graphic design rants

WTF?

2008-07-15T23:48:50Z

i got the boss from hell....

does anyone else have this problem? you get a boss that is an... asshat as a boss, but in life, can be a really cool person? I feel terrible when we work together because his idiotic production logic slays me.

Anywho... this dude has a small marketing firm (small like 4 people, small). I am in charge of his production. Despite the fact that my opinion is with a marketing company 75% of your attention and resources should go to the betterment of your production department...but what the hell do I know?! I'm now po'ed that his attitude is this ' I want what I want when I want it' however not everything he wants is possible. Mainly because his small company, tight budget, and ignorance to any other production method beyond the year 1995.

So for example, when I first started working there, I got into an argument with him because he believed that Quark was a more widely used software and that people don't use Adobe Indesign (only because HE never researched it). Then the conversation go to him saying that not all major commercial printing companies can print adobe pdfs. "I'm like dude, even YOU can print out a PDF, WTF?"

So a couple more weeks and my computer crashing, he finally buys the Adobe Creative suite... and then tries to tell me that he wants to update all his work to inDesign because nobody really uses Quark or Pagemaker (like it was initially his idea). I asked him about his logo as I was trying to place it on his company stuff for branding and he said "Oh it's not important because it was something that I picked up out of a clip art program." So later when I complained that it doesn't reflect anything about his company and that he should look into changing it...his answer was..."But its important, its the branding of my company and everyone knows that it's me." HUH? Well which is it?

Just recently, he gets a disk of pagemaker files and asks me to print them out (i don't have pagemaker)... but I opened them in Indesign...so I was griping about how whoever designed these files didn't include their fonts and so Indesign was just randomly picking fonts that were close but not it at all. My complaint was that I would have to open all of them, change the fonts to something 'readable' and then print them out...some of these documents were long (like 15-20 pages) long and the designer didn't even link the text boxes. His answer was to call adobe, because they should know what fonts were available in 1990 and they can give me his fonts...HUH? am I missing something? How are they supposed to know what fonts he used?

i could go into several other examples of his odd behavior but I guess the thing that bugs me is that with everything he asks me to do...there comes a pissing contest about the process...but I'm the production person and he...is not. He is not a designer nor has he worked as a designer, production person..nothing... but he wants to sit and tell me what to do based on some out-dated facts and ways. I feel like asking, What the hell am I here for if youu know everything?

Sorry, but thanks for the rant. Yes, quitting would be nice, but no yet...

designrants @ 2008-07-15T10:38:00

2008-07-15T17:38:35Z

I'm doing some updates to our web site at work. The project manager guy talks to my boss and tells her he wants changes, so she relays them to me and I make them. Usually this consists of her printing out the relevent pages and marking on them, so it's easy to tell where changes need to be made. But this time she copied and pasted every page on the site and emailed it to me (or maybe he did and sent it to her?). Some of them were obviously different, and some of them she wrote notes about what needed to be done, but there's one page that's full of craploads of text, and I can't tell if anything needs to be fixed or if it was just copied and pasted to me. So I have this conversation with my boss:

Me: Were there any changes on XYZ page?
Boss: I don't know. Just copy and paste the whole thing.
Me: If I copy and paste I'll have to spend an hour reformatting the whole thing. I don't think it's worth it unless there were changes.
Boss: *frustrated sigh* Fine. Just leave it then.

WTF? She's been like this a lot lately. I'll point out something that needs to be fixed or could be done better another way, and she gets irritated and kinda shuts down. Like she's mad at me for pointing it out, but it's not like it's anything that's personal. Just minor stuff like a grammar mistake or a place on the web site that says "click here" without actually being a link you can click on. I'm like, "hey we should fix that" and it seems like she's ticked at me for pointing it out. She doesn't actually yell or get angry, she just sort of stiffens up and puts a stop to the conversation. Seriously, WTF? My review is coming up at the end of the month, so this is not a good time for her to be ticked at me, and I can't even figure out why she would be.

Advertising.

2008-07-11T18:12:00Z

1. When no matter how much you try and argue to push good design, that in the end–only a point-of-sales perspective of design is acceptable.

2. When account people art direct, and thus affects the designs sent out as they influence the client as their comments are sent to the client, not the designer's.

