Fleeing the Coop, Part 1
Leaving the corporate design world behind
PART ONE
Birds of a Feather (Don’t Have to Fly into a Jet Engine Together)
This past weekend while at a friend’s awesome dinner party (and by awesome I mean there were a lot of desserts), I struck up a conversation with a guy who owns a creative agency for non-profits. He explained the idea for a television spot and how he wanted the words to cinematically animate over the images. In somewhat abstract terms he described how the motion graphics needed to be just right for it to be successful. As he was talking I went full-on Bran Stark and could visualize what he was going for.
“Oh yeah, I see how that could potentially look depressing.” I offered. “I love that you’re shooting it black-and-white, but why not just shoot it more blown out and invert the palette?”
He asked what I did for a living. I explained that I’d been freelancing for the past year for a bunch of clients, but for the past 15 years I worked for big publishers as an editorial art director.
“You should give me your number. You’d be great for this, or another spot I’m doing,” he said.
“Well, I’ve never really worked on TV before.”
“So what?” he shrugged. “In my experience creatives with a print background make the best art directors. It’s about ideas.”
I’ve been hearing this a lot lately, and I want my demoralized designer friends who don’t have a lot of “digital” in their portfolios to give themselves a little self-love. We all know print has taken a beating, but lately it seems if you’re not a UX designer, Javascript coder, Powerpoint guru or video editor, nobody wants you. And if you’re over 35 forget about it. I know what it’s like to spend way too many evenings eating peanut-butter-filled pretzels, watching HBO and fantasizing about starting a line of alcohol-infused jams to sell to hipsters.
I’ve been noticing lately that many digital-focused companies are realizing what they also need is an experienced creative leader who can strategize, manage, design and execute ideas. Ideas that translate to strategy, branding, pitch decks, websites, product builds, style guides, video, events… I could go on. This is especially evident in the start-up world where there is a desperate need for senior-level design talent and mentorship. In fact, their success depends on it.
For over 15 years I’ve worked in corporate publishing as a designer and creative director. I love photography, illustration and typography so magazines were always a perfect fit for me. The core of everything I have ever done was solving problems and telling stories. Systems, math, grids and the organization of information is second nature to editorial designers — we put this into practice page after page and issue after issue. We’ve also styled photo shoots, designed sets for conceptual still life, collaborated with illustrators and even directed motion designers.
Coding? Hell, I wrote a choose-your-own-adventure in Basic when I was 10 (look it up, kids). I taught myself Actionscript when Flash was the thing. Even though HTML and CSS is not that hard to learn (and I do think the fundamentals are essential to know), many designers aren’t passionate about coding and it’s time to stop feeling guilty about it. Can we all just finally agree that yes, “it would be a bonus” if every designer could write Javascript and be a kick-ass front-end developer, but many companies are overlooking a lot of creative talent in order to have it all. More often than not they are getting someone who is “pretty good” at a lot of things, when they could be working with the best. I also can’t overstate how important it is to learn how to communicate and work with developers and other rock-stars on your digital team to do the best work possible, utilizing skills that each individual brings to the table.
Many corporate publishers and print agencies have looked in the wrong direction to implement a digital strategy for their products. The most obvious solution is to empower their creative staff to lead the way, but traditional management structures silo their creatives into distinctive camps: print, social, video. Success as a designer in one type of media should be a good indicator of success in another. Working as an art director is about telling stories, and digital is just another channel for a company’s brand narrative.
If you’re a designer who can’t seem to break into the current media landscape, get your own clients and make it happen for yourself. You may start with a print project but that will very soon turn into a new logo, a website, a pitch deck, or even a mobile product. Take a UX course, learn the fundamentals of HTML and CSS, and start using Sketch or Adobe XD (easy-peasy for print designers). Send proposals for jobs you think you’ll never get and collaborate with people who are experts at the things you are not. All it takes is one person who has the imagination and business acumen to value your skills. Or a friend who’s desperate.
If freelancing makes you think of dumpster-diving, keep looking until an employer gives you the opportunity to lead beyond your traditional role — a small company that gives you a chance to show that you are intellectually capable of being part of strategic business conversations. I found a company just like that. They’re called Lumenary, a consultancy that employs strategy, branding, design and essentially offers growth as a service to help start-ups and established brands reach their potential (more to come on that in the upcoming posts). They are forward-thinking and some of the smartest people I have ever met. Last week I started working as their Design Director and after only 4 days I feel a renewed excitement about how design can change the world. It feels like we are in the golden age of creativity with all the tools available to us to connect, collaborate, and create.
Do I feel like I’m starting over? Nope. Just renewing my passion to do superior and meaningful work as a print-digital-video-branding-product Creative Director and utilizing my 15 years of design and management experience to make it happen.
In Part Two I’ll confess to the highs and lows of starting somewhere new and working in unexpected ways. I definitely want to extoll the virtues of getting out of your comfort zone and spreading your wings, but it’s not all unicorns and rainbows.
