Help.
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- Knuckleberry
Please read I know its long, but it gets grood: (great & good)
Look... Maybe I am going through some bout of depression but, does anyone see the lack of creativity that is going on in this "creative" field. I got into this because I love design. I love looking at it, touching it (that sounds weird), smelling it (the aqueous coating). But my boss today told all of us that one person in the office, who just so happens to be the one who went to Carnegie melon, would be the designer and all of us would be project managing everything. I wanted to walk out. Well I have 2 kids, a wife, a dog & 5 fish. I cannot just walk out.
I need help... I am a very talented (i feel) designer who just needs an outlet for his passion. Work is not doing it. This is what I love but I feel like it is not loving back. I need a new job I make 65k I would be willing to take 60k but I need to be creative. I cannot do this stupid shit anymore.
By the way some people may say... Well at least you're project managing design work. No, I am running to the city for permits, field surveys, compiling clients constant bitching's and generally never designing.
- d_rek0
Sounds like it's time to update the folio and start pimping your wares.
- Knuckleberry0
I just don't know if I should look for a new job while in this economy. Any thoughts?
- airey0
there's also an argument that if you're feeling uncreative then just maybe the issue lies with you rather than the field at large.
don't get me wrong, if that's happening at your work then that sucks but by the sounds you're creative slump was around before this 1 event. if so, then find inspiration. find it someplace else. books. film. music. porn. whatever. build your folio and run for the hills son!
- treat the day job as the cash maker and start some side projects for creativityairey
- erikjonsson0
ive been stuck doing a webb reel for the past 5 weeks and i cant wait to get back to photoshop. got so many ideas i need to get on canvas. i dont think ive been out of creativity since 2004
- Knuckleberry0
Airey:
I have done that. I have projects with photographers in NYC, I have projects with bands & various projects I set for myself. But I would just like to feel that design means something during my day job. That during the course of my day job I am doing something to better the creative field.- it's time to move on them man. you've obviously done what you can there.airey
- robs0
find a job before you quit. the economy isn't great, but you'll find something.
- d_rek0
I don't think the economy is hurting the design industry as badly as some feel it is... rather funds into advertising and design are simply being relocated for different types of marketing.... anyway, digression aside, if I can find a job as a graphic designer (one which I like very much, i might add) in DETROIT, MICHIGAN then I think you should be just fine on the national market.
ps.
No, i'm not doing automotive work either. Yippee!!!- i think you haven't yet started to feel the effects of the economy. all the worsy has only just happened.airey
- *worstairey
- I prefer worsy. Makes it sound less ominous.MrOneHundred
- contrary, i think Michigan has been feeling the effects of the economy and the lagging auto industry all too welld_rek
- ukit0
If you are not even designing, definitely find a new job! Just search for a new job while you're at your current one so you don't get stuck out on the street.
- MrOneHundred0
I can assure you, you are not the only one who feels this way. Very difficult times in terms of the political and economic landscapes mean creative jobs can be under-valued. Get a creative hobby – photography, screen printing – something that is just for you (don’t think of it as broadening your professional skillset or you risk contaminating it with the same point of view you have about your job). Enjoy time with your family. Sit tight and see what happens. I have recently realised that you can’t do anything until you can do something, so put the focus on something else.
- I keep a sketchbook with me at all times simply for those times when I want to shit from my brain.d_rek
- Wise words.Knuckleberry
- Thanks. I am going through precisely the same dilemma. Actually, are you copying my life?MrOneHundred
- katekelly0
welcome to the heartbreaking, bittersweet world of design.
why is it that those so unqualified and unappreciative of design seem to be in control...c'est la vie i suppose.
while it would be great to 'damn the man', you must save the empire first. go and find yourself a job that you'll love- perhaps in addition to the one you already have, and soon you will be able to leave- flipping everyone off as you walk out.
- NONEIS0
If you were/are a designer, quit, and find a place that lets you do what makes you happy all day long. The design economy is fine, and lots of people are hiring from what I have seen over the last 2 months.
