A Little Respect
Author of this post: Chris Costello | About Blog Authors »
I’ll pick up where the Queen of Soul left off. What is it going to take for those of us in the design field to get some? From clients who think they are designers. From marketing directors who believe brown doesn’t sell. From employers who think we do nothing but arts and crafts all day. I think I’ve seen it all, yet I’m still in this business. What am I, a glutton for punishment? No, I think I’ve just learned how to get what little respect I need to keep me going.
I was once hired as a Designer by a small book publisher. My predecessor was an administrative employee, who occasionally did some design work on an old Mac Quadra system. Her setup included a 15” Radius monitor. Does anyone remember those? They swiveled from portrait to landscape view. Beautiful. Anyway, the equipment was pathetic. I needed more, but my employers did not understand why. “It worked for her,” they said.
During my first week on the job, I had to schedule a meeting with my new boss and the finance department so that I might make my case for the purchasing of a new design workstation. It was a Christian book publisher, so I decided to compare my plight to that of the Israelite slaves, who while constructing the ancient Egyptian cities, suffered greatly at the hands of the oppressive pharoahs. Much like the slaves, I too was being told to make “bricks without straw”. I simply could not do what was being asked of me without the necessary tools and supplies. I carried on for about an hour until my employers gave in and allowed me to purchase a brand new Mac with a 21” display. That’s all I wanted, and a little respect was earned that day.
Now, part of the problem I faced was that, from the beginning, I had likened myself to a slave in the eyes of my employer. I have since grown more confident in my abilities, but I believe many designers feel now the way I did then - just do as your client or employer tells you to, as if you are nothing more than a trained monkey. If you fall into that trap, you must realize that your opinions are more valuable than those of the client, especially a client who thinks that all white space should be filled with something. You must develop the sort of confidence that makes them trust your design decisions. I have worked in places where everybody, including the sales team, thinks they’re a designer and thus wants to have a hand in the creative process. In situations like these, you, the real designer, need to stand up, defend your design decisions, and not be swayed by other people’s comments or suggestions regarding your work. You need to separate what is valid critique from blather such as “I don’t like purple”. You are the one who spent four years in design school, and several more in the trenches. Don’t let a copywriter tell you what font to use.
I really appreciate the American InHouse Design Awards, sponsored by GD USA Magazine. Initiated three years ago, it is a competition designed to feature the work of graphic designers who hold corporate staff positions. In-house designers face some unique design challenges and probably have a harder time commanding respect from co-workers and even designers on the “outside”.
Our staff has won several of these awards over the past three years, and each time, the VPs have not only announced the accomplishment throughout the company but also distributed nation-wide press releases. It has always been a great morale booster for the department. I’m sure this competition has helped many in-house designers throughout the country win well-deserved respect for themselves and their work.
Graphic Designer, Art Director, Web Designer, Interactive Designer, and Creative Director. These are all valid, desirable, and respectable occupations in today’s work environment. Those who hold such positions must believe that they do, in fact, make valuable contributions to both their client’s and employer’s businesses, and they should explain and publicize these contributions whenever possible. I think individual artists must grow confident in themselves, in their work, and especially their own opinions and creative decisions, if they hope to command the respect that they are due.
Please share other experiences or suggestions as to how we can gain more respect from those who “just don’t get us”?
October 4th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
I understand wanting to get respect from your coworkers. I started at a position working for an Alumni Association/Foundation at a state school. Because our budget was partially through the state we did not have much leway. I had to fight for anything that I wanted. Most of the people that I worked with did not understand what I did and how it was effecting them. They had been doing what I had done and it seemed to work for them. Thankfully I had a boss that understood design and comunication. He tried to help the rest of the coworkers to understand the importance of my job the work that I was doing.
He ended up leaving for another job and one of my former co-workers filled his position. She did not understand what I did and even asked me what I did for 8 hours. I tried to explain to her, with no avail. I ended up leaving the position because of her and the lack of respect. I found out from a former co-worker that they filled my full-time position with a part-time worker. She is swamped now and missing deadlines because she does not have enough time. I hope that they realize that she needs respect and time to complete what they want done. Especially if they want it done well.
I think sometimes you can try to teach and explain the importance of your job but others need to be open to change and be willing to listen.
