The eternal battle of client vs designer

For those of you not aware, I work at a company that provides a full service to people who want cosmetics, skincare, brushes & accessories, fragrance, toiletries… blah blah… be it one-off hero items, products that fit into ranges that pre-exist, or people who want us to start off full ranges from scratch. We do it.

We have entire teams dedicated to getting everything exactly right from formulations experts and chemists who work to create the silkiest moisturisers to the richest coloured lipsticks and glosses. Have an idea for an amazing eyeshadow in a pigment that doesn’t yet exist? They can make that.
We have technicians checking the tiniest details of things like opening/closing mechanisms, functionality of compacts, cartons… how easy is it for shoplifters to rip into packs? We have a guy who can demonstrate. This honestly is the tip of the iceberg. There is so much that goes into creating luxury cosmetics.

And then there is the design department. We create the brand, everything you see when you walk into beauty departments. From the sleek luxurious casing on a lipstick to the shape of the bullet, to the name that brands it. It’s all done here.
In this day and age when there are so many different cosmetic brands out there, it is no good to just make another one. The brand needs to have a basis, an angle, a selling point. A reason for the consumer to part with their money. This in my opinion, needs to meet neatly with what it looks like.

So what’s my problem now? Oh. The fact that you have to communicate these fantastic designs to the clients who 90% of the time will not be your target market but will assure you they know better than a company that specialises in providing this service. There’s no accounting for taste.
I have hard drives full of designs that were magical once (if i do say so myself) and usually each element of what made it a great design gets picked apart by the client until the brand name + design no longer makes sense. I’ve already blog-complained that part of the reason I work extra hours is because I would rather try and problem solve, make a design work, than take the easy route and take a trip to generic-ugly-cosmeticville.

I know that whining about client/designer squabbles is about as original as whining about Comic Sans but I know my Christmas wish this year will be getting a client that takes what we give them exactly how we supplied it and trusts that we are the experts and so that is how it should stay.

There should be a graph to display the correlation between how much a client will meddle in the development process depending on how much they know about the subject.
For example, male clients will still meddle with lipstick proposals, because regardless of whether or not they wear lipstick, everyone thinks they know something about colour.

You wouldn’t find me hovering when the gasman comes to fix my boiler because I know *fuck all* about it but I like my house warm… “hmm what you’re doing with those pipes looks good but I think you should do it this way?” If he tells me it’s working, it’s working.

But that’s not how it works here. That lipstick colour that now gets shoved from the product line up may have had research and a theme to back it up that the old man didn’t “get” but that people worked months on. It might have been part of a trend, the shade that tied in other products in the set. And that’s out now.

So to clients the world over, I say: leave it to the experts.

I am almost embarrassed to mention how long it’s been since I’ve blogged. So let’s not go ‘there’. Needless to say, if you are in my life currently you will know how much my life has changed and why I have dropped off the radar… three words: *15 hour days* (that’s before I’ve started on the freelance)

I can enjoy the irony in this situation a certain amount right up until it becomes more of a joke-on-me. Let me explain…

I picked this web domain (as regrettable as it is when I am reading my email address down the phone in a whiff about bills) because it highlighted a fundamental belief of mine that you should design like you give a damn. Not just for the money, but because you enjoy it. You want to make something that is both aesthetically pleasing and functional… and perhaps also because you care about the process.

**Disclaimer: With hindsight you should really do everything like you give a damn. Pick a sandwich filling, clean your teeth, choose a holiday destination like you give a damn …but arguably top 5 in the list is more importantly, your career. **

At the time I picked my domain name I was at university. It was 2006, and in all honesty I was surrounded by people who could not give a fuck about getting a career out of their degree… they just wanted *a* degree. Perhaps as a bit of a dig, I wanted to show it wasn’t just something you did as a degree, not just because your parents wanted you to go to uni and you thought it would be a laugh “cus you’re good at computers an’that”… design, if you want it, was something you did in your spare time too.