3. Those days when you hate your job and the world is a tragedy.

Source help?

2008-07-08T22:47:33Z

I'm looking for either images/brushes/vectors of old school vintage tennis how-to diagrams. Anyone know where I can find something like that? Last resort is, obviously, to go to the library. But its for work, which is a non-design job. So I don't want to waste copious amounts of time looking for an image.

I've already been to getty, stock xchng, google, flickr, and various brush and vector sites.

Liek tot4lly figure5.

2008-07-08T16:39:13Z

[ X-posted from personal journal ... ]

Just back from a somewhat bemusing trip to the Apple Store...

So... got back from the Prayer Fast Weekend with my Medicine circle and after settling in, the iBook punks out on my son. No noises, no error messages... just a black screen and won't restart. UH OH Does the same thing in the morning with krazycrafter. So I know an Genius Bar visit is in order. Go in yesterday, and they're backed up. So make an appointment for this morning. Last night I somehow manage to the the beastie to wake up. So I don't FUK around... run Tech Tool and check the hardware. Then while it's awake, overnight I back up the Hard Drive. Never can be too paranoid. And the thing finishes sometime in the realm of 3AM and I wake up in front of HBO with the 2nd movie that came on after John Adams watching me... ** yawn **

Anyway, back to the mall and the Apple Store this morning. And do you know what the little beast did?

It behaved PERFECTLY.

The Apple Genius technician could find no issues, and passed all HW and SW checks. And of course the silicon terrorist restarted with no complaint like five times...

So it was like, "looks like you're in good shape here. Have a nice day, Sir."

There's got to be something between WTF and LOL that fits of the situation. ::Headscratch:: and "DOH!" while possibly appropriate, and seem to apply, do not quite capture the absurdity the moment.

asdfghjkl!!!

Headdesk.

2008-06-30T22:04:38Z

HOLY BALLS.

EIGHT ads needed to be designed, revised and approved by EOD TODAY. Only gave us a week to do everything - Impossible, but we did it. Some had to come in this weekend. Just now, found out that major details changed FRIDAY on one of the ads, but they forgot to tell us. The ad needs a complete redesign from the ground up; no way we can have it done and approved in time. The deadline is gonna be blown and it looks like WE F'd up, even though it wasn't our fault.

I wanna go home.

Not a rant. But funny.

2008-06-26T21:03:25Z

I create the quarterly newsletter for the LA/Ventura region of our company. And in addition to actual content we also do fun stuff. In particular, I was looking at the website www.humorscope.com since we do "funny" horoscopes.

This was the humorscope for Aries today:

Aries (March 21 - April 19)
Your butler will quit, today, in a tiff. Since you can only view gif and jpeg, though, it will be quite some time before you realize that.

Thought it was worth sharing.

What?!

2008-06-25T22:54:10Z

Email

Fr: Potential Client

Well thank you for your quick response. I know that our pervious web page designer charged us about $250 and used only HTML format. Now we are interested in going with flash as much as possible, this way we can use only one or two pages {What?}. Your price is a little to high for us right at this moment, but we will definatly keep your contact info for future reference.

[Client]
[ "company name" Production Company]

.....

A whole website?! 250? Am I crazy? Are they looking to get this same price with as much flash as possible?

logos

2008-06-24T19:39:18Z

okay what the fuck is so hard about making logos the right way? i have a logo from a client that was made by a designer that is built just as a pms and i need 4c and bw versions. of course the logo was built with freehand and with a bunch of fucking gradients so i have to manually go in and convert each pms instance to 4c and on top of it all decide how the logo should appear in bw because this designer didnt bother to make a bw version.

here are some great logo rules to live by:

1) ALL vector
2) no embedded images/photos
3) convert ALL fonts to outlines
4) always build at least:
-a- pms version
-b- cmyk version
-c- black and white version
5) ensure no rogue pms or rgb colors hide in your files

thanks

overheard in graphic design

2008-06-17T19:59:04Z

Context: My husband talking on the phone to a .net programmer he's working with on a web site, discussing the client's desires for implementation of a certain feature.

"I need to know what they want, so I can tell them what they can't have."

