RSS Feed
Tag Archive: information
I’m pleased to announce that I just finished The Corporate Creative: Tips and Tactics for Thriving as an In-House Designer by Andy Epstein. I had the pleasure of attending two of Andy’s seminars at the 2009 HOW Design Conference in Austin, and it’s worth reporting that Andy is responsible for my current quest for knowledge on the intricacies of running (or being a part of) an in-house corporate design department.
I’ve described a few of Andy’s points that really hit home for me:
One of the most powerful actions you can take is to consistently forge strong personal relationships with your clients and upper management. Embrace the tenets of customer service! Your clients will be the biggest advocates for you (and your department) when you provide them with great service. Want some real-life proof? Here’s an excerpt from an e-mail my in-house team got yesterday:
“Hey marketing geniuses, our meeting with [name omitted] could not have gone any better! The book you all prepared for us made the meeting go incredibly smooth… It’s one thing to have a good program and talk about it, its another to back it up with the style and class you put forth… Thank you again! [Department name omitted] would still be in the dark ages if it weren’t for Marketing.”
Practice the Three-R’s: Retreat, Reflect, and Respond. Whatever that zinger is about to slip out, either mentally or physically withdraw from the situation, think about what result you’d like to have come out of that situation, and act appropriately to achieve that result. Us designers tend to wear our hearts on our sleeves… my current boss even told me once that I have no poker face. (This further explains why I don’t really care for poker.) Be professional, be polished, and be proactive.
If a client asks for something to be completed in an unworkably short period of time, don’t use the word unreasonable, which could be interpreted as your seemingly self-serving option. Use the word “unworkable” and explain why it’s unworkable. Technical constraints? Quality concerns? Need time for the creative process to happen? Tell the client, be specific about it, and over-communicate your progress!
Remember, it’s who you are that matters. Andy suggests remembering these four points:
1. It’s not enough just to be a good designer when working in-house.
2. It’s not enough to satisfy your creative muse through the practice of design.
3. It’s not enough to coast through your job.
4. And it’s definitely not enough to skirt the big issues regarding your career and blow off taking the time to really determine what you want in your professional life…As an in-house designer, you need skills that your peers in agencies and studios don’t.
As a designer, you are one of the “experts” of your brand. Andy advocates avoiding “brand blindness” by asking yourself these three questions:
1. Who buys our product?
2. Where is the first point of contact made?
3. Is the brand message clearly communicated in our design?
Focus! Interpret what the client is saying (ie. “Make the logo bigger!”) into something that will make the design better (“The client is telling me that our branding needs to be clearer to the end user… making the logo bigger may not be the best solution, but I’ll think of other ways to achieve this goal.”).
Define the problem before you offer any solutions! Whenever your client starts to art direct (and they will), move the conversation back to the marketing goals. As I mentioned in a previous post, ask questions… ask a ton of questions!
Don’t forget about quality: in your work, in your relationships, in your environment, and in your talent… if you don’t effectively advocate for quality in your companies, you and your team are destined to become mere order takers with fixed inputs and outputs, devoid of quality thought and design, that add no real value to your company.
Don’t give up! We all have our bad days, but remember to stay positive; your mood will be reflected IN your work, and in your performance AT work.
When your job beats you down, or your clients disrespect you, when you get little support from upper management, and all your peers are constantly complaining, it’s easy to throw in the towel and become just another apathetic disaffected in-house designer. If you’re unfortunate enough to get to that point, you should either quit (your job) or start taking positive action to improve your environment. Otherwise, you’ll end up far worse professionally, creatively, and personally.
Be a creative consultant; think differently than your nondesign peers and contribute perspectives and insights on nondesign problems that will be innovative and valuable. What else can be said? Make yourself available, and make yourself known as a knowledgeable and talented resource to your clients!
