Telling, indeed. It takes a judge to judge a judge, doesn’t it? Since Paul’s lot is already bad enough, I just hope you’re not feeling “concern” for him.
paul got to vent. He vented that he wanted the design work that has traditionally gone through an office in Hong Kong, or on rarer occasions a freelancer that they retain. Obviously design work isn’t regularly channeled through his department. Unfortunately, the most compelling arguments I have seen paul post that his company should alter their routine is that his department is titled ‘design’ and he feels he can do the work. And most unfortunately of all, I don’t see any evidence that paul is lobbying for his company to change their routine. He has remarked several times that he feels entitle to the work, but shouldn’t have to ask for it.
If you think this is an unfair summary of events, by all means, make a case.
Soooo paulbeserker, what do you do for your regular work, if they don’t allow you to redesign faulty Hong Kong watches?
I had a similar situation come up at work—the company hired a freelance illustrator to provide artwork for a reading passage about Ghandi’s influence on Martin Luther King. The freelancer sent back an ink drawing done anime style of a black kid and a white kid with their hands on each others’ shoulders, smiling like crazy, and the American flag and fireworks in the background. The client hated it.
I photoshopped King speaking in front of a painting of a Ghandi peace march and it took me about 5 minutes. The client loved it. We still had to pay the freelancer.
Lesson learned is, come to the guy who works for you and already knows what the clients want.
I’m sorry, I didn’t realize asking for the common courtesy of capitalization made me such an evil person. Pardon me.
(Note: That’s sarcasm.)
sorry. let me clarify. the ‘design’ work done in the HK dept known as product development consists of drawing out the watches and putting various colours and logos on the face of the watch, told to them by other people over here that dont know shit about design, only what this seasons colours are. which is basically artworking. the licensor feels that this isnt good enough.
i have said i am capable of doing the work to the directors. theyre response is, as stated before, ‘we’ll look into it’. and then they walk off. as i have also said, i dont feel im well paid enough or appreciated to bother working up some designs in my own spare time, or chasing up.
im venting at my job. its shit. i didnt need advice on how to sort it, im leaving.
so there.
cheers coldfire.
I love watches. If I were in this type of position, I’d lobby hard for the chance to do some watch design, and I wouldn’t be shy about being persistent or putting in some of my own time to prove myself. But that’s just me. Good luck with your next job, paul.
One thing that puzzles me is that all of this ‘design’ talk is centered around watch faces and colors. Who is marking up dimensioned artwork of the case and bracelet? Who is determining how the movement meshes with the case, how the bezel attaches, and whether the markers will be screen printed or dams will be glued down to be filled with luminous ink? This person is the designer.
I really think that Libertarian et. al. should tell us if there is some sort of history with paulberserker that would lead to such unnerving comments that are quite irrelevant to the OP. ¿What gives?
paulberserker, if anything, this is one helluva great rant. You could give lessons on proper Pit purging protocol. Pay no attention to the detractors – respect to Waverly and Libertarian – your style reads like a spoken monologue. In fact, you sound a lot like my cousin in Gillingham.
Do you write poetry? In all seriousness, you may well have missed your calling with this watch business.
BTW: I am intrigued and would dig the chance to see the “artwork” for these suspect watches. Please post if possible.
the watch cases/movements/bezels etc are all drawn on illustrator in HK from NIL watches, which are a generic brand used by my company to base products on. the parts can be interchanged to make differing designs. whoever designs them i dont know. but thats product design/engineering rather than artworking or graphic design.
the face/dial strap colours etc come later as detailed above, upto a point. thats how we do it. i dont know about other competing watch firms.
as far as i know, lothos, ive not come across libertarian in any other threads. ask him what his bug is. paul is as paul does. i cant get along with everyone, whether on a message board or in real life.
Well, Paul, I don’t have any problem with work. My boss understands perfectly my abilities and limitations, and we get along great. I don’t hate the company I work for, and I’m not invisible to the owner. I also make an effort both when speaking and writing to communicate as clearly as possible, rather than burdening people with cryptic rip-offs of e.e. cummings. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Clearly, I should be asking you for advice.
Libertarian, you have been insufferable throughout this thread. I have lost all respect for you.