Outrageous

2008-06-17T01:17:47Z

I don't even know where to begin...

http://99designs.com

Arrrrggghhhh....

2008-06-14T03:38:20Z

Okay... so's I get dis gig, see? Logo, branding, identity package, website redesign, for an Actuarial ad Consulting Firm. After two rounds of designs, and one particularly grueling "committee" session tweaking dozens designs live in Photoshop trying desperately to get graphic symbols and type styles that are not horrible stereotypes, stupid, or silly that the entire firm could agree on.. I don't hear from them for MONTHS... then...

Client Email: I'ld first like to apologize for the amount of time that has gone by since we last spoke with you. After reviewing the logo idea, I think we prefer to go without a logo something similar to what our letterhead currently is but spruced up a bit. I have attached some rough examples of base ideas, and leave it to your creativity and expertise. I hope this helps you somewhat. ...

Note: PDF is of scanned letterhead in built in WORD. Yes, folks, Times New Roman in RGB Blue....

I respond: [edit] ... Okay, looks like we are largely back to square one. And what I am reading is that from where we were, no one could agree on any sort of icon or symbol to incorporate into a logo. It does not help that most of the symbols that the general public associates with "risk" are negative. However, that said, if you're set on a text-only logo, perfectly doable. But yes, we ought to put together something with a little more distinctiveness. If a client can discern that it was something nicked out in MS Word.. you want to stand out a bit more than than and promote a more professional attitude. ...

Client Email: thank you so much! I will await your expertise (thoughts, ideas)

:: HEADDESK HEADDESK HEADDESK ... ::

With "Logo Concepts Round III": [edit] Attached please find some text-only solutions based on the roughs you sent me. ... etc etc...

[clip] ... So please GOD, lets not use Times Roman... noting screams WORD and "lack of imagination" than the default typeface. If that look works for you, there are a number of wonderful and elegant serif faces out there. ...

One can only hope. "Spruced up a bit..." OMGods... SAVE Me.

What's sad is that these are actually kind of fun people, and they think I am a wizard.

Banzai...

Pit of Rage

2008-06-12T15:40:15Z

So I work at a high school teaching graphic design and on the side I run the student group that does our yearbook. The years prior it was in black and white, no layout to speak of, and no names on student photos. This year, it's colored, has a beautiful art deco theme and finally shows the life contained in our walls. Yes, there are a thousand typos, it's my goal to eliminate some of them next year (we gotta start somewhere?)

So why rant? Why the f*ck does every joe schmuck come out to tell me how to do my job better? The best are the parents who write me long emails detailing how graphic design should be done using words they must of heard in conversation. "It is a graphic designers job to make sure the customer is always happy." Uhm, my union book seems to have left that quote out. Oh well!

Or best yet, a parent asked to volunteer to help. Of course I say yes because I can't proof read to save my life (after all, I am just a graphic designer) and I figure the extra eyes would help. So I seem to have forgotten where in that email I said it would be a good idea to get a group of parents together to form a "committee" to discuss the visionary direction of future projects.

Oh that's right. I hate you. I hate you and your uneducated, close minded, ill-informed wanna be opinions. When you obtain a degree (hell, when you can dress yourself in matching colors) then we'll discuss vision. Until then, sit down, proof and shut the hell up.

Ugh.

french?

2008-06-10T17:17:40Z

so, a funny thing happened to me the other day. ii was talking to a boy through ims and he was telling me how he works in design and loves his job.. went to school for it and all. and so i asked if he'd like to see my work. of course, he said yes. he was looking and apparently got to my website portion of my portfolio and was a little confused. i'll share the dialogue with you:

[02:38] him: I really like the work you did for your sites, although I can't read any of it
[02:38] him: French?
[02:38] shegetsby: no....
[02:38] shegetsby: it's lorem ipsum
[02:39] shegetsby: common placeholder text
[02:39] shegetsby: basically latin used to demonstrate the graphic elements of a document
[02:39] shegetsby: for visual presentation
[02:39] him: ah
[02:40] shegetsby: basic stuff
[02:40] him: Yeah

all i have to say about this is: you're kidding, right? :)

This is why I don't have a rifle and clock tower.

2008-06-05T17:22:39Z

Or more rants about web design.