Oh. And don’t I know it. I do. The design in my life has become a monstrosity that now feeds on my entire waking day. It. Is. My. Essence. Go to work, be the last one to leave, come home, freelance until your eyes are sore. Then it’s microwaved beans hunched over a sink. In Charlie’s world you don’t “do” design, design does you.

A cautionary tale. Design like you give a damn… but not too much. M’kay, kids?

Having said that. I LOVE to design so much I do it when I don’t mean to… and as noted in the last 4 weeks – even when I don’t particularly want to.
But I love my job, my career, and I put effort in BECAUSE I want to look back in a few months or go into a store and see products and packaging I’ve worked on and be proud and not regret that I didn’t um and err over the details enough, or that I didn’t push back about keeping a brief a certain way so instead watch it morph into something ugly or something dysfunctional.

Sigh.

It is this attitude towards my work that might have landed me working long days and longer night but it’s also that which got me this fantastic job. Every single stressful day, low budget brief, and late night has been worth it because, along with the projects I get to design for, working in-house has one main perk… these ones here. And I am lucky because they give a damn too.

For the Visual Research book launch the designers featured will be offered the opportunity to exhibit their work for two weeks following the release date.

Russell Bestley, one of the writers and one of my fantastic tutors during my MA, suggested that the work exhibited should lead on progressively from the work featured in the book so that the audience can see where it developed.

For me, this means exhibiting that insane perspective installation. Great! I mean it went down a storm before so it makes sense I showcase it again… right?

Wrong.

What with scooting home for Christmas before I started my job in January I totally forgot to dismantle the horror which was my final project. It is definitely in the bin now, it’s August. So that means recreating it from scratch.
That thing took me 5 whole days to make when I worked freelance… now I work in house. to say that this is going to be an ordeal would be an understatement. I have actually had nightmares about this.

You are probably thinking to yourself, why not just show a video of it?? Well, I will presume you are not familiar with the concept behind the project, so I will explain. Essentially the project was based around the fact that when you capture a scene with photography, you lose the depth. You also lose the context in which the photograph was taken and in-turn you are only seeing the scene in the way the photographer meant for you to see it.

I made the installation so that, uninstructed, the viewer could stand infront of it, look at it and find the two different positions in which they need to stand so they can see the quote. Its composition was self instructive.
However, to cut a long story short, I fucked up. The room I built the installation in was not going to be part of the exhibition like I had previously thought, I couldn’t move the installation (as it was fixed to the ceiling) so I had to film it, on a craptastic 8 year old camera in the most shocking low resolution.

But it would have to do. And the people downstairs at the exhibition never got to see that nightmare of a project first-hand like it was meant to be… but this time they will!!

I remember the first time I mentioned this exhibition and it was miles in the future, but now I have a month-ish to construct this again from scratch. Getting the laser cut foam, stringing it up in place, projecting and painting onto it. While at the same time putting it on something that can be relocated. /headache.

If you’re still reading you deserve a medal, because I’ve even confused myself.

I found this fantastic dress designed by Setareh Mohtarez over on Luxirare, I don’t know how this has happened but I’ve noticed that a fair amount of my posts are focused around space at the moment. What does this mean!? It is purely accidental I assure you, what can I say, it appears that currently I am inspired by the starry sky. If you are in possession of a jet pack and a space suit we might just become the greatest friends.

Anyway… incase it wasn’t clear this is the dress of my dreams. It looks like it was made especially for dancing by twilight, I would get married in this dress (one day) or failing that I would settle for doing my weekly shop in this dress, regardless of how the checkout attendant would look at me.

While telling the designers in my studio exactly this – and emailing it round – it was pointed out that Christopher Kane has done something… very similar, to say the least… his Galaxy range use exactly the same method, to create the same look. Just incredibly expensive. I know the Setareh Mohtarez is likely to be just as expensive but as it is not actually defined I will be pretending it is free. Ignorance is bliss.

Amazing structural chair the Alvi SilkChair beautiful looking mesh of silk and I love the colour.

