No Authority

[orlandotree]

My colleague and I work for a publisher that has grown recently from outsourcing all book cover designs, to creating them in-house. The growth was rapid and precluded proper development of the design team.
We have no art director, just designers and executives. We receive a project, design and execute, submit the results to the director of production who vets them before presenting them to the top executive or requests changes before presenting them. The executive chooses a design, makes revisions, and we create the final product. In other words: there is no design authority to make the right, informed decision. We designers think we're right; the executives think they're right; the middleman thinks a middleman is necessary. This process needs to change. There has been talk of hiring an art director but this won't come soon enough, and besides that, it's clear that the executive has strong opinions and wants to keep control over the final designs. What alternative design process should we suggest for better outcomes?

[Rolo]

That does sound frustrating. You could suggest that the director of production or the executive come up with some sort of design brief before the designers start the process, if they don't do that already. That way you'll have a starting point and know what they are expecting. You as designers could have group critiques (like in school) and determine if the design meets the stated objectives. That's part of what a design director does anyway. Beyond that, if the executive wants to have control over the final design, there's not much you can do, other than explain and rationalize the design choices you made. Good luck to you!