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Graphic Design

Z

Zysoclaplem

Diamond Member
Except when design is out of the question, which is usually is here.
My boss comes up to me and says that he got a call from someone and they need a huge banner for some event coming up.
I enjoy making banners.
YAY!
Then he tells me I can only use blue and gold.
Okay that's cool. I can work with that.
Then he tells me just text.
Umm..alright. I am sure I can come up with some cool ideas.
And then he tells me it is for retirees, and they might not like it to be "too designed."
Okay.
Then he tells me I cannot be creative.
Oh...okay.
Then he tells me I only need to type 5 words in bold print and in a straight line.
So basically I am typing 5 huge words, arial black, and hitting the print button.
🙁
 
Hehe.
I've been doing design for a long time.
For a creative person it's really hard to work under direction, even from an art director, not to mention if the guy himself is not creative.
I have a vision for a piece, a plan. My creative ideas generally are not the same as someone elses. It's hard to conform to someone else's idea of 'nice'. I've found that graphics people in particular have a hard time liking another person's style. It takes getting used to.
 
Originally posted by: ThePresence
Hehe.
I've been doing design for a long time.
For a creative person it's really hard to work under direction, even from an art director, not to mention if the guy himself is not creative.
I have a vision for a piece, a plan. My creative ideas generally are not the same as someone elses. It's hard to conform to someone else's idea of 'nice'. I've found that graphics people in particular have a hard time liking another person's style. It takes getting used to.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's partly the reason I went into IT. I prefer my own creativity as opposed to strict direction. I don't mind getting direction as long as I'm given room to develop my own ideas. I really enjoyed taking art classes in high school and college because we had 2 sketchbook assignments a week with direction but no reign on creativity, which meant you could take it in whatever direction you wanted to. I found I worked better with direction, but not with strict direction. That and the graphics job that paid well were too specialized for me to thoroughly enjoy 😛
 
Originally posted by: Zysoclaplem
Originally posted by: Sabot
Also, arial is the worst typeface ever created
Click to expand...

I even went to download some fonts for this banner, things I thought would be appropriate. Nope.
Click to expand...

Can you use something aside from arial? Even a native font like frutiger or Gill sans would be better.
 
Originally posted by: ThePresence
Hehe.
I've been doing design for a long time.
For a creative person it's really hard to work under direction, even from an art director, not to mention if the guy himself is not creative.
I have a vision for a piece, a plan. My creative ideas generally are not the same as someone elses. It's hard to conform to someone else's idea of 'nice'. I've found that graphics people in particular have a hard time liking another person's style. It takes getting used to.
Click to expand...

Ditto.

I've developed a completely different mindset over the years. Now I work for a larger agency, where I'm more or less just a cog without any real input on the design of a piece. That's taken some getting used to, but once you get over yourself a little, it's actually easier to just do what you're told. The up side is the people who give me direction these days are, for the most part, pretty talented. They have the hassle of back-and-forth with the clients, I'm all execution.
 
Originally posted by: Sabot
Originally posted by: Zysoclaplem
Originally posted by: Sabot
Also, arial is the worst typeface ever created
Click to expand...

I even went to download some fonts for this banner, things I thought would be appropriate. Nope.
Click to expand...

Can you use something aside from arial? Even a native font like frutiger or Gill sans would be better.
Click to expand...

Helvetica Neue 85! Tell him it's Arial, and it'll be our little secret!
 
Originally posted by: Sabot
Originally posted by: rivan
Originally posted by: Sabot
Also, arial is the worst typeface ever created
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Next to comic sans, but that isn't even type design in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Well, yeah. At least it's readable - as opposed to the slew of scratchy-static fonts out there. The vast majority of those completely suck.

And don't get me started on Copal. How Adobe though that was a good idea is beyond me.
 
Originally posted by: ThePresence
Hehe.
I've been doing design for a long time.
For a creative person it's really hard to work under direction, even from an art director, not to mention if the guy himself is not creative.
I have a vision for a piece, a plan. My creative ideas generally are not the same as someone elses. It's hard to conform to someone else's idea of 'nice'. I've found that graphics people in particular have a hard time liking another person's style. It takes getting used to.
Click to expand...

I find this exactly how I feel. I hate working for people sometimes when they try and give too much direction as far as colors, layout, etc. go. I'm the graphic designer, you're the one wearing a suit and tie everyday to work. I don't tell you how to run your company, so don't tell me how to design a logo/webpage 😛 I've been doing it for years, I'm probably better than you 🙂
 
i design interfaces for water/ wastewater apps. i run into this all the time, since most of the projects are run by their engineers. they really do see things in grays. when im able to go creative on a project its a ton more fun, and they end up saying they like the work. a lot of them are just number matrix guys, so they always want just a screen full of number columns or something gray like that. oh well. i chalk it up to engineer probs and just do what im told. not so bad having vanilla designs when thats whats paying your bills.
 
Originally posted by: sash1

I find this exactly how I feel. I hate working for people sometimes when they try and give too much direction as far as colors, layout, etc. go. I'm the graphic designer, you're the one wearing a suit and tie everyday to work. I don't tell you how to run your company, so don't tell me how to design a logo/webpage 😛 I've been doing it for years, I'm probably better than you 🙂
Click to expand...

thats the worst attitude ive ever seen from an art guy... and the most common one. the customer has to like the work you do, and if its in color schemes that they dont like, they will make you change it. or not pay you. better at the actual creation or not, they are the end user. youre just some contractor doing their work. the computer is your pencil, you are their pencil.
 
1) A bad artist takes their customer's ideas and makes it boring.
2) A good artist can take their own ideas and make something wonderful from it.
3) A great artist can take their customer's ideas and make something wonderful from it.

It seems to me that you don't want to be a bad artist, and strive to be a good artist. Instead, try striving to be a great artist. Yes, it might not be as enjoyable, but it'll pay the bills, produce good art, and bring back the customers over and over again because in the end they like it.

For example, if you've ever watched Trading Spaces, Doug represents the good artist. He can make wonderful designs. But he absolutely lacks any skill for incorporating customer's wishes. Thus, he'll never be a great artist.
 
Well, if you can only make it that plain, because that's very limiting, know not to put it in your portfolio.
 
Originally posted by: hanoverphist
Originally posted by: sash1

I find this exactly how I feel. I hate working for people sometimes when they try and give too much direction as far as colors, layout, etc. go. I'm the graphic designer, you're the one wearing a suit and tie everyday to work. I don't tell you how to run your company, so don't tell me how to design a logo/webpage 😛 I've been doing it for years, I'm probably better than you 🙂
Click to expand...

thats the worst attitude ive ever seen from an art guy... and the most common one. the customer has to like the work you do, and if its in color schemes that they dont like, they will make you change it. or not pay you. better at the actual creation or not, they are the end user. youre just some contractor doing their work. the computer is your pencil, you are their pencil.
Click to expand...
What you say is true. But in most companies the designer never even meets with the client, usually the art director or someone else does. Then you're stuck making it work with the art director's vision and the client's. You end up doing work which you hate the end product. That's no way for anyone to work. I've done that for too long. Now I'm on my own, I meet my own clients face to face and I'm much happier. The clients are as well. 🙂

Most times the clients are not very creative and many times the client has an idea of how he wants something to look, which is just a terrible idea designwise. A designer should NOT just go and design it that way because that's what the client says. You have to talk it out, explain your viewpoint and why you think he might want to go another direction. It usually works.
 
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