“Environmental friendly seating furniture with silk thread tightened around a bearing oak frame. The transparent expression is in focus, which creates new forms and brings forth a perception of weightlessness, while the light produces new shadow plays from the thread works of the alvisilkchair.”

I know silk is strong, but I feel like this might wobble about like a hammock or the strings would PING and break when I sit on it… that is, if my cats don’t get to it first. ^_- I don’t think it matters though; when something is as pretty as that who cares if you can sit on it? Form > function.

There is something really magnificent about these installations by Gregory Euclide made from a mixture of 2D and 3D objects, paintings and model trees. It’s like the end of the world met a landscape impressionist. Well done Sir, I love it.

To see more, visit Gregory’s Flickr stream.

Beautiful mushroom lights, quite like something you’d find on Pandora… I would love any of these. Made from glass, reclaimed wood and LED lights it’d make your bedside table look just a bit more magical.

Little Chef has been given an incredible facelift thanks to those creative heads over at VentureThree. About bloody time too, you might be thinking, and as Creative Review has pointed out on their Little Chef special post… let’s hope it still looks this nice when it’s lining the edge of some miserable gray motorway service station.

The giant sized iconic lollies and ketchup bottles are a nice touch, making the whole brand extend into the environment. My favourite part? That they’ve redressed the chef so he’s wearing something a little more appropriate… he is no longer naked except for a chef’s hat and neckerchief. Which, on hindsight, was a little weird.
Which do you prefer, this or the previous version by Praline?

It has been a loooong time since I’ve posted on le blog, work has taken a priority and today is actually my 3 month anniversary at my new job. I love it!

First impressions, it is SO different working in-house rather than a freelancer. Aside from the incredibly obvious things, I have really enjoyed just being in charge of just being a designer. Not an accountant, a project manager or my own public relations rep. Just a designer.
This is never going to be something you wholly understand until you’ve worked for yourself for a few years. Being self employed is hard fucking work, staying on top of invoices, keeping a steady amount of work coming in, and keeping yourself current involves using 90% of your time… ALL the time.

So I am definitely enjoying getting to come home and not stress about work… except that now I have also got loads of freelance work as well as working full-time.

-.- wise idea huh?

Troubled times. It is fair to say that my personal life is taking a complete beating of late, but lots of exciting things in the pipeline too. Some secret things but among them my MA work is going to be featured in the new edition of Visual Research which I believe gets published in September.

I’m currently flat hunting too. I’ve heard alot of people compare the struggle of finding a flat to the struggle of finding a job. I have to say… job hunting was MUCH easier.

SO, yesterday morning in most papers was the news that graduates are “twice as likely to be jobless”. In one particular article it even said that unemployment rate for grads was at its highest level for over a decade with one in five of those who have left university in the past year unable to find a job.

With more students pursuing further education (though I’m sure that with the tuition fees being raised it will deter a noticeable proportion from the debt they will be subject to) it seems most early 20′s have a degree of some form, and as employers are now bombarded with hundreds of CVs per job vacancy it’s only the best who will get a look-in.
So it only seems common sense that as graduates competing for fewer and fewer jobs you need to make yourself stand out (which is something you might remember me saying if you read my Notes on Design interview with Dave Cuvelot)

Something that I have noticed is that a lot of universities do little to ready students for job hunting… from how to prepare a design portfolio and CV, to even incredibly simple stuff like pointing out vacancy websites!
Since being a featured LCC Alumni I cannot tell you how many phone calls and emails I have had from students wanting to know what to do next. I thought it might be about time I put together an FYI post for (design) grads wondering what is the next step.

First of all, collect your work. Photograph publications, take screenshots, upload videos… whatever. Get your work onto a computer. Look at your work and really analyse it, think about feedback you have possibly had from tutors or peers regarding your strong points and select your best pieces of work that really illustrate why you are brilliant and deserve a job over ‘that guy’.

