work ≠ personal satisfaction
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- zoozoo0
some clients want to use you as their design machine to create what THEY like, when it gets to that point just show me the fucking money.
- twokids0
1) You need to enjoy the work to begin with. Doing simple things in your field should give you satisfaction - or else why do it?
2) The work you are paid for is not your personal artwork - it is for a client. People forget that all the time.
3) If you want to do personal artwork - do it! But do it for yourself - don't put a desire to do personal artwork on a client's desire to get something they paid for.- 2) right, but it's still a manifestation of you—your thoughts, your designhargbine
- bjladams0
i've hired freelancers before that get so bent on making every project a personal best. while i admire the ambition... it often gets in the way of what the client is trying to accomplish.
i think there's a different kind of pride in delivering confident, solid, functional work and delivering something that you're personally satisfied with.
- albums0
your job doesn't pay you to be happy.
- jtb260
scarabin / twokids et al –
Of course it's for the a client, but if your not passionate about the work, meaning - your not personally invested in the shape it takes how do you manage to do good work? Honest question, not trying to flame anyone.
- severian0
Your boss i s 100% correct. You'll learn in time little one.
- biusness0
Peter Saville (of all people) talks about work being 'for others, to others'. Even Sagmeister is very clear about his work serving a clients needs, not his own.
The rise of design magazines/design awareness in the last 10/20 years gives all young students the idea their personal vision is of absorbing interest to the world. Obviously that's not true, I'm fine with that.
"Creativity" that has no direction can be a pain in the fucking arse; I actually enjoy the constraints of a client, I have no personal creative axe to grind.
Your boss sounds like a bit of a jaded prick but in essence it's not a terrible mantra.
Design ≠ art.
...and remember getting a client to buy into a braver, smarter, better idea is PART of your job. Go forth!
- PS. I would guess the number of 'satisfied' people is higher in the design world than the art world, after allbiusness
- scarabin0
@jtb26:
i AM passionate about my work; i'm actually TOO passionate. i tend to put all of myself into every poster, so when a client or director gives me changes i don't agree with i get unhappy. thus i need to distance mtyself emotionally from my work or i feel like i'm getting shit on when instead it's my work getting shit on.
so i do personal work on the side that ends up being exactly the way i want it to be, which creatively fulfills me. make sense?
- when i do personal work i find myself less emotionally attached to work work. quality never changes.scarabin
- toe_knee0
sounds like op works in a production house and not a creative agency?
- +1animatedgif
- called a creative studio, but unfortunately act like a production househargbine
- Miesfan0
Your job is customer satisfaction.
He has to know what he wants. (first things first)
You do something for someone who pays your house/car /apartment / education of your children.
He has a problem. He has the money, little or too much - You give him/her the solution. And they used it. And if you haven't done well, - the house, brand, web- that will fuck you every day.
- georgesIII0
when your work doesn't make you happy,
try to alternate your positions15' on your knees,
10' on your back,
15' spread eagle...
- zoozoo0
Passion will get you killed.
- this this this x1000!mekk
- Bollocks. MISPLACED passion mightbabaganush
- twokids0
@jtb26:
Like scarabin - i am passionate about my work and care a lot when i do it - i just never fool myself to think that this is MINE - i know I am serving someone else.
If I want something to be MINE - i do it myself on my own.
It is possible to be passionate about work and yet be able to step away - necessary in fact or you will not last - you will be like the art director i heard about who punched a client.
- jtb260
If we're talking self expression I would agree. That is not a reasonable expectation.
I guess that's where I feel differently. When / if the client shits on my work and my heart gets broken and my soul is crushed I take solace in knowing that I put everything I had into it. It becomes the clients failing and not my own.
I feel like it's good to fight the good fight right up until you know the client just doesn't give a shit. Clearly you have to avoid being belligerent and maintain respect for the relationship.
If the best case is that you have to compromise with the client every now and then, and the worst case is that once in awhile you have a complete dick of a client – I feel like there's room in there for personal satisfaction.
If I were trying to decide the culture of a design firm I would risk a few broken hearts and make with the kleenex over asking folks to put aside professional or even personal satisfaction.
Do you draw distinctions between professional and personal satisfaction? For me they are kind of interwoven.
- hargbine0
@ jtb26 exactly!
not trying to piss anyone off, but I just don't understand the "work is just work" perspective.
It just seems to attract more shitty projects because we're not showing any interest in the clients bigger strategy, or goals of the client. We're just giving them a logo or an ad that we could pull out of the archives.
Sure, there are degrees of involvement and better clients and projects, but to set out what seems like a strategy of "work shouldn't be personally satisfying" seems completely corrosive.
- RustyStew0
I struggle with the whole thing a bit. @jtb26 I have been passionate about my work, but the work environment has slowly been suppressing my passion. In school, we learned a pretty strict creative/design process. It produced a pretty high percentage of good quality work amongst the students. I was made lead of a logo project here and decided I would bring that process to the table and apply it in a work setting, because the current internal process is very lose, but hasn't historically generated great results. We got through it, with a little headbutting, but I there was some cool work that came out of it.
Here is the kicker that got me doubting things. A couple weeks later my boss gives me another logo project along with these instructions. "I don't want to do a full exploration on this. Just something he can use" Well, that completely demoralized me.
If you are simply satisfying requests even if it is against your experience or expertise, whether it is is for a client or a boss, is that really design anymore?
- translation: your art school process took forever.
monNom
- translation: your art school process took forever.
- pinkfloyd0
Guess what, you're clients account for your paychecks so set your priorities straight. Clients business first, then you're creative touch.
- jtb260
RustyStew – I here you. No question that there are places where 'design' simply means pushing pixels for other folks. Last year I decided I wouldn't be satisfied with that anymore and made it my mission to find a place that would allow me to try and create great work. Maybe I got lucky, and it's nieve to encourage others to to push for the same?
The risk of passion is that sometimes you get crushed. The alternative, complacency and mediocrity seem far worse to me.
- jtb260
I'm going to calm down now.