the joys of in-house design

[lokki]

Does anyone else here work as in house designer for a company??
It drives you mad…
Everyone always throwing their two pence in.
I get all the time, so much so that I am now leaving and looking for a job with a design company. Its not that I don’t think the same will happen at a design company but at least they will be informed two pence's the people will be throwing in…
I had to do an album cover for a band recently through work. It was a female fronted rock band, y'know the kind. Guitars and operatic singing, that kind of rubbish. Anyway release date is very soon. There was no cover so I was drafted in to create something. The brief was create something romantic, with a lake and moon but also a bit surreal / dreamy but bear in mind they are a serious metal/rock act…

Ok.. No worries I knocked something up (attached image) in half a day …. From scratch! Sweat pored from every orifice knowing that if I missed the deadline id get the usual ear ache, and those poor rock chicks don’t get their album out in time.. I could be a hero..anyway….

Job is done!

On time… no worries…

Everyone is happy at first but then the comments come in… my favourite was by the A+R guy (yeah.. Believe it or not this guy has no formal design experience or qualifications…yeash, hard to believe I know...)…, anyway this was the comment:
"can you make it err… more graphical"

Hmmm… what do you say to that abstract piece of art direction… this was a cover turned around in 4 hours sunshine! You try it… blank screen to concept to final artwork….4 hours…...

My advice to anyone who faces this is to get a bit of satisfaction by not changing anything at all, go for a coffee then come back and go " how about that?"

Nine times out of ten…"yeah, that’s better"!
Arrrgh!

[lokki]

attahced cover

[Jackimalyn]

Ha! "Joys of in-house design"

good one.

[Satchel]

I dont see any attachments but I know the feeling, I too work as an in-house designer. bah, I hate people's comments sometimes! Or how they think you can just read their minds... you told me so vaguely what you wanted, and I made something out of it but it's not what you wanted, how was I to know?

[Craig B]

Ih house can certainly become frustrating. Find the projects and clients that you enjoy working with and pour your energy into those. The other projects that get torn to shreds, revised into oblivion and art directed by everyone who sees it ... all I can say is do what I do. Give in. Don't work hard at it and give them lackluster to start with. It'll keep you less stressed and it'll make you less attached when they tell you they want some crazy, insipid change.

Also, make sure to work on projects for yourself, and freelance (but only for people that respect what you're doing ... you've already got to deal with morons at work, no point taking on more morons for freelance.)

Hang in there.

[budafist]

I can't see an attachment either, but I can feel your pain.

I've done a few books for university where everyone on the faculty gets to put in their 2 cents. I send pdf proofs out to all the writers of the book because I want them to proof their copy. What I get back are design changes..."can you just change the font to...." Me: no, because if I change the font for your article, I would have to change the font for the whole book! I was allowed to ignore the design changes from the various writers (thank goodness).

[hewligan]

I work in-house. To be honest, it's not too bad. There are a few people around here who are the fiddle with everything types. Most, though, are the kind of people who figure that as I'm the trained designer and all, I probably know better.

And for the ones who do want to change everything - well, I just follow CraigB's approach. Honestly, if they really want crap design, they can have it.

[Craig B]

Once again, as hewligan mentioned, I promise you'll be less stressed and happier if you give the nitpicky heavy art directing types the crap they want ... you'd most likely have to kill yourself to MAYBE produce something for them that they'll be happy with that would be a portfolio piece, but it's not likely.

[budafist]

True, sometimes you have to give people what they want. They wouldn't know good design if it smack them across the face.

[budafist]

...goodness that last post sounded very bitter. Apologies.

[hewligan]

No matter how tempting it may be, never, ever hit people across the face with good design. Most employers frown upon violence in the workplace.

No matter how much the tasteless, colourblind moron may deserve it ;)

[Craig B]

Hewligan, if you weren't on the other side of the world I would swear you work where I do.

[CatintheHat1]

I wanna seeeee....I wannnnaaaa seeeeeeeeeee

[Broacher]

Rushed work, in isolation, inevitably leads to pious thanks for your amazing skill in getting something done under impossible pressure.... followed almost immediately by critical back snipes by the armchair designers.

I think it's true that one of the roles we designers have to routinely adopt is 'lawyer'--that is, we have to be able make a convincing case to our clients. But that's rarely an affordable luxury in the 'seat of your pants' mode too common with in-house mode, where given the time constraints, you're lucky to come across sounding like an intern for Lionel Hutz.