Secondly get your work on the internet. There are plenty of portfolio/showcase websites online if you don’t know how to make your own. Krop, Behance, Flickr… you could even use a Facebook album (if you are really that lazy.) All you really need is a place to direct someone online where they can view your work.
Of course, If you fancy making your own website then there are plenty of options… Tumblr, WordPress, Indexibit, MrSite, MoonFruit… if you are in the creative industry there is NO REASON to not have your work online.

Once you have picked your work out, and got your site looking magic the next step is to put together your CV. By this point you will have identified your strong points and (not to sound like a dummies guide here, but) you will have figured out what area you want to specialise in. Write your CV indicating this.
Let me tell you, from experience, design industry CV’s are different from the rest of the bunch, employers EXPECT them to look beautiful. I am disappointed if I download a CV attachment and it is a word document.
But of course, you should let your prospective employer know bits about you, there is no need to just list achievements. What did your academic/previous employment teach you? What do you do best and also what is your favourite area of design?These should be easy questions to answer.

Create a pdf of work samples. (Personally I create a singular CV and some work samples on their own and then also a combined CV with work samples.) Export duplicate versions under 1MB. Why under 1MB? Because most job vacancy sites will only let you attach a file under 1MB but 80% of recruiters and adverts ask for one, thus rendering it pointless if it is any bigger…. more on this later….

Business cards. They are cheap, anyone can make them and they are also tiny 90x55mm projects so design them how you want to be remembered by complete strangers. Get some made up at Moo 50 cards for about £15. Bargain. If your card is cool people will keep it, then yours is the name they will remember next time they need some design work.

Most people will have (hopefully) got themselves this far, it is the next steps that show you are actually trying all you can to get that job…

Work on self initiated projects. This is very important, if not *the* most important point worth observing. So you’re not getting the projects you quite hoped you would with freelance? It’s taking you a while to get your new job and your portfolio is getting a bit stale? Or just finding yourself with some time on your hands?
Think of a brief and start making. If you want to get into the publications industry, your dream job is designing editorial content but your portfolio is lacking examples page layout, then get creating some feature spreads.
It is just common sense but you would be surprised how many people apply for jobs without thinking about it.

Blog. A lot of people think that “I can’t blog, I don’t have anything interesting to say”… um, hi. I just wrote a blog post on things grads should know before job hunting in the design sector. Do you think that means I am ‘interesting in real life’. No. But you make your passion into a living and if you like what you do then you will have a lot to say about it.
A blog is a great way to generate interest in your work, let people know what you are working on, upcoming projects… etc and it separates out the people who think of design as a living and not a life.

Get a LinkedIn account. Some people are dubious about LinkedIn and debate about whether it is worth it. I argue, you cannot LOSE jobs through it, so what is the harm? Twitter is also a brilliant way to give yourself an internet presence. Yes, whether it is a positive or a negative presence is up to you, and you should think about current or prospective employers views of what you say BEFORE you say it. Tweet pictures of projects you have recently completed, use it as a tool to keep people updated about what you have been up to… and how about, let people get to know you through it?

Job websites that are a great place to start are DesignWeek, CreativePool and Reed. There are hundreds of agencies signed up with these sites so it is worth contacting them directly and don’t just copy and paste the cover letter because some adverts are placed twice under different names and there is nothing more embarrassing than sending the exact same cover letter 3 times to the same employer, I can promise you it will just get trashed.
Only apply for jobs you actually want and write a custom cover letter detailing why you would be good in this particular position but keep it short because the majority of the time employers will skip the cover letter and go straight to the portfolio link to see your work… after that, (depending on the area of work, but especially in digital) they may even google you. (hence why having a web presence/rep is so important)

As an example of this, google my name and lots of related articles and websites will pop up… but also a girl with my name who is not me interferes with my search results and, let’s just say, she doesn’t seem too worried about how people view her online reputation.
All this may sound like a lot of effort, but that is what getting a brilliant job takes… effort. Getting yourself on the first rung takes determination and perseverance, and where a lot of grads will bail if you go the extra mile you will stand out of the crowd from all the other thousands of job seekers and it will be you that gets the job. Or at least the second interview!

More on this to come…