Hey Everyone!

So I’ve been wanting to use our toybox for something more than just some kick ass tutorials, and provide some insight to the wonderful world of graphic design. Today I’m going to share with you some of my personal experiences I have had working as an inhouse graphic designer and some of the pros and cons that go with it.

Let’s hop into the delorean and travel back to 2005, I landed my first “real” design job working as a graphic designer for a local Las Vegas publication. At the time i though life couldn’t get any better. I was earning well beyond my friends at a whopping 12$ and hour, dual CRT monitors and all the red bull I could handle. I was young and wasn’t really aware of some of the horrors that come with it. Unlike a corporate gig with an agency or casino, working for a small company can be really tough. You see and hear things, and everyone knows everyones business. When the company is struggling to pay it’s bills, you know it, and that puts uncertainty in your head. My biggest pet peve working for this publication was watching the company get caught up in the glitz and glam of the las vegas lifestyle and pissing company money away on hummers, limos, and fully stocked bars in the office, when the hard working designers, writers, editors and photographers could all do with a raise. I remember working late one night, ( 2am was typical on monday night as we had weekly email blasts we were responsible for putting out, and the content writer was usually too drunk to deliver content on time.) and happened to “find” the company payroll. Boy was I amazed. It’s silly that the woman who gets coffee makes more than the people putting together your source of income. But thats life.

I had been with this publication for about 4 months and was put on salary basis. Salary has its ups and downs. While it’s nice getting paid for not coming in when you are hung over, it also sucks working 16 hours a day and not getting paid for the over time. Employers will abuse this to the fullest, and I have found that everywhere I have worked.

Lets Jump ahead to the last year, July 2007. I was contracted to redesign a certain photographers website and was happy to do so. The gig was an inhouse contract, which was awesome, fastest mac pro machines, 30 inch displays, what could be better right? WRONG! so my contract redesign was to last about 3 weeks, but before I finished the art director quit and i was left in limbo of staying on contract or coming on full time. so for another 3 weeks, I wasn’t sure if I should be looking for more work. I was finally added to payroll about a month and half after I had initially started.The atmosphere in the office was, interesting, to say the least. I can recall being called ( stop reading if easily offended.) a cunt at least twice a day. While all is fun and in a playful manner, you see just how unprofessional people conduct themselves. The hours there were absolutely ridiculous. I would arrive bright and early at 8:30 and just as I was getting ready to head home for the night, the boss would pop in ( around 4:50) and pretend to play art direct. Now I don’t know if you have ever had the unfortunate opportunity to have someone breathing down your neck telling you how to design something and had absolute NO CLUE what good design is, but it’s stressful. I dubbed him what we called a “picture pusher.” instead of letting us work and design he would come in and just move pictures around the document we would be working on. This would go on for hours, days, weeks and even months. The same project, with no progres.

Our department was literally only 3 people, myself, another designer who was forced into the roll of art director when the actual art director quit, and our “photoshop guru.” Oh thats right…. don’t for one second believe a photographer when they say they’re photos are 100% natural.. Saturation are these guys’ best friend. So as I was saying… our department was 3 people, and only 2 of us did design. Our workload was easily enough for 4 people. And did we ever see a raise when the work load increased and we were putting in more and more and more hours… Nope, not a cent. Although other people in the company were getting free iphones, new cars on the company card. It really dampens your spirit. The company was at the verge of collapsing because of certain peoples spending habits and using company funding for houses, cars, and strippers. So what happens? Insert downsizing here.

I’ve taken alot away from these two experiences. I’ve learned exactly how NOT to run this company. I promised my self that if I ever saw any kind of success from this, every penny is going back into it. I can’t stand when people only see dollar signs. It eats you alive and I’ve witnessed first hand the consequences of it. I’m not saying all small inhouse jobs will be bad, I’m not saying everyone is money hungry. I will say be very weary of small companies. You don’t have as much security or as many ways to defend yourself against being mistreated.

Tags: business