So, last night I was updating two websites for a freelance customer (not the dork I fired, the one that pays well and on time) and I'm updating 2 of the 4 sites I keep up for him. It's about 9:30pm and we're emailing back and forth as to the updates. The secondary site has not been updated for 2 months and that's the fault of both of us. I didn't back to him on it, and he didn't get me the necessary data I needed.

We both admitted our sins and forgive each other. No prob, right? WRONGO! Just around 9:45pm I get an email from one of the parents that watch the site for updates asking why can't she register here kid online. I aim my browser at the link she mentioned (I mean, it was working just 3 days ago) and sure 'nuff it's down. Offline. Kaput.

I check the FTP program and try to upload the page from my side and the server craps out on me. Oookay! Next, I go back to the browser to look on the site and it is GONE! I mean the whole site. Every page is offline and keeps giving me error messages. I'm flabbergasted. I go and check the other site on my browser and it is gone as well.

I'm a little miffed at this point and I check ALL the sites for my customer. They are all gone. The only link I'm getting is a MSN livesearch listing telling me where the sites SHOULD be and the links to the site that were working. In otherwords the cache locations of where the sites were the last time the spiders checked.

They are all gone. SO, I called the ISP this morning and got their answering machine. I leave a message and go about the rest of my day.

I call them again a few moments ago and leave another message. And then I go to look up the ISP's website and IT is offline as well. Nothing. Even their stuff has evaporated.

This is the only bone I've picked with my customer. I've asked him many times to switch ISP's. He's brought it before the committee that oversees the organizations for which I maintain the websites. They've said "No." everytime. So, I plug on and everytime I'm unable to log on to the site, I call the ISP and they get me back online.

It has become a habit to the point of being a monthly occurence. Nothing I can do. My customer knows this and so I sit on my hands until someone decides to tell me what's up.

I really want to get out of web design and only do site for friends and family. (Provide they host their sites where I tell them to!)

I want to go back to being and illustrator and make logos, ads, t-shirts, and drawings and electronic paintings. Its som much more fun and I don't have to rely on anyone else to get the work done. If my computer craps out for lack of memory, then I just restart it and try to continue.

Learning shopping cart systems, php, javascript, myspace, and paypal is something I want to do at my pace. I was working with Greg on making sites together, and I let that fall by the wayside. I want to get back into that and go at a sane working pace.

WAAH!

TTFN

Using my artwork as a template

2008-06-04T19:59:07Z

Ex-boss.

I will not "give" you editable files for the biggest client you have. I will also not give you editable files for an awesome club flyer design I made to be used as a template for future flyers because your new hires can't put them out in record time. It took me a while to find my groove with those, and I will not have you take it away from me.

P.S. Tell your clients to stop calling me at 5am!!

:(

gah!

2008-06-04T19:01:19Z

To the man who has called me THREE times today:

The form was done by a previous designer in Quark. I can either give you a PDF or a printed copy. I could also give you a version in InDesign.

I understand that your "friend" likes the form. It was designed professionally. I can give you a PDF or a printed copy of the form.

There is no way to edit it in Word.

There is no way to edit it in Word. You can however, edit small text edits it in Acrobat if you have the full version, not just Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Its a Quark file. No, they probably don't have Quark. And yes, your friend could probably scan it and attach a logo in the very small space OR SHE COULD PAY A PROFESSIONAL DESIGNER TO CREATE A NEW FORM.

I charge about $40 a hour for freelance work. Yes, that much.

There isn't any hidden way to edit this in Word. People use other programs besides Word and Powerpoint, people who get paid to layout information in such a way that is engaging and useful to the reader -- a PROFESSIONAL DESIGNER -- that is why your friend LIKES THE FORM SO MUCH.

I'm NOT ANSWERING THE PHONE AGAIN if you call.

At a loss/ Creative rights

2008-06-03T00:38:28Z

Alright, so my ex-boss person texted me to ask for editable files for the clients. I don't want to give him the files. I think he's asking for all editable client files. However, the recent files are the ones he's refusing to pay me for.

Anyone have advice? Can I keep the files I designed? I know he hired two other designers, and frankly I don't want them messing up my creation. I know the client will continue to use the design, but I don't think the boss knows how much effort went into it. I know if they get a hold of the files, they'll do something weird to it, continue using the design for more products. But, on the other hand, I don't want them trying to "recreate" my style and call it their own.

