The Dark Side of Design

There is something really nasty about the Design Industry; something many know of but never really spoke of. In our ever-competitive society, we always seem to celebrate the winners, and outcast the losers. We often talk about the one that made it to the top and leave no space for second place.

Just like in our Design world it is all about our award winning designs, the big budget projects, and the ones that the client and consumers love. However we never talk about our setbacks, the projects we hate, the ones that failed the engineering tests, and the ones that got away. We never like to talk about this so-called “Dark Side of Design”.

I like to share with you a number of real life scenarios that shows how the world of design can be a pure hellhole. I like to talk about how money seems to overcome morality and sensibility. Facing the “Dark Side of Design” head on is neither easy or fun.

1. You will have to design something you hate
Designing something you hate is something you never really consider when you get out of school. It just does not register. You love design and you love your work so it is not conceivable that you would have to design something you hate. It will happen, so be prepared and bask in the frustration.

2. You will have to work with someone you hate
You will get assigned to that snot nosed designer that can’t design for nuts but can kiss ass like there is no tomorrow. When it happens at work you suddenly realize why your boss is not paying you his salary in addition to yours. Worst he may be your manager.

Not only that, but you might have to work with a client or business partner that treats you like that piece of dirt under his/her shoe. That person may be unreasonable, belittle you, and hate everything you give him. Unfortunately, the only thing you can do is swallow your pride and turn the other cheek.

3. You will have to make a decision between giving consumers what they want or what they need
The majority of design work, sad to say, is all about feeding consumerism. The reality is that your designs are often not necessary, nor what people need. In school they teach you to study your consumer, identify their needs, and design for them. However do you really think that person needs another chair, laptop or mobile phone? I’m sure you can do a great job, but will it be right? What about sustainability? When does that happen or does it ever happen at all? You will suddenly realize there are forces at play that are beyond your control, and you will have to decide if this is the right career path for you.

4. You will not be able to distinguish between night and day
You will work hard. Sure, you thought you worked hard in school to graduate at the top of the class, but you will never work so hard in your life when you are a designer in the trenches. So hard that you cannot tell the difference between night and day. You will do it because you have to. You will do it because you care. Needless to say, you will hate it.

5. You will never have clear brief
In the real world everyone knows what a brief is, but nobody really knows what a brief is. You will have to face the fact that there is no such thing as a clear brief. It is also never the straightforward design process you learned in school. You will hop back and forth through changes so many times you will think you are a trick pony. What is worst, the schedule will not move because of someone elses “briefing” mistake.

6. You will be made responsible for a design that has failed
It is too easy. Product does not sell? Blame the designer. Product cannot be engineered? Blame the designer. Suddenly you will be in everyone’s “cross hairs” and be blamed for everything. Remember though designers make suggestions. The people who pay for the designs are the ones who own the designs, thus responsible for the outcome. This leads me to my next point.

7. You will never own your designs anymore
What was a great solo effort in school, will now becomes everyone’s baby. You will pour your heart and soul into a design to only get it taken from you and passed off to someone else. Your design idea would be lost, modified, “raped” and even killed. Not only that, there will be projects that will have so many people working on it, that nobody owns or wants to own it.

8. You will hate design
One morning you will drag your tired body through multiple all-nighters to present your work to an unappreciative client, and you will tell yourself something along those lines of “I hate design”.

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So I’ve been experimenting with Twitter over the past couple of weeks with a few simple objectives. First, (1) I wanted to expand my network to topical and classifiable tweeps within certain demographics and try to keep up with a broader network. Next, (2) I wanted to test the level of engagement I could muster from said followers. Here’s how it has worked out.

Objective 1:

I googled around for Twitter directories and found a host of them. I was looking primarily at engaging marketing and advertising people (admittedly early adopters) as well as local and regional tweeps. Any overlap would be a definitive bonus. I found sites like Twibs (http://twibs.com/) where I could follow businesses as well as sites like Twellow (http://www.twellow.com/ ) and TwitDir (http://twitdir.com/ currently offline) to both post my existence and find others to follow. I really figured that my ratio of following versus followers would be a bit skewed due to lack of engagement on the part of those I was following to refollow but was pleasantly surprised. Utilizing these tools and those suggested by my tweeps I grew my network to currently 90 followers following only 151. It seems that everyone truly wants this medium to succeed. I registered with Twitter Counter (http://twittercounter.com/) to keep track of my growth and here’s what it looks like today with very little effort put forth. You can view my network here. (http://www.twitter.com/jaythornton000).

