My Boss Thinks he is a designer

[missyB]

Trying to learn and copy code and the way it works is much different than creative tasks such as writing and photography. Learning code is like math (factual, logical) while the latter is much more subjective (but structural). I understand your sentiments, but yeesh, to have to clean up a mess on a project that he pays you to do...?

Say he sells car parts. What if you went through and completely messed up his system just because you were "trying to learn" what he does? I would have a non-confrontational but firm talk with him about your job duties, what is expected and what the most efficient way for you to do your job is.

Do you have a creative brief process in place right now? If you don't have any process (I cannot imagine you do if he is taking your designs home with him, but maybe I'm wrong!) write one up. With revision processes. If he wants to learn ID, give him dummy files. Explain he is loosing money by you having to re-work all of his shoot the next day.

If none of this is taken well from his end, yeah, dust off that resume. Chances are he WILL be doing your job shortly. At least, trying to.

[mattymj]

I think most of us can relate to that. There are days when I feel like I was hired just to be a mouse jockey, not to think. But that's one of the things that goes along with working in-house. It's a corporate structure where most people think they can do your job better than you can. At least that's been my own personal experience. But, there are upsides to working in-house that you can't get at an agency or working freelance. In the end you just have to decide what's important to you in your career.

[joedavis]

When I first posted this topic it was 2009 I was stressed. I think it was a little bit of ego due to myself worth being tied to my work as if it was my identity. Three catalogs later with my boss I have given in to his corky input. I have even given him a MacBook Pro so he can work on the indesign file at night. This means I do not have to be there with him odd hours of the night. The design of the projects are not as good as they where or meet the high creative standard that I once always sought to meet but at least I have a place to go every morning. At this point in my career I think I am a bit burned out. I have trained my boss how to use some software but he will never truly understand the concept of design. I guess as long as I am paid and he is happy that it is kinda selfish to complain in this economy.

Joe

[Elephant]

Hang in there, Joe, and keep your options open. I've been watching so many talented designers walk away the past few years just because they've been put in impossible situations. If you you can't get out of your job, start bringing in some magazines and books to start teaching your boss beyond the program. It could be as simple as showing one good example and one bad example.

[Neal]

I would bring in a few books, drop them on his desk and tell him that he really needs to learn this information before trying to learn InDesign. Books like: The Elements of Typographic Style, a book on Grids, a book on the History of Design, a book about color theory, some recent design magazines.

Then maybe point out mistakes he is making in his InDesign files - wrong use of grids, improper font usage, poor color palette - things that reinforce why he needs to understand more than just the program.

[Ampersand]

One of the problems with working in-house is that in many of these kinds of situations, the company isn't really about design or marketing or publishing or creativity. Instead, in-house groups tend to put together various print and web-related materials that the company knows that it needs but isn't focused on and doesn't really understand. Consequently, the bosses, even the ones over the in-house creative staff, tend to come from the general company culture and don't get the creative thing.

I once had a job for a government agency where I was the equivalent of the creative director. The person just over me, however, was a biologist with a military background. The guy was utterly clueless about anything creative, and worse still, he didn't realize that he was clueless and *** that the entire creative staff was composed of a bunch of arrogant, undisciplined oddballs who didn't know how to follow orders or sit still during his marathon three-day meetings. His sheer incompetence in the job eventually drove most of my creative staff, including me, out of the government agency. He ended up replacing everyone with people like himself who had no formal design/communication education, little worthwhile experience and no aptitude for design, marketing, public relations, videography or writing. He did, however, fit in with the general agency culture and was, consequently, listened to by the agency director who was equally clueless about how creative staffs worked and the skills they possessed.

Every in-house situation is different, however, and my example is just that — my example. There are some commonalities, however, that tend to show up time and time again. For example, the in-house creative staff is often regarded as the equivalent of graphics short-order cooks who stand by to await their design orders from those who request them. Instead of being thought of as creative thinkers and problem solvers, they're regarded as service personnel to implement other people's ideas. After all, intelligence and thinking aren't required to design a logo or a brochure, Photoshop and PowerPoint does it all for you — right?

On the other hand, in-house situations can be great if you land at the right company. In-house jobs sometimes let designers focus on longer-term projects and fine-tune ongoing campaigns and materials to a degree not possible in ad agency environments on fixed budgets and shortened time frames. Really, it all depends. One thing's for sure, though — life is too short to spend 40 hours per week at a job that you hate. If the company isn't a good fit, make the best of it, but actively look for something better and leave as soon as you find it.

[shurik]

Get a few of the managers in one room and have a design meeting. Go over a few things and show that what you do has logic behind it. Let the others give their ideas, often they aren't that bad - you just need to reinterpret them in a better way. Even tell them that, it'll make them happy. As long as some of their ideas are somehow still used and the other ideas are rejected using logical reasons - they wont have any argument against you.

And tell them not to waste their time 'designing', as it only makes your job harder. If they have ideas - they can express them in their own ways, using pen and paper or even in InDesign, but just for the sake of demonstrating. Forward some articles on design that are easy to read and explain why what you do matters and they shouldn't mess with it. Educate them

[LickOfPaint]

It's a common plight of an in-house designer.
When I used to work for this online golf company, I used to create a graphic intensive newsletter to my boss's spec, only for it to be pretty much scrapped and reproduced 5 times every week by the collective of bosses.
Hey, I was getting paid, so what did I care? But it was a huge waste of everyone's time.

I would advise working with 1 guy (the most senior guy) to get it right the first time.
But sometimes you just have to take the money and not worry about how much bullshit you have to deal with.