You just finished version fourteen of your design. The Art Director (AD) has finally given his blessing and you have one more hurdle before this job is done. The Creative Director (CD) must give his final approval. He’s already seen versions of this along the way. It should be no problem, right?
Every manager (also known as people who don’t actually make anything) need to justify their existence every day. We all know that meetings are pointless–this is why most managers spend their days in meetings. So, after the meetings are done they come back to where the grunts work and it’s presentation time. This usually happens at 5:15 PM. Patience has long run out and they are in need of food (or more likely, beer) and they have little to no interest in going over the details, subtlety, and art of your project. Even the best manager has limited energy and after 8 hours of meetings, they want to go home just like you.
But, they are in charge and power is a nasty partner. This is where things can go sideways real fast and the concept of “the dick print” comes into play. To justify their pay and position they feel a deep and pathological need to dip the head of their phallus in ink and mark your design with some asinine edit. This almost never makes the work better and is simply like a dog pissing on a pole–I was here, this is my turf and don’t question my authority.
The dick print comes in many forms. It could be something as innocuous as a punctuation “fix”. These will drive your copywriters insane. “Did we really need another fucking exclamation point!” Usually it’s not so easy. You might get a, “I hate this photo. I always have. Can we find something better?” You and the AD know that you went through a hundred options and this was the best of the shit pile you were given. But instead of pushing back, the AD says, “Yeah, we can look again.” The worst case scenario is that the CD hates everything in his life at the time your work is presented. He hates the concept, the execution and rashly decides that it needs a complete redo. You knew that the concept was weak days ago. You pushed back and were told that this was the direction. Tomorrow he may change his mind. Save your versions.
If the CD were the last possible person with an inky dick, life would be manageable. In most corporate environments this is not the case. You have product folks, marketing managers, the founder, CEO, CFO, CTO and anyone who happens to walk through the room with a notion that they are “creative”. Any and all of these people might knowingly or unknowingly slap their meat onto your work. Depending on who that is, your reaction will vary. But most of the time these marks have a life of their own and once down in permanent ink, they must be dealt with. This means more versions will exist simply to prove that these ideas are bad.
This is life in the design office. There are varying widths, lengths, and shapes, but everyone wants to put their wiener (or baby maker) on your work. Doing design for money is a job. It’s not about you. There are structures, human nature, and fear–human factors shape the project beyond your personal tastes, ideas or best practices. Despite the reality of someone putting their personal bits on your efforts, don’t take it personal. If you need to make something special do that on your own with a side project. Invest your creative energy in you. Don’t ever expect work to fill that void.