Andy’s book is full of very useful, and incredibly relevant information on all aspects of building, working in, and maintaining a successful, productive, and respected in-house design department. This book is so comprehensive that I can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone: a current in-house designer, a designer switching over from an agency, a student, or perhaps most importantly, the Vice President of your company (who’s probably not exactly sure what the heck it is you do).
In the meantime, go buy Andy’s book at Amazon.com, or at MyDesignShop.com. While you wait for that to arrive, visit Andy’s blog, the InHOWse Designer Blog, which offers daily posts on in-house design.
Throughout my career, both as an in-house designer, and in running my own design business, I’ve seen businesses that seem to take great joy in the design-by-committee mentality… everyone wants to be part of the process, and there are never benefits to this. Think of it this way: if you hire an electrician, do you follow him around all day and tell him how to rewire your house, or do you just trust his expertise and let him fix whatever is wrong?
“My nephew is good at the Photoshop… why don’t you call him? I’m sure he can help… he’s ten.”
“My wife really likes blue. Can you make the red more blue?”
“I really need this to “pop”. Really jump off the page at the reader. Can you bold and underline this whole paragraph?”
Designers, by nature, are problem solvers. We go to school, we attend seminars, and we work tirelessly to perfect our craft, so why do outside departments feel the need to over-supervise us? Here’s my advice. Whether your client is internal or external, ask questions that go beyond the creative brief. Ask questions until you’re blue in the face. You’re working with this person; make yourself an asset to them.
What are the client’s motives?
Why is this project important to them?
What message is most important to them?
What does the client hope to accomplish with this project?
Can you or the client define a measurement of success? Is it a sales goal, a customer action, etc.?
Even if you’re not familiar with the client’s industry (or business), you can use that to your advantage:
“I’m sorry, I’m not really familiar with your field… can you explain it to me?”
“I’d like to get a better understanding of how you see this project fitting in to your overall sales process…”
Show your client that you (and your team) are a valuable resource to the company by communicating, taking the “high road”, and meeting the client (more than) halfway. Most times, the client will see that you’re truly expressing an interest in their project and they’ll let you be the expert when it comes to design.
Speider Schneider from Smashing Magazine explains,
“The sensible answer is to listen, absorb, discuss, be able to defend any design decision with clarity and reason, know when to pick your battles and know when to let go.”
As Speider mentioned, I suspect that with the proper amount of communication (I’m a trained professional), a little push-back (this is why bold-ing the whole paragraph won’t work), and a lot of patience we might just have a shot at changing things.*
Read the inspiration for this article by Speider Schneider here at Smashing Magazine.
*Of course, there are those “clients from hell” that are probably beyond help…
Produced by the College of Computer and Information Science at Northeastern University (my alma mater), and Harvard Medical School at Harvard University, the above infograph was built using over 300 million tweets and shows density-preserving cartograms for each hour of the day (EST), by U.S. state. According to this data, us New Englanders are indeed a cranky bunch, only tweeting happy things in the early morning and late at night! (It also kind of makes me want to drop everything and move to California.)
Download a high-resolution PDF here.
Designed by Eric Fischer, these graphics log where tourists (red dots) and locals (blue dots) take photographs in a city.
Joseph Jaffe (of JaffeJuice.com) explains how through things like customer service, customer experience, dialogue, a proper listening/response strategy, brands can show that they care about their customers. Furthermore, Mr. Jaffe goes on to tell us that customer retention is the new customer acquisition… the process he describes will create a loyal, credible, authentic customer base who will advocate for your brand.
Purchase Mr. Jaffe’s book “Flip the Funnel” here. Video via HubSpot.
In-house designers, believe it or not, have access to things that their counterparts in outside agencies will never have; namely the time to connect with their internal clients. Though, as AIGA.org columnist Michelle Taute points out, the in-house designer might feel like his/her fellow employees don’t even speak the same language at times.
Don’t forget: EPS might be the designer’s “Encapsulated PostScript”, but it will be “Earnings Per Share” to a chief officer.
