Im not sure how to take that...

[bigdave]

The company director has just been down talking to us about a couple of issues we've been having. During the conversation he described me and my work as 'structured' whilst refering to another colleague as 'flamboyant'. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not?...

[Katedesign]

Flamboyant for funeral service stationery = not good
Structured for well thought out design and artwork = good

It all depends...

[bigdave]

He refered to myself and the studio manager as 'structured' which I can see in a way because I am VERY Anal about everything lining up and fitting to a strict layout. But he refered to steve (he's a mac monkey with no training or idea what he's really doing) and Emma (she is an amazing designer) as flamboyant.

[Tony Hardy]

Was he referring to your designs? Or character traits?
And, describing someone as a Mac monkey always makes me laugh :P

[bigdave]

I'm not really sure to be honest.

Oh, and on reflection, calling steve a mac monkey is a bit unfair to monkeys.

[Katedesign]

Whilst I agree that being anal about lining stuff up can make things a bit....formal/stiff , it normally works well. And being structured probably means that you check your work - which is VERY good! Perhaps just every so often you should try someting flamboyant! What makes Emma so good, BTW?

[bigdave]

I think the boss (his idea of creative is colouring the cells in his excel document) has confused Emma's knowledge of design and her ability to try different things and make it work, with Steve's dump it on the page and hope for the best approach. Steve classes himself as a designer but has no ability outside a google image search, designs in photoshop & said "who the f**k's he?" when I mentioned Derek Birdsall! but thats a completely different gripe!...

What makes Emma so good, BTW?

I'm married to her.

I'm feeling very negative about work at the moment! The company expect us to create the perfect advert for each customer but the sales team don't ask the right questions to make that possible. I voice my concerns and am shot down because 'I don't understand how hard it is for them'. Everything is done to pamper the sales staff! The directors are so scared of upsetting the sales team they bollocked the design & admin departments rather than the sales team because the company made a 2% loss last month! How the chuff can that be anyone but the sales team's fault?

This place really is a bloody joke at times!

[Katedesign]

Praise for the wife - well done!

Could you draft a questionnaire to give the sales team so that they come back with better briefs for you?
The sales team might appreciate it (they might not but it might make them think!)

Don't know what sector you're in - but print sales isn't easy at the moment... too many cheap, cheap printers out there and if you're in a magazine (?) then selling advertising must be tough at the moment. But armed with their new questionnaire - which will help them design ads that will make the clients money....maybe, just maybe...

[bigdave]

I even offered to write a list of questions for them to ask the customers during booking the adverts but theyre not interested. If theres ever a question to be asked they'd rather second guess than call the customer and ask! It's like theyre scared that if they ask for the customers opinion they might cancel but its fine for the same job to come back 5 or 6 times because the sales rep didnt communicate the information correctly!

[Katedesign]

They are plonkers! It would make their job easier and they don't care - your boss must be a bit of a ponker also!