What better reason to run 3+ miles than for breasts? Help me out everyone. I’ve signed up for the Race for the Cure here in Northwest Arkansas and I’m trying to exceed my goal. Anyone that knows me knows that I’m not the running type. I’ve promised (and am training daily) to run every step of this race if I meet or preferably exceed my $150 goal.

This is not a lot of money and I’m already 47% there. Chip in and watch me break myself for a good cause. I mean really, is there a better way to spend $20 in the world today? Not to mention it’s tax deductable. Who needs a write-off?

Here’s the link:

http://race.komenozark.org/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1070&px=1288845

Just a little taste for everyone on the Memphis Trip. Pictures will be available on my Picasa page in the next few and blog will follow.

So every headline, picture caption, and talking head surround the Madoff plea mentions the size of the cell. While yes, Arthur Ponzerelly should burn for this, and a lot, isn’t there anything more viable we could talk about? Like restitution perhaps? Why does this family still have any assets what-so-ever? I hear the wife is claiming some $65mil that she says has nothing to do with Bernie’s business. Yeah, she made it selling Tupperware I’m sure.
Take these people for a fraction of what they’ve taken everyday people for and let them get a job. How much is a penthouse in Manhattan worth? I’m guessing several peoples’ life savings. They’re probably wearing my annual salary on any given day. eBay that mess and give it back. Basically, I’m saying that jail doesn’t solve it.

Today looks like its going to be entirely devoted to copywriting so lets loosen up a bit. On a typical day I’ve got upwards of 15 open projects that speak to at least three different types of reader. These groups vary wildly to say the least. They have different interests, situations, and needs. I find that its fairly hard to change gears when moving from an employee directed message to a customer ad so I try to segment the day into three parts.

Morning:
Customer directed copy. I find this one the easiest to start, primarily because I write more of these.
Early Afternoon:
Employee directed copy. This one, oddly enough, gives me fits. We’ve got two distinct subdivisions of employee type and they generally don’t want to hear the same thing. A light touch is mandatory here and the message is a strategy effort more than anything to balance getting the message across without turning one subdivision against the other.
Late Afternoon:
Business partner directed copy. These go out about once a month and are typically fairly safe to work on with a brain clouded by the day’s writings. Generally speaking, we’re letting these organizations know about our latest updates, additions, and thanking them for being a part of our operation. Warm and fuzzy typically works.

And there you have it… my copywriting schedule. Back to it. Have yourself a day and Friday will be here before you know it.

In an effort to streamline my network of networks I’ve recently signed up with Ping.fm (http://www.ping.fm). This is a handy little tool to link all your networks through a single interface. My personal mix is one of Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Blogger, Google Chat, and LinkedIn. I added them on Ping’s site and control them through an iGoogle. Initially I thought it was pretty convenient but today I’ve learned a lesson in mixed audience reception to a single message.

Innocuous as it may sound, I posted a relatively ridiculous good night message of “wishing you all the peaceful sleep that comes with being associate with my kind of magic. Lol” to the Statuses segment of my Ping network. This went to Facebook, cool, MySpace, fine, Twitter, ok, and LinkedIn… um… didn’t really think about that one. While I have no problem wishing my LinkedIn network a pleasant evening, this isn’t the tone I generally take with the professional network. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still the same person here, there, and even in real life, if you could imagine that. I tend, as everyone does, to structure my tone and demeanor to the crowd I’m in.

Today I’ve been inundated with messages and emails from the LinkedIn crowd taking obligatory jabs at my little demographic faux pas. One in particular “Sleep … I gave that up twenty years ago. Oh, by the way … that’s not magic that’s BULL SHIT!”

So here I am today, digging through the mess that my LinkedIn Inbox has become. Thanks to all who took their jabs and please, for those who have yet to comment, get them in soon before all the good witty comments are taken.

So as of this morning I’ve got 2 trade shows, 3 weeks of training, and some video advertising to evoke (for lack of a better term) to name a few… oh, and these aren’t on my list. It’s going to be a wild few weeks. I’ve got a question for the masses. How many ads can you remember from your last trip to the airport? Further, let’s expand. What do you do for a living and did they reach you at a decision making position? I’m genuinely curious.

Well, at least we’re stirring up the marketing mix a little. I think with the variety we’re trying, the brand will benefit. Does this mean Q1 numbers will be better and most accurately attributed to a single ad? Doubt it. But billions of dollars in annual ad spending across the country can’t be fruitless can it? This is one of those moments of excited exhaustion. I’m looking forward to the new challenges but would love an assistant that knew their way around an adobe product or two.