- worst advice ever. Wife, kids, dog, fish... yeah who cares if you get thrown out on the street, just do what makesflashbender
- you happy and creativeflashbender
- Yeah I don't think it was a well thought out answer.Knuckleberry
- I would fully expect you to find a new job first, don't blame me if stepping up to the plate and finding a job you don't hate sounds like "bad advice".NONEIS
- sounds like "bad advice", I just see this topic as pretty black and white, and would never except the sort of role change thrown your way.NONEIS
- that was thrown your way.NONEIS
- Knuckleberry0
MrOneHundred:
No Copying here. I think its just a situation of people leading that don't have a passion for this sort of thing. My boss doesn't know anything about design... seriously he doesn't.- The place that I just moved on from.. the 'creative director' was formally trained in architecture and made money doing photography....d_rek
- photography. Meanwhile he ran a publication that had a horrible design strategy.d_rek
- He would ask me for ridiculous turnarounds for web-based needs and retouching. He really had no clue or understanding of the thought or processes involved.d_rek
- understanding of the processes involved.d_rek
- that ends my 4 page not.d_rek
- My boss, loves architecture but knows nothing about it. He was a sign installer before he started the firm.Knuckleberry
- maybe. Not.d_rek
- Faild_rek
- Also I have an in-grown pubic hair, ouch.d_rek
- Knuckleberry0
The post has turned into somewhat of a cathartic rant for most of us, I like it.
- MrOneHundred0
I was just funnin’. Even a lot of the bosses who do care about it are letting that passion go when it threatens their relationship with the bully-ish marketing departments who are their clients.
- Knuckleberry0
Well I don't know if anyone knows our major client but, alot of money is brought in our firm by the heartless Irvine Co. Spitting out design, that baaaalooowws, is pretty much common practice for my boss.
- flashbender0
I assume that if you have two kids, you are older and therefore have been doing this a while. How long were you at this other job? And was it good before ?
Circumstances change, and so maybe the job sucks now. For me, if I'm not happy in my job that does have a tendency to spill over into my non-work time, but you just have to find a way to deal.
As a friend of mine says "Do what you you gotta do to get paid, do what you love at home"
I realize this offers no solution to your problem, but leaving that job before having something else lined up is clearly not a good idea - unless your wife makes a bunch of money.
Also, bear in mind that even if you do find something new, you're going to be "low man on the totem pole" if the economy goes south even more and agencies look at layoffs.
- Well... I am 28. I have been at this for about 7 years now. But, the job was good up until about a year ago when the senior designers started fucking up. The low on the totem pole thing is really the thing that scares me the most. I dont want to be the last man on the bottom.Knuckleberry
- 7 years?!?!?!
time to move on my friend.flashbender - 7 years total in the field. 2 at my current place.Knuckleberry
- oh, that's different. but still, sounds like it is time to move onflashbender
- d_rek0
I guess another approach you could try would be to actually 'talk' to your boss if you haven't already. Let him know how you and that you'd like a more 'creative' role to what goes on in the office. I know production work can pretty much kill creative impulses... especially when you're on your Nth retouch or saving out your Nth image for multiple formats.
- flashbender0
also my last comment is that your design is a lot more important to you than it is to your boss or your client. As one former creative manager told me once - "There's great, there's good, and there's good enough... try not to care so much, the person paying you doesn't"
I didn't stay at that place very long.
- +1. that statement is par for the course industry wide.airey
- Nice quote... reminds me very much so of my former employer.d_rek
- I am in the 'he'll do, no one else will take this shit' bracket.Jnr_Madison
- Knuckleberry0
Anyone know of great firms or shops or whavtever in Orange County, Ca. Preferably around Irvine area... then I could ride a bike.
- cannonball0
When I find myself in situations like theses I think to myself that not only is it a job, its a fight to keep good ideas and design from drowning.
I just got a job at what I thought was a place I respect and you'd be surprised the load of crap I have to wade through. It's everywhere man. It seems the only place creativity isn't covered in crap is in your own head these days.