Do I have creative rights for what I made for these clients if I was freelancing for a company? I looked over my contract, and it says nothing about him owning the rights.

Ranty rant rant

2008-06-01T10:47:17Z

My current workplace offers endless corrections and changes. This has resulted in almost utter chaos.

It took me a good year to break into the design industry. So I want to give over a bit of advice to others who are new and often do work for friends and family or anyone that wants to do pro bono work to get more print experience or expand their folio.

Always make it a condition for pro bono work that you have creative control. And when people agree. Hold them to it. And if it smells like this agreement will fall through, run, run very fast.

If you stay, you will end up with NOTHING that you will be proud of.

Always hold onto the belief that if something is provided for free, that gives you art director rights. A fair and very appropriate trade.

Ex-Boss Rant

2008-05-31T02:26:56Z

He technically wasn't my boss. He owns this small, small design firm (which had no one working there when I applied). It all started last year when I needed an internship for my school. I found his ad on myspace classifieds (a bit of an odd place to look, I know). I went to the interview, and he blankly and quickly looked through my portfolio, and asked if 15/hour was okay to start.

Since this was an internship (I made sure he knew this was going to be an internship) I was happy to except. He said he had other designers, freelance. I signed a freelance contract with his company, and then I worked there every week, with 12-15 hours.

I told him I was going to get a retail job, but he wanted to keep me and started paying me 17 an hour. After a while, I told him he doesn't give me enough hours (or let me work on things for more then he THINKS projects should take) and he said, "Well, to be honest, you have available a 40 hour work week. I even had to hire other designers to do other things." WTF?

The past 9 months, however, he wanted me to be "available" full-time but I only got around 10-17 hours per week. I thought, this sucks, he's taking advantage of me, but this is my foot in the door, and when I get to my first year mark, I'll leave.

During this time he referred to me as his "head designer" and send me all jobs and even told almost every client that there was a one day turn around time. When I told him certain things would take a few days, he'd get angry, saying "it's really simple." I think he'd die if he had to come up with a single concept himself.

Above all, he is charging INSANELY low rates, which means I get less. If he charges 75 dollars for a club flyer, he expects me to work no more than 4 hours on it!!!

Websites he wanted done in a week!

Anyway, recently my computer went wonky, and I couldn't get it on, so he got angry when I couldn't work. I asked him, "Don't you have other freelance designers you have to work with?" To make matters even more interesting, he doesn't pay me on time. For the past 4 months, he's been consistently paid me a week later than promised. He hasn't paid me in three weeks. I stopped working a few days ago. I'm sick of his promises.

I always figured he worked with me because he could pay me way less than other seasoned professionals would. I doubt any would work with him!

He ONLY hires people who are new in the field. I see ads all the time from him stating he wants "Interns or just getting in the field" to hire. I feel sorry for them. I had to edit and fix files from a girl who barely knew anything. She didn't go to school. Photoshop was a "hobby" to her.

I feel bad because he said, "So if you haven't worked on (x client), (y client), and (z client) yet please dont because i already hire two in house designer"

WHAT. I ASKED you 6 months ago to make me an IN house designer instead of me being freelance. This is bull crap. I'm glad to be out of this mess, but I still feel bad.

Load off my mind

2008-05-30T15:10:36Z

I just fired my pain-in-the-ass freelance web client. It's just gotten to the point that the frustration and annoyance he causes me is not worth any amount of money he can pay me.

He's been nothing but a pain in my side from the word go. He calls day and night until the work he wants done is online, even when I've told him it will take several days to complete. He's been less than forthcoming with data, pics, dates, copy, and any other info that I've needed to complete the site.

He's been confused as to why pics that he's sent me with lots of body text cannot shrink down to a couple of inches across and become illegible. Payments arrive late or in installments, so I know that he's not making any money off his business. I tried to deposit one check a few months ago and he called me to tell me that his account was overdrawn because I deposited his payment two days early.

The client has asked for things that I've REPEATEDLY told him are not possible. His response is usually confusion as to why I cannot reproduce things he's seen on other sites.

