Work
I've been very lucky to be where I am in Seattle, however I also have a few of freelance projects I wanted or am attempting to complete at the same time. Being a younger designer I am very aware that any opportunity could make or break you, which makes it often hard to turn away work.
Turning away, or failing to initiate these briefs bothers me alot, I know that there are many designers out there that would kill for such an opportunity to hand itself to them and I always regret the projects that get away. Having said all of that, I am already more loaded with work than is remotely sensible and have no choice but to pull out all of the stops. It occurs to me, from many experiences and conversations with other designers, that we designers in general are a greatly under appreciated commodity.
No other profession springs to mind where the employee will pour their heart and soul into something, forgoing the correct hours of sleep and rest, simply to complete a project to their own ridiculously high standards, just to be told by a client who obviously doesn't understand, that they would like to merge all of the concepts into one "uber" concept that quite obviously (atleast to any designer) is no longer a coherent response but instead a mass of attractive(ish) but meaningless drivel. I believe that we as designers can never be satisfied however unless we do attempt to do this time after time and hopefully guide the client away from the looming attempt and merging.
The problem however is that because we work in a world where you're lucky to get four weeks holiday a year it is impossible for a designer to recuperate after what is often a soul draining experience. The completion of a project often leaves me (and others) in the mood to sleep for atleast a week and to engage once again with the numerous books and general cultural experiences we switch off the need to devour during a project.
This very topic cropped up in a meeting earlier this week and it was suggested by our CEO (Of my seattle placement, there is no CEO of rayform design) that if we felt the need to take a day off then we should do so without hesitation and it is a credit to all those present that they all looked mortified at the suggestion. I sincerely hope that clients learn just how dedicated good designers are and appreciate the hours of effort they put in.
P.S. This post isn't aimed at any of my clients, I always strive to have a good relationship with the clients I work for.
| Written on: 29.07.07 | Comments (0) |
