How to thrive as a graphic designer in the corporate world and keep your sanity
Some advice for new designers wading inside corporate glass walls.
So, let’s paint a picture.
(You’re a designer, so you should be able to do this, right? More on this topic later.)
You just graduated from an art or design school, and wow, you land a role as a graphic designer for a well-known corporation. You’ve scored a great opportunity here (high-five)!
You walk into a world with glass walls, endless gray cubicles, and long-tabled conference rooms. You have people over your shoulder requesting your graphic design expertise, and they won’t stop coming. The environment begins to feel suffocating—you’ve found yourself in a bullpen.
Now, how do you stay creative, keep a high performance level, and keep your sanity?
I’ve worked in various corporations for the past seventeen years as a professional graphic designer, and in my experience, it didn’t matter what company I worked for; I ran into the same situations every time. The pay was generous; the work was ample, but the experience was a rollercoaster—this was the corporate world. Read on to find out how to keep your peace of mind while working in a glass jungle.
Keep this in mind. Your work is not yours. It’s theirs.
Remember, your design skills are essential (that’s why you were hired), but ultimately, know that your work is not yours; it’s theirs in the end. The quicker you realize what this means, the easier everything will be for you. So check your ego at the door and be prepared for the dreaded edits—changes to your work, based on feedback from various people. It can be from the Project Manager, the Copywriter, your Creative Director, or someone higher than your immediate supervisor. Sometimes, we forget because we created the design, it’s our baby. You just have to keep in mind that you have little control over your designs.
You have to be ok with it. And how do you do that? The key is to remain flexible.
Let’s put it in perspective.
You have a project that came in as a design request. Was there a creative brief? If you work in a large corporation, as part of a design group or a creative team within the organization, you may have more formalized processes that usually include a formal brief following a kick-off meeting. Sometimes, there may not be a brief at all. In that case, you should ultimately have some form of documentation outlining what the project is, who the key stakeholders are, identifying the goals, a list of the deliverables, and what timeframe you have to work within. If you don’t work off a formal creative brief, create one for yourself to stay organized.
Pro Tip: If you don’t work off a formal creative brief, create one for yourself.
So, now you have a brief, you know what to expect, what your task is, and your deadline. You create the work and spend a good two days on it (if you’re lucky enough to get that long). You’re proud of it; it’s pixel-perfect, in your opinion. You schedule a meeting with your Creative Director to review. After meeting with your CD, you come back to your desk with a laundry list of edits. You feel the heat rising to your temples in frustration. You’re confounded! It was flawless.
Contrary to how you might be feeling, this is a good thing. You want these edits because, in the end, you’re striving to create a beautiful piece of graphic art that satisfies the vision of your CD, not you. That’s not a bad thing. Why? Because you are free to design, your accountability for the direction is less than that of your Creative Director’s, if any. If this campaign, e-blast, layout, infographic (insert creative piece here) doesn’t work out or doesn’t perform well, you are not to blame (not solely anyway, so you should be able to breathe easier). You did your job and did it well. And if you don’t have a Creative Director, chances are, you’re reporting to a Marketing Manager or a Coordinator of some sort, who may or may not know all the ins and outs of graphic design. This might be a harder pill to swallow, but you have to keep an open mind to remain flexible as a corporate designer.
Ok, don’t get me wrong here. That’s not to say you don’t have input.
You definitely should provide your input or your spin on a design, if there is time permitting. In fact, if there is time and you have a better vision for the project, you should present a version you think would be better. This is also for your benefit, so you feel good about the work you produce. You are satisfying your design hunger. This is obviously more work, but the effort will not go unnoticed. This is when you are perceived as “going above and beyond” for the work. Not a bad thing at all!
You are satisfying your design hunger.
Now, take care not to burn yourself out. Pick and choose your battles carefully and wisely. You can fight for your point of view or design aesthetics if you feel it’s necessary. But take care to read your supervisor’s reactions, ask questions, and get a feel for how he or she will react. If it’s a lost cause, don’t expend your energy on a losing battle. Move on to the next project.
In Corporate Land, there are meetings. Lots and lots of meetings.
Staying on top of your work when you have more tasks piling on is a constant struggle. If you work for a company that uses a time management system, good for you. And if you work at a place with a Traffic Manager, you’re in a prime spot! But if you’re in a place where you are the sole manager of your time, that can be incredibly stressful. Why? It’s because of the daily, weekly, or impromptu meetings that you probably have to sit in. It’s inevitable, especially in large companies. As a designer, meetings present a time management problem.
Just know that every meeting takes time out of your design time. So, if you look at your daily schedule and see that you have a 2-hour meeting (or four half-hour meetings) for the day, that means you have only 5-6 hours in the day left to complete your design task(s). Always take note of how many hours you are spending on these meetings. If you find yourself having to work longer hours in the day to complete your tasks, that’s probably due to those meetings. If you decide to juggle remote meetings while designing (we’ve all had to do that), just be aware that you might miss some critical information. But hey, how else are you going to finish your work for the day, right?
My advice is to plan ahead and look realistically at your projects and daily design tasks. Calculate the hours you need and have a rough estimate in your head. Then, schedule or block out that time on your calendar so you and everyone else can see it. That way, they don’t schedule you for meetings during that block. And communicate with your manager to let them know that you have to block out time to complete your projects. They will appreciate open communication and transparency. It shows you care about your work, and it gives them the accountability to decide if you should attend these meetings. Because, hey, there’s a meeting for just about everything. That doesn’t mean your presence is truly needed for each one.