I agree with the American Inhouse Design Awards. I applied last year and won. It was hard to explain to my boss (the new one) the importance of applying and to justify the cost (especially the cost to get into the magazine). Thankfully it was one of the things that I accomplished before I left.
Now I am working at a catalog company and I notice that there is more respect here. I support all inhouse designers and give you my respect.
October 4th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
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October 5th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
Ppttttph.
In MY day we had Mac Plus’s (1MB) and IBM PC Jr’s, with Ready,Set,Go! v0.5 and a 15MB [!] DataFrame SCSI external hard drive (we were professionals after all), networked by PhoneNet/Coaxial and printing to an Apple LaserWriter NTX - and we LIKED it that way!
Quadra? with an 15″ external monitor?, you were living in Shangri-La my friend.
;-)
Oh, you mean R-E-C-E-N-T-L-Y [?]
Nevermind.
My bad.
hylas
October 5th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
You’ve got to be kidding me. Do they still make Ready, Set, Go!? 1MB?!? (I remember the jump from 512K) How did you get anything done?
October 5th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
Thanks for your comment, Lisa. It seems like you did the right thing by just getting a new job. You can only explain so much to some people, then it’s time to move on.
October 6th, 2007 at 3:39 am
Chris,
Ready,Set,Go!:
http://www.diwan.com/ready/prsg.htm
I’m only half kidding.
My Wife’s the design “Rock Star”, I’m just the Systems Administrator and handle all the “other stuff”.
I’m great with the OSs, printers, set ups and color correction, etc., but can barely resize a image file correctly.
:-)
She’s been doing this since the origial Macintosh, and yes, they wowed everyone back then, but there was still plenty of paste up going on.
I have respect for what you all do, really.
Though I do take solace in watching her and her crew trying to set up network printer. (We all have our strengths.)
Our shop has everything from the aforementioned Mac Plus all the way to the new Core 2 Duos … running.
Oh, and the LaserWriter NTX is now upgraded to a IIg.
It’s a lot of fun when someone emails they have a QuarkXpress 3 document and remarks how impossible it would be to deal with it and she says, “yeah, we can handle that”.
Mac Plus/SE
http://www.jagshouse.com/macplus.html
http://oldmac.toddverbeek.com:8012/faq.html
As Servers:
http://www.ld8.org/servers/
Mactracker:
http://mactracker.dreamhosters.com/
Nice article.
hylas
October 12th, 2007 at 8:03 am
It’s so good to hear of others’ similar experiences. After two leaving two jobs for the same reason, I have finally decided to battle along the freelance path.
A team we put together for a project in Manchester, UK, are just finishing a video led web portal…Suddenly everyone is crawling out of the woodwork wanting their say. It’s the end of the damn project! Weeks of work which you now want to change!!
I was hoping that it would be different, as someone has taken us on to do this job. How naive! But I have realised that for every fool who thinks they know your job better than you, there are five more telling you what a stunning job you’ve done. Unfortunately, they aren’t paying us!
My confidence in my ability has grown. And I will not let it be shaken by these people.
I spent five years of my life studying visual communication and design. If someone thinks they know better, I just ask them to explain the reasons for there decision. Then, without being arrogant(?difficult?) explain WHY they are wrong. WHY I know better. If you have to blind them with science, so be it.
We all need to compromise.
If you can keep your own self respect and get paid, you’re onto a winner!
Not as easy as it sounds….
October 12th, 2007 at 8:42 am
[...] Jordan Fischer wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptI spent five years of my life studying visual communication and design. If someone thinks they know better, I just ask them to explain the reasons for there decision. Then, without being arrogant(?difficult?) explain WHY they are wrong. … [...]
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:57 am
A team we put together for a project in Manchester, UK, are just finishing a video led web portal…Suddenly everyone is crawling out of the woodwork wanting their say. It’s the end of the damn project! Weeks of work which you now want to change!!
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:04 pm
I have seen this at every job I have work at. We think we are finished with a project and are ready to move on, then 4 or 5 revisions of the final are thrown back at us… and we still have to meet the delivery deadline.
The editors, marketing people, and the VP have all the time they need to infuse their opinions and make their changes, but the designers are always the ones that get pressed up against the deadline.
March 28th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
I have respect for what you all do, really.I had to fight for anything that I wanted. Most of the people that I worked with did not understand what I did and how it was effecting them. But now i live. Thank’s