleberry said. And Scarabin, too.hellobotto
- desmo0
Is your glass half empty or half full?
People get bitter after years and years in this industry...like any job, of course.
And like any job, it can be a grind.
- bored2death0
You think the client is there so you can win awards?
- hargbine0
jtb26, thanks x1000
that echoes a ton of our conversations here. I just can't believe they act like it's a strategic position. most of the clients lately are a bunch of douchebags with no respect for design process—which seems to have infiltrated the entire studio.
scarabin, true too. thx
- hargbine0
bored2death, no, not saying that. but if the integrity of your thought process, and ability to integrate elements of design is compromised over and over because the clients you work for don't care, then years later, you've got shit to show for your design abilities
design for designers sake (aka awards) is a whole nuther debate
- scarabin0
in the end i'd rather people remember me for my personal work, not my client work; but that's just me