These days, I’ve been doing a fair amount of work directly with the designers at work. I’m also sitting directly next to them (marketing and design together – whoddathunkit?) so I’m getting a lot more honesty as to what guidelines they need/want when starting on a project.
This morning, seeing Seth Godin’s post on “How to live happily with a great designer” made me smile. I may have been guilty of the lack of clarity, and a few moments of “I’ll know when I see it”, but I’ve learned to be clear in my brief, and then to let them out to play for a while. Usually gives good results!
If you also work with designers, or even software developers, and are in charge of strategy, briefs, or giving some sort of guidelines before they start work, have a read through. You’ll probably go through the typical steps of “This is funny”, followed by a touch of guilt, finishing with a feeling that this may help you a lot in the long run.
And why don’t you go over and thank you designers for all their hard work today?
PS – The marketer did not get paid off by the designers for writing this article. It’s genuine designer-love. Really!
that canadian girl 
pa
Le boulot semble stimulant.. c’est probablement mieux de parler positivement du travail..surtout si le boss lit les blogs des employés..bonne journée! GBTD! (devine?)
Jowel
You shouldn’t talk about work on your blog. You’ll get dooced like “petite anglaise” 😛
yes I checked out your links…
Hal
Yeah, how about that Jowel? I read in the newspaper about Petite Anglaise, that was bad wasn’t it?
Vero
I’m talking about work in a good, positive way! I keep the whinging for the pub after we leave the office!
Petite is a very sweet girl but she did bash work on a good few occasions, and that’s part of the risk of blogging. Meanwhile, I’m very open with work about what I blog, and use it in many ways as a sort of repository of useful links and interesting info that may or may not be work-related.
Don’t think I’ve offended any of them yet, and if I have, whoever’s offended, stop being a sissy!!! 😉