Working in-house?
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- fredddddd
Who here works in-house at a company? Do you like it more than client work?
Does it afford you more creativity?
- johnny_wobble0
I do.
pros: steady paycheck, regular hours
cons: gets monotonous, less portfolio pieces
- colin_s0
i do as well, and agree with what johnny says.
i think depending on where you are, you can have more creativity. as long as i maintain requests from marketing or product sides of the business, i can basically propose + do anything i please.
that being said it's been a few years and i'm moving on to other things in the next few months, because i feel a lot of the time it's completely exhausting trying to come up with new solutions to the same problems.
there are other cons but, suffice to say it was fun while it lasted, but these things end for a reason.
- lvl_130
i did for a long period.
johnny wobble kind of hit it on the head...although not sure i'd agree with the less portfolio pieces-kind a depends how big the place is and the types of campaigns you are involved with.
the regular hours thing was probably the biggest incentive.
- regular hours bum me out. i'm never productive in the afternoon, but i work well between 10pm - 2am.colin_s
- by that I meant, how much of the same client's stuff do you want to show?johnny_wobble
- vaxorcist0
Some people do in-house well, I did for a while till the structure changed... depends a LOT on the relationship with your boss, and if other people in the company are jealous of "those creative wackos"
I'd keep doing the odd freelance gig, so your folio stays fresh and so you keep up with contacts outside your company...
- ideaist0
Creatives belong in small groups, if not on their own; originality can only be accomplished in isolation...
- rascuache0
I just did this for 3.5 years.
I loved it at first, was really idealistic about changing the way the company looke, which was perhaps, in retrospect, quite naive. But it took me quite a while to earn enough respect to have a decent say in big design decisions, even though I was the only designer.
Nobody really listened to me for like a year, arguably they still didn't when I left, but that was after a structural change which admittedly put my nose out of joint a wee bit.That political aspect was a bit of a shock, though there's no saying that every company will be like that. I also felt quite isolated at times and found it difficult to get other parts of the company to empathise with some of the requirements of the job, but I guess you get that with any external client eh?
Positives were that some of my colleagues will truly be friends for life, so I was lucky there. Also the money was great and it was really secure.
TLDR: What johnny_wobble said.
- akrok0
same shit.
- the novelty of working in your undies wears off kind of quickly.ohhhhhsnap
- akrok0
at least it's not PHARMA.
- cannonball19780
Good work is good work. If you're the top pharma graphics guy thats head and shoulders above a diversified and snazzy portfolio. Who the hell cares about a portfolio anyway if you aren't looking for a job?
- 'cause you might be looking for a job tomorrow.johnny_wobble
- he's right... getting too comfortable in an in-house gig can be a career pitstop or career killer....vaxorcist
- Yup. I've got maybe 4-5 projects out of my time in-house that I'm truly proud of.rascuache
- Moo0
I've worked as an in-house web designer for 4 years and have built up a large folio of work. The only thing I found was that you don't seem to develop and there isn't much scope of progession
- eegrek0
I do. For me, it's an outdoor company and so the work fits my lifestyle and interests; climbing, backcountry skiing, being active, etc..
But as for work, I'll agree with johnny_wobble and rascuache. The graphic design department sits in marketing and I feel it doesn't get the respect it deserves. Everyone thinks they know best, and getting assets or a plan for the season to develop ideas is like pulling teeth. Coming from a couple small design studios, I found the politics within a bigger company were a bit of a shock to me. I find that if you are making a difference in improving design and doing new projects it's a lot of fun, but if you just end up being a production artist cranking out the same stuff year after year with new content, it can be boring. You need to find the right company that will allow growth and exploration of design. The steady paycheque is nice.
- I manage a team of 4 graphic designers. So it's not just me. We are a tight group.eegrek
- technosoul0
Agreed. I make 30k more now, and leave at 5:30-6 everyday, but I miss the hustle and intensity, Agency life gives you. The only way I can justify it, is I have enough down time to learn 3d and new programs, then finally go freelance.
- Continuity0
I did in-house a couple of times, and it made me deeply, deeply unhappy. I felt like I was turning into a one-trick pony, working on the same brand/product/service eight hours a day. Felt like I was wasting my career, and the salary wasn't even that great; also, the politics were really, really stressful.
Back in agency now, and I'm a happy boy.
- notverycontrary0
SSDD
- MrT0
It depends where you are. I did it for a couple of years in a videogame developer and it was an excellent time. I've had much less rewarding/enjoyable periods while being a freelance or in an agency...
- k_temp0
I do.
Work in the Exhibition Department at the American Museum of Natural History in NY. We do all permanent and travelling exhibitions along with some internal graphics/signage; weirdly enough, we don't do the advertising for our shows that's out-sourced which always turn out crappy.
We do have license to have creative freedom in design, both architecturally and graphically, however, the bitchiest thing is the budet. After 2008 a lot of companies stopped funding or funds less and that kinda fucks up our desire to experiment with new stuff. Also, the fact that we range from all topics in science helps us stay interested.
I've been here 5-6 years, first job, and I really wish i'd work for clients just to get to know the business side more.
- d_rek0
Worked at a small (10 person) studio in downtown detroit for almost 3 years and then jumped to in-house at a global engineering firm last May (about 9 months here).
Most of the work that is done is for our parent companies subsidaries, which is surprisingly varied. The pros are that the people here are generally very easy to get along with and pretty much let you take as much creative liberty as you want - within the confines of their conservative engineer-minded approaches (heh). The cons are that the workflow at times can be depressingly organic and unstructured, with lots of different people chiming in and making decisions and throwing their egos around.
Does it afford me more creativity? I think that's largely a matter of the individual. I don't think working here affords me any more/less creativity than work at the studio did. Sure, the client-base was more varied at the studio but that really didn't mean a whole lot when most of the clients sucked.
- Bets0
I've been working in-house for a nonprofit for 3.5 years. The design department is under the marketing department. It does not pay well, but the security, benefits and regular hours are pretty nice.
The downside is it does become the same projects over and over again. There isn't a lot of room for growth or learning (at least here). Not all but most, internal clients don't take what you are doing seriously, and love going to an outside agency (this includes our marketing director). It also breeds a level of complacency and laziness, because everyone feels so secure they're not motivated to do more and really push new ideas through.
I do believe it is all dependent on where you work and who is managing your team. I good in-house manager makes all the difference in terms of the respect you receive and the level of professionalism your department has. This might be a good book to check out "In-House Design In Practice".
- i_monk0
I work in a sub-studio that is the externalized in-house studio for a client, if that makes any sense. We get little respect from Marketing, and the rest of our company has no idea who we are and we have little contact with them, so there isn't much of a shared studio culture.