He's sent me emails asking for things to add to the work that we agreed to that go above and beyond my capabilities or are simply annoying in order to add. Ex: "While you're updating the flash banner, can you put a link title that goes to another site that I don't have the url for but would like to have online by the time you've finished the update?"

My default response to any and all questions has been "NO!" but still he continues with the same behavior.

I'm working full time right now and would like to have some time to myself to work on things that are just for me. This has been impossible with his continuous cascade of emails, phone calls, and visits to my place of work. IT's just not worth the time and effort on my part.

I've fired him and I feel better about it.

freelancing sites

2008-05-20T21:45:27Z

no rant here really, just a question...how many of you freelancers out there use sites like ifreelance.com or gofreelance.com? i just recently got laid off at work and it's been really hard to find a new steady gig. i have been thinking about just going the freelance/work from home route full time but i don't know how i should go about it. i have already done some freelance jobs but through networking within my social/professional circle...would anyone give me some advice please? are these sites worth the membership fees? and for those of you that make your living on a strictly freelance business, do you get a lot of work through these types of websites? many particular site you recommend?

sorry i am not ranting! i don't think i have posted here in quite some time. i appreciate any feedback though. thanks so much!

Graphic Design Customers

2008-05-20T00:16:30Z

(They following is an exercise in hyperbole in order to make a rather unexciting event in my day funnier. I like my job and no one should assume otherwise. Dorks just get me on a rant and I have to make fun of them online.)

I try really hard to respectful of all customers that walk in the store. But it conTINues to amaze that ALL graphic design clients want to milk me for every little nitpicky idea that passes through their cheapass shrunken walnut brains. And to top it all off, they whine like a kitten on fire when you tell them that they are paying an hourly rate for the service.

This bonehead is at the top of my list so far this year.

So, I'm on the phone with a customer that's wanting a vectorized scalable image that he can use to make an acid wash image etched on to a ceramic tile. The tile itself is 35 inches across. The first image he sent me was pretty simple. Four corner images and then a sun burst image radiating from the center.

Easy, right? Sure! It's a perfectly symmetrical design that is easy to reproduce and send to the customer. Fifteen minutes of my time done for the customer and they're happy, right? No, he then wants to replace the center image (with it's ease of reproduction and scalability) with another image. It's divided into 6 sections that flow into each other because they're done in that Art Nouveau root/vine/knotwork style. He wants it to be perfectly circular from the low-res jpeg that he's sent me.

I tell him that I'll have to redraw the image from scratch as it is difficult to reproduce and doesn't look right when ran through the autotrace function. He starts to plead saying "Can't you just do part of it and rotate it...?"
"No." I cut him off. (A little knowledge in a customer's mind is a dangerous thing) "No." I say as the design is asymmetrical and can't simple be cut and pasted to fit.

Then I ask "Do you have a better version of the image? Maybe a vectorized version in Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw?"

He says that the company that made the image wont give him a vectorized version of it because it's a proprietary image.

*facepalm*

I explain that I can't simply cut and paste the image as it is can't be made into a perfectly circular design. Then, after I get off the phone with my nails deeply embedded into the top of my desk, I write him a two paragraph email. I explain why I can't violate copyright and use an image I haven't been given permission to use. And that use of an image without permission of the creator or paying a fee is violation of copyright. (Which means I wrote two paragraphs telling him the same thing twice.)

I tell my boss what I've done and he agrees that was the right thing to do. Then put the project away with the knowledge that Cap'n Dumbass almost had me break federal law.

Ah, the fun never stops.

The last post reminds me -

2008-05-14T18:56:08Z

Would someone like to explain to me in clear, concise terms exactly what the fuck making something "pop" entails?

I presume it has nothing to do with sticking needles in things. Given the dual oddness and ubiquity of the term, I have to wonder if the suits do How To Irritate Your Art Department 101 or something as part of their management degrees.

Not the dreaded 'Pop' comment

2008-05-14T17:53:05Z

At the very end of a list of changes to a document I have been working on lately...

Visuals:
Make the visuals bigger so they pop and are more readable – less white space in the design even if it requires increasing font size.

I'm glad they gave me permission to increase the font size to get rid of the pesky white space.