In-House Design: Careers & Advice

Find tips specifically for the unique challenges faced by in-house designers working for creative departments within corporations, organizations, businesses and educational institutions. If you work in-house, you may sometimes feel a bit out of place in corporate environments or in settings where you are the lone designer on staff. Get advice from in-house experts and learn how to navigate the corporate waters and maintain your creativity and design inspiration along the way. Plus, find tips for communicating the value of design to decision-makers.

Find tools for in-house managers and designers

Strategic INsights: Branding part 1

Recently I wrote a 3-part series on marketing strategy aimed at giving in-house designers insight into how their marketing colleagues come up with those programs we’re asked to design for. For the last few decades branding has also played an importan… More

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6 Tips to Wow the Left-Brainers.

by Mike Clark You’re a creative, right-brained person. The boardroom is filled with left-brainers. The two groups think so differently from one another—how can anything be accomplished in this scenario? In the past 20 years, I’ve seen many right-… More

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Our Pursuit of Fearless Leadership

  Our Pursuit of Fearless Leadership  by Ed Roberts Many organizations are quickly coming to the realization that the strategies and core values they adopted decades earlier are no longer valid and are potentially detrimental to their success. Or… More

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Wonder if you’re appreciated? Quit your job.

I’ve had many conversations with in-house designers over the years about the level of respect for design in corporate America. In many cases the people I’ve spoken to tell me that they don’t feel like design is respected where they work, or that their personal contributions as designers are respected either. I have to admit, …MORE More

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Hold the Meetings

By Donna Farrugia, Executive Director of The Creative Group Meetings are a fact of life for every in-house design team. While many of these gatherings are essential, they aren’t always efficient. In fact, 45 percent of managers polled by Robert Half felt employees would be more productive if their companies banned meetings one day a …MORE More

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3 Sticky Salary Situations

Are you looking for a job, or trying to figure out how to negotiate a better salary in 2012? Here are 3 sticky salary situations you may encounter in your career and how to handle each one with diplomacy. More

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6 Secrets from the Etsy Design Team

While you may not actually work at Etsy, you can make it feel like you do with these tips from their in-house design team for instilling inspiration into any office. More

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Missed Promotions

While missing out on a promotion is disappointing, there may be an upside: You may emerge from the situation with a clearer sense of where you want to go, as well as how to get there. These tips can help you learn from the setback and increase your chances of landing a promotion in the future. More

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5 Things to Consider Before You Quit

Are you thinking about quitting your design job? Before you say “so long” and head out the door in a heated moment, consider these points before making a decision you may later regret. Or, decide if maybe you are ready for greener grass. More

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Be an “Unofficial” Creative Team Leader

It’s a classic catch-22: You’re given responsibility for a design project for a client, but no formal authority over the other players who will assist you in the assignment. How do you exert your influence in such a situation? Consider the following 5 tips More

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