Taute advises to mirror your client’s communication style and vocabulary. For example, here’s how she suggests to effectively communicate with these groups:
C-level executives:
“Making a succinct business case can help you engage a C-level audience because you’re highlighting what they care about most: the bottom line. Before meeting with a senior leader, practice what you’re going to say and eliminate unnecessary information. Also, be ready to swiftly move to the most essential information.”
“Most marketing and communications professionals have worked with creative staff members before, but that doesn’t mean communication is always smooth. Meet with your marketing peers to make sure everyone is on the same page with a project before you start the first comp. Outline specific goals and objectives that everyone can work toward. What do you want people to do or think when they receive the brochure? What’s most important to get across? How will you measure success?”
Other staff:
“Unlike marketing professionals who may commonly work with creative teams, staff-level professionals in other departments may have little or no experience collaborating with designers. Because of that, it’s useful to spend a little time educating them on the design process, without using jargon or becoming overly technical. A member of your sales team, for example, may have no idea that making changes to a brochure at blueline could result in cost overruns, for example.”
Finally, Taute shares some basic communication techniques for any client:
“1. Always take a team approach. Adopting an “us vs. them” mentality with a client will only make the project harder.
2. If you’re discussing visual styles, use samples to get on the same page rather than descriptors. “Simple” and “elegant” don’t mean the same thing to everyone.
3. Get to know the client and work on building the relationship. Ask about the biggest tasks and challenges they face, and remember to really listen to the answers.
4. Read the trades. If you frequently work with a particular department—for example, direct marketing—read trade magazines to get a sense of the latest developments and challenges in that industry.”
I might add at this point, that I think numbers 1 and 3 are of utmost importance. Don’t forget- as a designer, you are a problem solver and you are there to provide service to your client. Establishing a relationship and showing that you have just as much vested in a project as the client does shows them that you’re committed to a solution!
Via AIGA.org.
The Concrete Goals Tracker, developed by David Seah, is a helpful form that helps you track the work you’ve done over the course of a week. Available in multiple sizes for printing or as an Excel spreadsheet, this form will help you get your productivity back on track. David writes:
“As you accomplish various goal-related items throughout the day, fill in the appropriate bubble to log the points. At the end of the day, you will see how well you did (or didn’t). Each CGT form tracks an entire week, so you will see how you did every day, and week-by-week… and most importantly, what you did to move yourself along your path. Since the items on the task list award points only for tangible results, you will have made actual progress.”
Via Lifehacker and David Seah.
A great article on AIGA.org from Andy Epstein, the co-founder of InSource, an association dedicated to providing support to in-house designers and design team managers. Andy is also head of an AIGA task force on corporate design, where he continues his efforts to empower in-house teams and raise their stature in the design and business communities.
I heard Andy give two talks this past summer at the HOW Design Conference in Austin, where he spoke about this very subject. At the time, I thought I was the only one facing these situations in the workplace; it was a real eye-opener for me (and a load off my mind) that other designers were facing the same challenges. As the sole member of an in-house design team, I always tried to position myself as being very accessible and available to those around my organization (providing service); but sometimes it felt as though upper managers were taking advantage of my expertise and willingness to help out (pushed into servitude).
A fine line that often gets crossed, Epstein shares that:
“For many in-house design teams, service has come to be perceived as an expletive and not as a valued behavior or mindset… The connotation, in this view, equates the meaning of service with such uses as “cleaning service” or “administrative services”—a decidedly tactical and non-strategic definition. This meaning and perception, of course, is the bane of all in-house designers who are trying to elevate themselves to a more strategic role within their companies. Rather than remain order-takers who are viewed by their clients as mere production artists incapable of functioning as strategic partners with powerful insights, most internal creatives are fighting hard to shed the epithet of “service provider.””
Chances are, if you’re a member of an in-house design team, you’re facing similar challenges. Give Andy’s article a read, and take a look at AIGA’s In-House Design Resources for that matter, too.
Recent Photos
recent comments