I know you don’t care about what I say, but you should reflect on your attitude and try to correct it.
I don’t think that you will be able to “get along great” with anyone if you interact in such a condescending, unnerving, and intolerant manner with people.
I care about what you say, Lothos. But I think you’re a bit off-base on this one. My first post was a genuine attempt to help Paul contextualize his problem, and he dismissed it with “thanks, im aware of what artworking is.” Speaking of condescension. Res ipsa loquitur.
I don’t think I’m off-base Libertarian. Assuming this attitude out of spite from one comment that might have been a misinterpretation of your first post does not justify you later posts in my view.
Nevertheless, I thank you for taking into account what I have to say.
Great rant, paul. I feel for you. I really do. Being an in-house designer* for a company to whom design is at best incidental can be monumentally frustrating. You’re the red-headed stepchild member of a red-headed stepchild department. Of course you’re invisible to the higher-ups. Their main concern is getting the product out the door, not making it look good. And you’re exactly right about the input you get from them. Ask them bluntly for what they want and they will just wave their hands, saying, “Oh, just come up with something cool/hip/eye-catching/interesting/marketable…Just not like THAT (whatever you end-up showing them).”
And everybody telling him to quit whining, walk out and get a job somewhere else can just cram that sentiment up sideways. I don’t know how the job market is across the pond, but I’d crawl over broken glass to get back on with my previous employer, no matter HOW ungrateful and creatively repressed they are. Just a full-time job with a decent paycheck will get me to put up with a TON of corporate bullshit.
So I’ll pray for you to get that dream job, paul. Maybe you’ll pray for me to get mine, too, seeing that you’re actually not one of the 200-300 people I’m competing with for EVERY publicly advertised design job here.
And, golly, I DO SO HOPE that all of you will forgive me any mistakes I made in writing up this post. Geez, I thought rants were OK in the Pit. But it’s hard to maintain the head of steam you’re aching to vent in the face of being required to utilize perfect syntax, grammar, spelling, coding, capitalization and punctuation. 'specially at 1 AM… yawn I’m orff to bed…
*Graphic Artist, Illustrator, Designer, whatever you want to call it.
my ‘thanks, i know what artworking is’ is a reply to your condescension Libertarian. perhaps if you worked in the same trade (as youve neglected to mention what you do to comment upon what my rant was about) you may understand better.
as Tygr clearly does. I understand your problem also. as i said before, i took this job as it was the first one offered to me in 9 months, 5-600 applications and about 15 interviews. i might not like it but i got rent, bills & beer to drink.
you are constantly up against at least 150-200 people going for the same job. theres far too many people in this trade, simply because its a soft option at college. and i know thisd because i used to part time lecture in art + design 3 years ago. 10% of students are committed, 90% are there so they dont have to work in a supermarket and theres no exams.
in a better position now because i have more experience, to get a better paid job at somewhere that will actually appreciate me. i stated in the OP, im leaving. but if ranting causes a problem with some, perhaps i should do it more often.
e.e. cummings can kiss my arse. i cant touch type and i dont accept punctuation in my posts. like it or lump it.
cheers mr B. im not a poet, but i am in the middle of writing and illustrating a story about the downfall of civilization based upon rants.
good luck to you tygr
paul, while I still think you’d be going easier on us if you used a bit of punctuation, your last several posts were infinitely easier reading than the first several. You’ve either made an effort to be more clear, or I’ve gotten used it. If it’s the former, you have my thanks.
re-reading my OP, i will concede its a bit random. as i say, rushed off at the end of the day. i do try and think before i post. cheers.
on a slightly different topic, aforementioned ‘rep’ has suggested that our office christmas shindig should be ‘fancy fucking dress’. ‘hollywood or bollywood’ is the suggestion on a memo this morning. because he’s bought a stormtrooper outfit off e-bay.
what a fucking toilet.
i hate everyone here.
Paul, keep typing in the bezerk style as much as you wanna and don’t let the anal retentives here get you down.
As a great man Benny Hill once said:
Don’t you know the Queen’s English?
Of course she is.
paulberserker: go for Bollywood. Dress like the general from Bhoot.