inhouse vs. design studio
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- tetedecat
I've been working in house for about a 1 and a 1/2 year.
I was about to switch to a position in a design firm when I got a better offer for, again, an in house position.It just seems more fun, more exciting and more $$$. Dont think I can pass...
Let's say I work a few more years in house, any thought on how hard would that be to get a decent position in a design firm without previous agency experience?
- tank020
inhouse=crap
we have to work sometimes with inhouse design studios for large ci projects, ughh horrible...but i think in belgium an inhouse studio means that they bought creative suite for some employers.- a tad generalised surely? i've seen some good design from inhouse and seen some fucking terrible design from so-called design studios.airey
- utopian0
Advice: Stay inhouse until the economy picks back up, if you get a new job right now you will more than likely be the first to get laid-off as we go into a recession, good luck.
- very wise adviseLlyod
- you would say that since you suck too much to hack in a real agency. cunt.Lloydscunt
- czawada0
I've done both, and even though I was working in house for big name skate and snowboard brands it still sucked.
Agency/studio for me.
- RDS?madirish
- Fourstar Dist, they own C1RCA Footwear and owned Forum, Jeenyus, Special Blend, Foursquare before selling to Burton.czawada
- Burton.czawada
- for sure. nice.madirish
- yeah, definitely a nice company.Jaline
- Nice from the outside looking in. Only perk was shitloads of free gear, was like being sponsored without all the work.czawada
- That's pretty sweet.Jaline
- ...and, yeah, I'll take your word for it. I have no idea how these things work.Jaline
- gramme0
I've done both and design studio beats the hell out of in-house 9 out of 10 times. Your boss(es) and employees all share the same business values. It's an unquantifiable but huge benefit over working with a bunch of marketing/sales goons. When those people are the client and not the co-worker, it's a lot easier to put up with their nonsense and take it all in stride. Just my 2ยข...
- skwiotsmith0
In-house design gets a really bad wrap, and for very valid reasons. But, it's not all bad. And honestly, my only complaint about in-house design work is that after about a year and a half, staring at the same fonts, colours, logos, etc gets really old and boring.
Still, depending on your position as an in-house designer, it could actually be good if you are in a position to steer the design direction of your company...
- I am a freelancer now, just for disclosure. Probably wouldn't go back to an in-house unless things got really bad...skwiotsmith
- vague0
if youre an inhouse Burton designer, youre one of only a few, and your work can shine across an entire brand.
if youre at a studio/agency, youre a small ass wheel in a gigantic machine, with responsibilities that were divided a hundred times and neatly handed out to each little designer on the team.
are you telling me youd really rather be doing cut-outs of high-res images handed to you by an AD, or always animating some annoying copy text on a flash site that was designed by some guy at the top of the food-chain? enjoy.
- monNom0
just start at the top. simple.
- czawada0
I'd like to post more, but I'm too busy cutting out hi-res images.
- vague0
your job sucks.
- vague0
btw, explain how i am wrong in any way shape or form.
unless youre talking about a 20-person designer team at an agency.
if youre at a place with 200 designers working there, youre absolutely nothing but a shitty wheel in the machine.
- This may be true in some agencies, but it's not the case in all of them.czawada
- thenuge0
I put in about two years in house with a guitar manufacturer. It was an awesome job. I was able to visually change entire brands. however, the politics, pay and location all really really sucked bad. But, it was some of the best work I've ever produced.
- czawada0
I can assure you that isn't the case where I work.
There's your explanation.
- dyspl0
been working in house for 4years.
the good :
-creative
-more time on each task
-you can see the brand evolving
- you can work on many different thingsthe bad :
-if the brand is going in a bad direction, you will do shit for the complete season...
-routine after a while
- Llyod0
In-house is very important for companies to have, it's cheaper and they tend to get what they want when they want it. For the designer in-house can be really freaking boring (same shit all the time) aut on the plus site it usually it pays more. What utopian says.
- you would know cause you can't hack it in a real studio. cuntLloydscunt
- rafalski0
I work in house for a large company, mostly on its intranet. Less stress, less deadlines, more time to better develop things, more qbn and mo' money. It very, very rarely exceeds 9 to 5 and if it does it's 90% of the time because I wanted to finish things that could wait.
If i take freelance nobody has a problem with it, because I'm not competing with them.
I never missed working at an agency, but I never truly enjoyed working at these, at least compared to freelance.- It would be nice to get more surfing in, but i care too much abt the work that I'm doing...for now at leastwendog
- wendog0
Agency...Definitely...Ive heard too many horror stories of in-house designers having to do a ton of BS work, as well as being spit on routinely. When you are at a good agency, and get a crappy client, you move on to other clients - simple...When you work in house, it seems like its working non stop for one big crappy client, and you are thrown in with all of their BS...As for steady hours, who cares...its about the work and clients...as for money, the good shops pay for talent...as for portfolio, it broadens your experience by providing different clients with different needs.