Bum Rush Explained
October 28
Alright, I know I’ve been very lax in explaning what Bum Rush was about. Part of that is that I wanted to get examples for you, but as I can’t seem to find any, I’ll just have to make due without.
As many of you know, we work for a newspaper company. It’s owned by a man and his wife, but she (I’ll call her She Boss) has said several times that she’s not a boss/the boss/our boss, and she’s repeatedly brought up the fact that she’s not a designer. She’s an accountant, actually.
Yet, on many, many occasions, she finds it necessary to come and tell us how such-and-such ad looks like two ads and needs to be redone this way, so that it’ll look so much better; or that this ad is the completely wrong color! Can’t we make it purple? Or yellow? Or maybe a nice pink? Just something that’ll make it appealing to men.
Please.
We’ve both graduated from college with degrees in design. We read all manner of design information (books, web sites, etc…). We practice our craft day-in and day-out. The last thing we need is an accountant telling us how to design.
Now, don’t read me wrong, here. I’m not saying that non-designers should never give design advice. By all means, if you’re paying me to make something for you and you don’t like the way I’ve taken it, correct me. Point me to the right path. But don’t tell me in a condecending, “I know design better than you ’cause I’ve taken a seminar on basic color theory” way.
Sweet – she was one of the people who I kicked yesterday! What luck, eh?
Jeff Clark on October 28, 2004 at 8:16 am
Dude, you really need to find a different place to work. It’s pretty obvious that your talent isn’t respected. Now I don’t mean act like you two are super-gods, but at LEAST realize that you two know what you’re doing. I can see the real boss having a say in how something looks since it’s a newspaper being seen by a large number of people. But there should be a respect for you two that “Hey! Just maybe you know better than me about design!”
By the way, could you change the color in the ‘Leave a Comment’ box to a purple, or maybe a nice pink? …I’m kidding! Don’t punch me in the face through the internet.
Ray on October 28, 2004 at 8:20 am
Unfortunately, this will follow you every place you work at as an in-house designer. The faces and names will change, but the same smarmy “I don’t like your color choices because they aren’t MY favorite colors, but I don’t know how to just tell you that or get over it, so I’m going to passive agressively make you do it anyway because I’m higher up than you” attitude will always be there.
Really the only thing one can do in these situations is to do it, not stress about it, collect a paycheck, and do good work with clients who appreciate it at night to fill out your portfolio.
Oh, I have some beautiful color changes lying around here…
max on October 28, 2004 at 9:04 am
I never have anything insightful to say … I just wanted to comment on the fact that pink is the new “black” … ROCK ON PINK WEARING GOTHS~
manny on November 1, 2004 at 2:13 pm