How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul, by Adrian Shaughnessy
In this chapter, Adrian talks a lot about designers in general and employing designers in a studio. Designers in general are independent people. Even if you are working in a group with a very specific goal, it is still the creation of an individual. No one can write a computer program in which its main function is to “be creative.” This is important to keep in mind and consider while employing designers in your studio. You have to take into considerations that when people start to slander and pick apart a designer’s work they become easily discouraged and threatened. I know when we have critiques in class, my mind wonders to self-defense when a fellow students states the failures in my work. It seems only natural. Just like in any business, you want to treat your employees like they are the best employee’s ever. Constructive criticism in this environment is a lot less threatening if you believe overall that what you have been doing is good work. Knowing that it’s not an end all die all or job-threatening occurrence might help the designers to stay fresh and motivated instead of weary and unmotivated.
Adrian made a good point when she shared her most valuable piece of advice, employee people that are better than you. In design, there are many aspects in which a designer could be good at. Many people hone in on one and become a master at it, and are adequate in most other aspects. To put this advice into context, you must realize that no one is a master at everything. Some people might be exceptionally well at a lot of things, but there is always someone better. The mentality is if you hire people that are better than you in the areas your weak at, it will only aid in the quality production and growth of your studio. Complimenting skill sets seem to be a reoccurring theme when running a studio. And why wouldn’t it be? Why would you want designers that conflict and are good at the same thing? It seems sensible that we want to optimize performance by choosing compatible skills.
One thing that I didn’t suspect to be trouble is growing too large. My preconceived notion is that the bigger you are the better and the more money you would make and the better things would be. This is not necessarily the case with a design studio. When you think about it, it makes sense. When you are creating quality work and keeping clients happy, the word gets around and more and more job offers come in. If you have put together a quality team, this fact is inevitable. The hard part is, taking what you know already works and trying to expand it to meet the demands of new clients. This could be a tricky task to find more designers that will fit the rhyme and reason of your studio. Plus, if you decide to take on new fields, you have to start all from scratch with bringing in new types of designers. Through this trying to expand you have to think of how your studio flows and how all the pieces fit together. You also have to worry about getting a bigger place perhaps, which leads to higher rent and combined with the salaries of new designers, things could go bad if everything doesn’t fall into place. Another thing to think about is with more client demand, you are naturally given more freedom of choice in which type of work you want to do. With more offers, you can sift through the jobs your small team might have trouble with and focus the ones that cater to their skills. Overall, it seems like expansion is a double edge sword. The glamour of a big job, a big studio and lots of money are nice, but seem more difficult to achieve. The freedom and independence of a small studio are nice conditions to be working under but the money is not as ample.
Chapter 6: Winning new work
Adrian gets into the flow of incoming work and how you can keep you studio busy with new and exciting things to accomplish. When clients are deciding whether or not to hire a designer, there any a few things they will be considering. Besides the obvious negotiation of pay and efficiency, they more or less will be looking at you as a person. Adrian mentions that there is an element of subjectivity that a client will have when making a final decision on a designer. Since the creation of designs is solely an individual process, sometimes a client will choose to commission a project because they like the individual’s way of being. Adrian can contest to this with when one of her clients said, “anyway, what we have got now is good for the soul.” That is referring to the element of the individual to create something that can’t be evaluated with a checklist. People can look at something an individual created and recognize the personal and emotional factors that went into making it. That is an important thing to remember when trying to draw in new clients. You aren’t only selling your work; you are in part selling yourself.
I found it interesting to see what designers who aren’t apart of a large company might do to gather work opportunities. Large companies have the money and resources to maintain stellar web pages and to advertise. Since they are big firms, they get business attention from other places besides the design industry. This puts the small time design studios at a disadvantage. As Adrian states, the two ways to pick up new clients is by word of mouth or a random business encounters. She stresses that you have to make sure you follow every chance you get to make a new connection and get your name out there with people who otherwise wouldn’t know you. This is a very proactive process; you cannot lie around and wait for something to happen because it won’t. Some things Adrian mentions designers do when jobs are slim are: enter a piece of work in a contest to get added recognition that would add some flare to your portfolio, submit new work to the design press, produce a studio brochure to hand out, email newsletters to potential clients or calling potential clients and offer to show them some new work the studio has done. None of these things can get accomplished by hoping for a call back. I can see the importance of finding new ways to get some light on your studio so clients will want to learn more and maybe consider working with you.
Under the “new business person” header, Adrian talks about having a few people within the studio are dedicated to finding new clients. It seems like a reasonable position. Especially if you are a small studio and are busy with doing work all the time, I could see how employing some extra people that will be able to arrange and attend meetings beneficial to the studio. One position you might consider is someone who is good at research and a charming individual to go out and set up appointments with potential clients. As long with this, they could partake in other administrative tasks to lighten the load. The other kind of businessperson is the individual that can think on the spot and win clients by meeting with them face to face. This person needs to represent your studio ideals and be apart of the studio family. This could be a good one two combinations to get people in the door. If these people represent your studio well, they have potential to bring in a lot of business.
Adrian also brings up another good point. If everyone in your studio is a little business savvy and can present themselves well, than you want to consider having everyone try to bring in new business on their own. This to me makes sense as well to be a beneficial approach. It all depends on what kind of people you have working in your studio. If you decide not to employee people to attract new business, you have to realize that everyone has a role to uphold the best reputation for the company. Instead of sending one or two people out to make an impression on people, have everyone be aware of their actions and how that effects how people look at the company. In some ways, it might even be better to take this approach. This way there are more people going out and having positive encounters with more people. The fact that it is someone that doesn’t have the specific job title and that is intimately involved with the creation of the work can present the company in an enlightening manner may impress potential clients.
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