responsibility
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- _salisae_
how responsible am i for a designer's design as an art director?
the work he's turning in is shit, in the purist form. at first i said 'move this here. change this color. change the font to this.' and he'd half heartedly make every move i suggested and then turn in his crap.
so instead i've been giving him an end goal .. design it to the quality of 'exhibit a'. and still .. just shit. my boss is wondering if it's me. i'm wondering if it's me.
the other unfortunate aspect of this is he's in austin and i'm here so it's sparse phone calls and some instant messaging. i've never even met him .. though he's been working for this company the longest of all the designers.
my boss is addressing this with him tomorrow and since i'm new to this position i just want to know .. how accountable am i for his work? 50%? 90%? is there something i could be doing that i'm not considering?
- slappy0
His heart might not be in it, you might ask him what he thinks so that he feels he is part of the process and gets more motivated...
Or he could just be shit, hard to tell.
- flavorful0
If he can't take your direction, he must be 100% stupid.
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Okay, I got nothing, I just want to try out the new site, haha.
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In my not so humble opinion, I'd almost say 90% - because you (guess) are kind of signing off on his work from what I'm reading. Get him in line, or tell him to get fucked.
- emokid0
i would place the art director's responsibility at about 79%. at the end of the day, the designer is someone working for the art director. the direction, vision, purpose, end goal and all those things are set by the art director or they ought to be. think of it as a magic ship floating through skies filled with fluffy corporate trivialities. and now imagine you are the captain of this ship. feels good doesn't it? now rein in your crew and make them run this join the way it ought to be. make us proud. godspeed!
- _salisae_0
i had to keep the entire staff 3 hours late friday to make up for his lack of motivation. i even emailed the work done right to him and said 'what do you think of the design? do you see what i meant you to do?' he just answers yes and gives no explanation.
we're planning to get more clients in austin and he's sort of at the hub of that. perhaps he is aware of the stock they hold in him.
- flavorful0
Well from experience, there is nothing worse than an employee who actually knows they hold cards. Most people like to think they are irreplaceable, but few are.
- emokid0
how does this work rate with the work he's previously done for the company? is this a one time thing or is his work in general below par?
- ukit0
100% responsible for his work, but probably something like 10% able to influence what he does.
A good designer should be able to turn out good work regardless of your direction. Your input should mainly be there to guide him into fulfilling the requirements of the project as you see it.
If he isn't able to make it happen, you should either (a) accept the quality of work he is able to produce and just roll with it, make the best of it (b) find someone else to do the job. If he's unfireable, put him on the non-critical projects and production type work that he can't fuck up.
- MrDinky0
passion is something you cant give
good eye is something he cant learnI would minimize his involvement in the project. Diminish his role. Once he understands that he is not doing anything really fun than he would at least try. Also, set him down and give him a complement sandwich. Crit of good + bad + good. Say that you want him to succeed.
This only works if you are direct manager not just per project.
Also, he is an "old timer" so it would hard to get him really motivated. Maybe he feels that he deserves to be AD.- I think you can develop a good eye if you work with a patient art director.mtgentry
- _salisae_0
I get the feeling he's made it this long by simply doing whatever someone told him to do. My boss has gotten good work out of him but admits that she went through a ton of rounds of coaxing him and his simian agility.
I guess I'll just have to accept that he's going to make my job a lot harder.
- slappy0
That sucks man.
- Rand0
I take full responsibility
- colin_s0
being a designer, generally i figure it's the art director's responsibility if they're trying to get what they want and my input doesn't matter as much.
being from austin, give me the dude's address and i'll go smack some sense into him.
seriously just put a line in the sand. shape up or ship out.
- ngebhard0
i've found that most people are usually aware when their work is sucking and always have a drive to do better even though it may be buried beneath a ton of baggage. i hate to get too touchy feely but have you had a heart to heart with him? with heart to hearts my wife taught me to use the words "i feel." it's not as accusatory and hostile as "you are not doing your job". something along the line of "i don't feel like we together are doing are best work." and then starting with yourself so he can open up a bit... "what can i do to get us to a place where we can together be proud of the work we're producing." if he doesn't open up to change or you don't gain some insight at that point i'd say it's time for a change.
wow... went way touchy feely rainbows and teddy bears there. don't hold it against me.
- version30
you could have just talked to me about it instead of seeking the advice of strangers. i say you both have communication problems and as his art director, you are at least 50% responsible for the work being turned in
- pr20
I was in similar situation countless of times -- not as art director but as a director on some music video or commercial or director of photography working with sub-par crew. I've learned that there are very few talented peps out there. For the most part "shapping" the people so they start producing better work really doesn't work. People either have the talent or they don't. I've made a mistake of keeping some sub-par workers out of principle of letting them grow but i don't anymore. Ultimately it's your %95 responsibility. You can blame the workers for not working as hard but it's also your fault for giving them so much time to screw around. Nowdays i fire the people very quickly. U either are the best of the best i can get for the rate (and have great vibe knowing that unfortunatly u should be getting paid more but we can't pay u more) or i hire someone else. There are long standing workers that i worked before that i know are great but somehow if fuck up i let them slide one or twice but it's only because they have proven to me that they usually kick ass. Sometimes people "outgrow" their positions and start getting bitter -- well it's not your fault or responsibility.
- _salisae_0
thank you for the well thought out responses :)
since i first posted i learned he was relying on the previous art director to give him design reference for each project and since i wasn't doing that he was floundering. compile that with a stagnant career and remote location = disaster recipe.
i hope he gets more out of finding his own solutions and feels less mac monkey-ish.