Designer rant #1

I wouldn't know how the design industry is in other countries but for Malaysia, clients/your boss are your Creative Directors. They always have the old-fashioned notion that whoever pays, they fuckin own you. Here, everybody is a fuckin designer.

"Oh, have you been to Ikea lately? I saw this sofa, I like how the colors mesh together to give an impression of space", says housewife A.
"Really? I thought it was garish and out-of-place, I prefer the one near the entrance, the size and contour is just right for your condo", says housewife B
"Are you sure? They don't have it in red! It fits perfectly to my light orange walls", fishmonger butts in.
"Its a shame, cos' it will liven up the atmosphere by the time, Chinese New Year comes by", interrupts pork seller.

In short, everybody thinks that with minimal color coordination skills, they are fuckin designers. I know everybody is entitled to their opinions, but the designers in Ikea are designers for a reason. Just like how every designer in publishing/advertising/interior/architecture/whatever are. In publishing, there are text and there are layouts. Usually, design is something visual and also subjective. When we layout the text and page, we coordinate between the two to come up with a layout thats easy to read. As with writers, for text you have grammar changes, or maybe changes to style of writing to suite the identity of the mag. But if you are a lowly DTP designer, its easier to give criticism on your layout. It has to go through to editor (to check text), to Art Director then to Creative Director. Before the layout goes to print, 7 changes had already been made to the layout. People always assumed that if you are an Art Director, then you have the best design skills or the best design sense. That's not necessarily the case as I've had my fair share of shite-for-brains Art Directors. Throughout my 9 year stint in publishing, the only Art Director that really taught me was in KLue magazine. He didnt emphasis on design. He emphasis on how designers should think, why it is important to love music and culture, why you should have a spliff once in awhile. He understands that as a designer, you need to grow, and growth as a designer doesn't happen overnight. It is nurtured by the fact that designers shouldn't stop learning. He wasn't your regular Art Director. The rest of the ADs are complete shite. That explains why I was often accused of being difficult and arrogant. They tend to stick to what works. But not how you can push the magazine further by doing what everybody else is not doing. I can never say I'm a good designer because if you're already that damn good, the learning stops.

Which brings me back to why design is such a difficult issue here. Trust is important between bosses/clients and designers. If you can't even trust your designer, you might as well learn photoshop yourself. They need to understand that no designers want their work to look like shit. We actually position the text and images for optimum readability only to have the clients/bosses change it because........ the green is "not nice". That's the thing, you want quality design for the lowest possible price and on top of that with a gazillion changes done to it. And most of the time, the brief from the client is always, "I don't know la, you just design to make it more luxurious la, errr..... no copy wor, but you figure out the copy on your own la.. I don't know la.. its all up to u la..you are the creative person here". I understand the client cannot really visualize the artwork unless he sees the first draft. Would it be easier if you just let the designer know the specifics, so all the dilly dallying can be eliminated. I need red, i need blue, i need patterns, i need it in illustration. The finished artwork resembles the clients handiwork but its just the designer thats tapping the mouse. Might as well hire my nephew to tap on the keyboard.
We shouldn't complain really. End of the day, we still get the cash, but would you wanna put it up at your portfolio? This trend encourages designers to be lazy. Hey, doesn't really matter if the money comes in eh? Oh no, you can fight for your design, tell the client what you really think. Explain to him, I'm sure he/she would understand. Its fine if your client is willing to listen but does it occur to you that its super-rare to bump into clients who is willing to reason here? What they need from a freelance designer is fast, super nice design, and cheap. I had come across clients who overlaps changes after changes on several different jobs. Working solo. And the dateline is supposed to be yesterday. It too confusing to even explain the design which had already gone through 20 changes. With tight datelines and enormous quantity, we need to adapt to the clients demands. There's always a compromise when you need the design to be awesome for minimum wage, we need time to conceptualize and brainstorm. But an award-winning design with yesterdays dateline and over 7 different jobs that needs to be amended while working solo, near impossible. You can't argue that you give them a rm800 design when they pay that amount, because you agreed to it. If you don't want to do the job, the client can easily call up any designer who can offer them a better price with faster turnaround time. We are dispensable.

Everybody thinks that designers are not as important as sales people or marketing people. Haiyah, for magazine its just template design. You just position the text and images only wat. I beg to differ. If it doesn't require actual brainwork, I would like to be there to work. Everybody plays an important in publishing.

My point being in the whole rant, is that I feel designers are under-appreciated here. Your role is to design what I tell you to design cos' I pay your salary/creative fee. Why there are more creative and brilliant design out there overseas is because society is open to new, fresh ideas. And designers do not confine themselves to designing what works, but pushing fresh risky ideas out. It helps that clients there are broad-minded about design as well. All we need is for clients/bosses to trust us designer and let us explore creative like we are supposed to.