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Topic: How To Say "No"
| Author | Message |
| spring2007 | Posted – 5/6/2008 3:44:11 PM | show profile | email poster I am the only designer in my immediate work environment, though there is a photographer with whom I trade off certain tasks when one of us gets a little overloaded. I find that whenever I create something, one of two things happens 1-half of my colleagues like it, the other half don't, which puts me in this weird position of relaying why my work sucks and why it rocks at the same time to the opposite sides or 2-right when I finish the project, someone suggests a seemingly simple change that they don't realize would require me to nearly start over again. They would rather make suggestions once they see a completed work, rather than change things in earlier stages of sketching. Speaking of suggestions-90% of them are things that I just know aren't going to look good. My supervisors hates white space, and they are severely overusing Flash, which I know is killing their search engine optimization. I have told them all of this, in as nice a way as I can think of, but I'm obviously not handling this the right way, as I usually come away with a finished project that I would never put in my portfolio, and I feel like its not quite doing it for my colleagues, either. Without sounding like a whiny four year-old, how should I explain this to them? |
| cabaraba | Posted – 5/7/2008 2:58:47 PM | show profile Every job varies with projects, who sees them, and the design process...and there is not a clear defined answer to your question "how to say no" This is a tough situation and fairly normal with design. Unfortunately we are hired to design what someone else wants, essentially. It is just difficult when it is not what you intended, as a trained professional designer. Although it is part of our duty to consult our clients with creative input, it is ultimately their decision how they want things. It is often hard to clients to communicate how they want things because they do not know design language. They need things spelled out for them, which is why they like seeing "complete" work before critique. A good analogy: Even if people know that you can draw a cat, you still need to show them that you can draw a dog. Good luck to you! I tend to redesign things for my portfolio if they came from a "poor" design that your company approved. |