And a quick note on deadlines. Don’t be afraid to ask the Project Manager or your supervisor to push the deadline for projects out. You’ll find there is usually wiggle room somewhere on the timeline.
In Corporate Land, you’ll constantly be interrupted.
In addition to the endless meeting requests, you may also be bombarded with other interruptions while you’re designing. If you work as part of a design team, there are interactions between you, your colleagues, and your Creative Director throughout the day. Or, if you are the sole in-house designer, be prepared for constant interruptions from just about any department within your company. When people get access to a graphic designer, they can’t resist utilizing their expertise repeatedly.
My advice is to keep calm and politely request they send you an email with their ask and tell them you will be in touch later in the day when you have a free minute. Just let them know to email you with all of the details so that you have it in writing, and you will give them a call with any questions. Be upfront about your current daily schedule. And if you happen to be free when they stroll to your cube, tell them it’s their lucky day!
K.I.S.S. works every time. Keep designs simple—because it’s corporate.
As creative people, we tend to think things through and add embellishments to our designs. It’s just never enough, never finished. Remember, in corporate graphics, less is always more.
Corporate graphics is a boot camp for design discipline.
This is a lesson I learned early on in the field when all my designs were drilled down to their bare bones before they ever got approved. But there was a reason. Corporate graphics, by nature, lean toward a clean, simple design because of its audience. Too complex designs that take longer to explain usually become less effective. Remember, your audience is most likely non-designers, so finding that straight line of communication is the goal. You can create a visually striking concept that rapidly gets someone from Point A to Point Z using minimal elements. Think of corporate graphics as a boot camp for design discipline. Get rid of the fluff stuff, and your designs will automatically look more polished. Be best friends with negative space and find unique ways to use it. If your design strategy can defend the purpose of each graphic element in your layout, you have the best chance of getting it approved.
Things move fast. Keep design frameworks handy. You may need some lightning magic.
I don’t know just how many times my hands would fly over my keyboard trying to finish projects for the day. It probably looked like I was a musician tickling the ivories.
Having design frameworks in your toolkit is a timesaver.
These could be grid-based designs that you always seem to use and that’s proven to work well with certain communication layouts. These frameworks could be existing templates for PowerPoint presentations you can always go back to and lift some design elements. Designers use these all the time as time savers. Companies have even found ways of monetizing such frameworks. Consider Canva, Creative Market, or Envato. Utilizing preset templates or frameworks doesn’t mean you’re not original. It means you’re not reinventing the wheel, having to re-input settings for your base layout. As long as you have a concept, you can use frameworks for repurposing and evolve it to create a brand-new design.
What do you do when the request is beyond your skill level?
Remember the picture we painted? These days, graphic designer doesn’t just mean graphic designer. So, when you took on this job, you were probably surprised to learn that you’re wearing more hats than what you signed up for. Unfortunately, this is getting increasingly common, especially in these times of economic decline where people have to take on more roles within their employment.
So you might be asked to produce something you’ve never done before. (Like painting a picture.)
My advice is to be upfront with your supervisor and let them know where your capabilities stand. Let them know that you are willing to do the work, but it will require additional training. Either tutorials or workshops are needed before you can complete the assignment. That gives your superiors the chance to continue to request your work provided they pay for these lessons; it also offers a realistic time frame for completing the project. Or else they can hire a contractor specifically for that project. It would be up to them, but you have shown them that you were willing to take it on. Don’t lead them to think that you can do it and risk turning in a sub-par creative or, worse, incomplete work.
You might be the only creative person in the company. Don’t feel bad if people don’t know how to talk to you.
I’ve spoken with other graphic designers and former colleagues who have all dealt with this before. Sometimes, you are the sole in-house designer, and everyone in the company looks to you for creative output. Yet, they don’t necessarily know how to speak to you. They don’t know the best way to request work, and worse, they don’t know how to critique work and give feedback.
My advice is to keep your composure and remember that you are the expert. So, sometimes, you may need to listen with an empathetic ear and compromise. And of course, offer up your suggestions of what you feel is a better approach.
Keep it friendly! No one likes the argumentative non-team player.
My final advice might seem like a no-brainer. It’s to keep a workplace etiquette that’s professional but friendly. Creative people are passionate people, and sometimes arguments flare, and indoor voices escalate to shouting matches. (I’ve witnessed quite a few of these.) It’s kind of the nature of passionate people.
Just know that people prefer to work in a peaceful environment, and managers hate when there’s conflict. Sometimes, it can’t be helped, but if you’re just an argumentative personality, know that it can get tiresome to keep listening to you. If you’re trying to get your designs reviewed, get someone to help you, and get things done, it’s easier if you communicate in a friendly way. People enjoy working with individuals who keep their composure and who don’t pass judgment.
That’s it for now! I hope some of these suggestions help to ease the every day behind a desk/cube/glass wall. If not, maybe hot yoga?
These are insights for the graphic designers out there, stemming from my experience in corporatelandia for over seventeen years. (Just saying…) Are you a graphic designer in a corporate setting? Let me know what you’re dealing with and if any of these insights/tips might help.
Pictures from Pexel.com