Creative Director vs Marketing Director..

[cgmpowers]

I work for a small to medium sized company (about 50+ people in the corporate offices, about 100 company wide). I work in the corporate offices.

The Creative Director has worked for this company since day one (its a little over a 1 yr old company). The Marketing Director is in charge of the marketing and creative departments.

There's 10 of us in my entire department. The Marketing Director, the Public Relations Director, the Director of Internal Communications, The Creative Director (my boss), a Production Cordinator & myself as a Graphic Designer. There's also a fulltime onsite Marketing Consultant w/ 3 of his own employees who work fulltime for us as well (they do the marketing for media buys for print, radio, tv advertisement plus a billion other daily things).

I was wondering for those who work with in-house design teams such as I do, how does it 'work' in your company?

I've been there less than 2 months and barely have any contact with anyone but the creative director. He's very talented and does an amazing job but seems to get little credit from the marketing department who all but treat him as a "photoshop editor" (his words, not mine).

I'm not sure if its his stress level or my newness of working as a designer for an inhouse design team in a company or what but I seem to do a lot of work that gets canned by the marketing department because they do not communicate well with the creative department (my creative director and myself).

I'd love to hear how others do in their inhouse design teams.. (i.e. not graphic design firms, just companys who have inhouse design teams). How much control or say does a Creative Director really have on new concepts and execution of ads, design, development of a graphic standards, etc?

[greyghost]

I think the source of the problem is the company you work for is SO young, and has apparently grown SO fast, that there are bound to be some conflicts and small struggles, or "growing pains." Your office's entire culture is still developing.

Now: marketing people, by definition, should be excellent communicators. It is they who pride themselves upon making an idea hit the public and make them want to buy it. All graphic designers worth their salt can do this to one extent or another, but marketing people make this their "specialty."

So if your marketing people are not communicating well, it is wasting billable hours of your time and hurting your company, not just financially, but it hurts the creative department's creative abilities as well.

I would suggest a sit-down with the marketing team. Your art director should take the lead, and not make it an accusatory festival, but "this is our problem, how can we improve communication and stop wasting time and money?" Suggest ways to fix the problem - a form to fill out, a short briefing about each project... but something in writing to back you up that you DID what they requested.

That way your butts are covered.

[deviled egg]

Forms are definitely a must. my mom always told me to get it writing. make an outline of the flow that needs to happen ( ie: who meets with the client, how the ideas are recorded so they can be expressed to the designer, things like colour preferences, formats and target audiences are important)


so you're not wasting billable hours and can be more productive. Creating and implimenting these systems takes time, patience and understanding from everyone that this is how we run things. It also requires people to change habbits :confused:(hurdle to overcome) and be in constant communication :eek:(another hurdle). Work is like everything in life, it can be difficult, it can be rewarding, but making positive steps will only make it better. Good luck!:)

[skirklan]

Christopher--Yikes. I have been where you are. It sounds like your marketing consultant+3 is trying to edge the inhouse dept. (creative director) out and move himself into place. Your creative director needs to work on his relationship with the CEO (or whoever is the controlling boss of that area). If the marketing consultant succeeds, you will eventually be reporting to him. It sounds as if you already are; that it's just a matter of formality now, since he has the power to dismiss your group's input.

There are some articles I've written on this site that talk about how I dealt with some of the very same issues in a corporate inhouse battlefield. Please check them out and perhaps pass them on to your boss. Move quickly to cement those relationships with the higher ups or someone will be out of a job; and it won't be the marketing consultant.

Here's the link (http://blogs.graphicdesignforum.com/skirkland)
In particular, read "Suits 101" and "Cha-cha-cha-changes" and "Marketing Maniacs" and "Shake 'em Up" as they all involve the terrors of inhouse marketing people and the politics involved. Good luck.

[Broacher]

Sheesh. A creative director. Wouldn't that be nice? In my 18 years as a corporate in-houser, I've never worked under one. Only Marketing Directors. There have been many, many times I wished it were otherwise.... someone who understands the language, the parameters. [sigh] But-- you just do what you just does.