Ineptboss

Dealing with a Visually Inept Boss by Erik Hansen As graphic designers produce visual ideas for products and services, they ultimately have to get them approved by higher ups before completion.  This can become an arduous task as you watch the boss change their minds 10 times in 3 minutes and then after carrying out a design to its finishing stages, ask for a complete re-design because they have some new idea in a completely different direction.

It's true that the boss always picks the design you can't stand the most. It is also true that most bosses have absolutely no training or experience in design.  But the worst is having to sit there and have them tell you that the terrible design you spent 2 minutes on just to give him another option is really nice because the colors are more pretty.  I work in a company where one other person and I are the entire marketing department, and all the boss who we answer to are, I'm sure very smart in their field, but not in design.  It is like trying to teach a 4 year old what makes a design successful.  I think I have thought about getting out of my chair and jumping out the window a dozen times while in those long and pointless meetings.  I call them pointless because you spend the entire time defending yourself against stupid ideas and how long you spend on designs to make them what they are.

The only way to make them happy is to relate everything back to their understanding.  How this will make them more money and how it will help them save money. "You see sir, the pretty colored one will not work because not everyone likes puke green, like yourself.  You will lose money if this design is approved."   The designer also must ask tons of questions, because the boss almost never knows what they want, and they want you to read their mind like Ms. Cleo.  Do I look like a fat black woman from Jamaica?  I don't think so!

In a large corporation, the bureaucracy of power is put in the hands of CEO's who know how to make a buck, but when it comes to design they shouldn't be let within 50 feet of the marketing department.  They don't have to show their dominance buy telling a professionally trained design team how to do their jobs.