You're Going To Be Fine

• July 8, 2010
  4 Comments // Working Life

Generally I despise this kind of hallmark advice.

You know the sort, something that tries to evoke some sort of reaction as if it’s a revolutionary, deity-like discovery of thought, even though is is often closer to day-time television psychology.

But oh well, here it is:

You’re going to be fine.

I find my self compelled to say this, as it’s a big lesson I began to learn after I began my working life and I’m sure there are some people who are in that same position right now.

You’re going to be fine.

Honestly, totally fine. No problems. It’ll work out just dandy.

Experience & Trap Door Laughter

• May 18, 2009
  6 Comments // Working Life

When one has the same lesson over and over, it becomes known intimately. A person will know exactly how something will end, when it is experienced again and again and again. They will know the effect it will have, what the idea behind it is and eventually, even if it was at first, it becomes very unintelligent. It becomes stale, boring, obvious and foolish. This isn’t a secret by any means, yet many seem to forget about this little fact when it comes to dealing with clients, who haven’t had the lessons we have.

He doesn’t laugh at movies anymore. He said it so easily.

Well, that’s not completely true, he assures us. He says that this one film—he’s a film critic, you see—made him laugh once or twice, which was worthy of praise because he doesn’t laugh at movies anymore.

That’s a little jaded, isn’t it? That’s not a rhetorical question – I’m genuinely wondering if he can be labeled as jaded?

I watch this man and his co-host often. He, well, both of them, but it’s not her we’re talking about, has a very respectable intellect. He laughs and cracks his wit like a whip and has a joyous time with his on-screen partner, so clearly he’s a happy man, a man able to jest and smirk and laugh. So no, perhaps he isn’t jaded.

But, the thing is, he doesn’t laugh at movies anymore.

If one were to lend their thoughts to it for a moment, an easy discovery can be made – he doesn’t laugh at movies for the same reason doctors don’t shed tears for death. Which is the same reason a farmer isn’t bothered by going shoulder deep into Bessy. And why an electrician will happily play with that which can literally shock the life out of him

We’ve seen it before and know how it’ll work

Good Designers Ask "Why?"

• April 20, 2009
  59 Comments // Working Life

Asking the simplest of questions can debunk the oddest of requests. Asking Why? means those requesting the questionable must stand tall and proud and explain with certainty why they make their request. If they cannot answer, then it proves it was on a whim and probably worth ignoring. If they answer well, then chances are there is something beautiful-in-reason to be found in the answer.

As designers, we provide a service. Ok, nothing revolutionary in that statement. We’re service providers. Clients come to us with a problem, we perform the service of giving them a solution. Right? Right. Hmmm.

A problematic mind set …
is that we are nothing more than button pressers

A problematic mind set that has infectiously attacked many of our brothers and sisters of design is that we are nothing more than button pressers. An easily found conclusion. After all, when clients come to us for something, we must give it to them, that’s our role as, all together now, service providers. They want – we give.

The client, or some of the nastier ones, think along these lines, but aren’t stopped by the cure carrying designer. They demand we do it their way. And that’s fine. What isn’t fine is when the designer doesn’t question the decisions. Because when you, the designer, doesn’t question and just acts, then you simply become an interface that sits dumbly between the client and the software. You know the magic buttons to press, you have the software and the large monitor. Apparently this makes a designer.

You simply become an interface that sits
dumbly between the client and the software

The best part of doing so is that these types of designers later bitch and moan the loudest. The job looks awful! My client is an idiot! Why, oh why do I get the bad ones? Wah wah wah.

Don’t be one of these stooges. Just don’t, it’s stupid and a waste of your talent and time. The only difference between the self-loathing Mac operator and the happy and successful designer, who have both had their suggestions ignored, who both have clients who push them to develop shitty work—work the client loves and the designer loathes—is a simple questions. Why?

The good designer will always ask Why?

These Things, I Wish To Have Known

• March 8, 2009
  8 Comments // Working Life

How many times have you thought to yourself that you might have avoided a whole field of mental-mines if you had just known that some clients are going to be the beasts of nightmares and that it’s not so bad when you make a mistake? I put together a list of fifty or so tips I wish I had known when I started my working life. I hope to help at least one student relax a little.

The In-House

• February 6, 2008
  Nil Comments // Working Life

It doesn’t seem that long ago that my biggest worry wasn’t making sure a job was finished on-time, under-budget and looking good. My biggest worry was that I had enough change for a coffee and a pencil to sketch with. Then I began to work at an in-house studio and things changed a little.

The turn off the luscious path that is study and onto the straight and narrow road of full-time work was a sharp one for me. A very sharp one. It was a Friday night when my fellow recent graduates and I gathered to salute farewell to the end of our (then) current course of study and hello to the next step in our lives. While we ate, drank, talked and laughed, we spoke about what was on our horizons with joyful flee at the idea of doing what we’d been enjoying for the last couple of years and actually getting paid for it. The following Monday I nervously stepping onto a whole new platform. A platform, I quickly realised, I might not be ready for. Welcome to the world of the in-house studio.

For most of you reading this, the words that follow is going to hold no new truths. But for a lot of you, the working world is still on the other side of a piece of paper, and the in-house is probably something you haven’t given a lot of thought to. Before I proceed, however, let me just get this out – I don’t mind where I work. In fact, I quite like it, so lets not think I’m a bitter man, ok? Ok.

Factor in the extra layer of the business that we
are part of and the swamp gets a little thicker

The first thing that was a real shock was the systems. Chances are, most of the studios you’ll work in will have different ways of organising everything and a different process of working through a job. Factor in the extra layer of the business that we are part of and the swamp gets a little thicker. Work requests/time sheets are interesting things the first time you lay your eyes on one. Really interesting things when you’re in-house. Do you charge the client A-Rate or B-Rate? Oh, C-Rate, ok. Is it for TREST or ROM? Both? What do you mean? They changed their names? Merged? Rearranged their resources? When? The job is now twice as long? Since when? Oh, after the merge, got ya, so now it’s C-Rate for sure? They didn’t get approval from their supervisor for the finances? Ok, ok, I got it, we’re all good … We no longer charge for internal jobs? Unless they have external funding?