Workplace dilemmas crop up in every professional’s career, whether you have two or 20 years of experience on the job. But most people don’t think about these situations until they arise, resulting in hasty decisions they sometimes regret. While there’s no sense adopting a worrywart’s mentality, familiarizing yourself with common career predicaments can help you handle them diplomatically if – and when – they occur.
Coming up with clever concepts is a common challenge faced by all creative professionals. But for in-house designers who work on the same brand day in and day out, keeping fresh can be even more of an uphill battle. Yet experienced in-house professionals will tell you there’s plenty of room for innovation in a corporate environment. Take it from Glenn John Arnowitz who helped build – and now manages – an award-winning team of six designers in the creative services department at Wyeth, a research-based, global pharmaceutical company.
The 2006 HOW Conference in Las Vegas may be over but Glenn John Arnowitz and Andy Epstein are still reeling from the excitement and spectacle of the enlightening sessions all held at the Mandalay Bay Hotel against the Vegas backdrop.
“Today, many of these issues are becoming more and more critical. Corporate creative teams are under tremendous pressure to do more with less. They are working with less time, fewer marketing dollars and increased expectations driven by businesses with lofty goals delivering increasingly standardized products.
“This month’s edition has evolved into an exploration and a celebration of in-house designers. It is a long overdue focus on a vital and complex segment of our community that deserves more recognition than it currently receives from colleagues, clients and upper management,” states GD:USA publisher Gordon Kaye in his editorial.
Of all the valuable design organizations out there – among the national associations and local creative clubs – there’s one growing group that may have the most relevant to the day-to-day work lives its members.
InSource board members Glenn Arnowitz and Andy Epstein and former board member Ray Gomez are featured in Rockport Press’ recently published book on in-house design, Bringing Graphic Design In-house. Included are samples of their departments’ work, along with helpful insights on how to bring design in-house effectively.
Jeni Herberger was the featured speaker for a half-day InSource event held on Thursday, November 16, 2006, at Wyeth headquarters in Madison, New Jersey. Her lively presentation offered practical advice on a wide range of business strategies for in-house creative professionals, including how to build an effective structure for success as a creative team, tactics for becoming a profit center and the logistics of developing useful tools such as profit-loss statements and efficiency measures to increase the perceived value of in-house design services in the corporate environment.
Defending our creative departments, communicating value, department structure, chargebacks, asset management, workflow, process…the list goes on. In May, InSource opened our doors to the creative community, addressing the hottest of these topics, offering insight and sharing perspectives.
On March 1st, 2006, InSource hosted “Building, Motivating and Selling a Successful Internal Creative Team.” This event panel featured 3 highly successful corporate creative directors: Peter Sheridan, Director of Graphic Design & Production for Bristol Myers Squibb; Martin Shova, Assoc. Director of Creative Services for Kraft Foods; and Justin Knecht, Sr. Manager of Creative Services for Binney and Smith.
In general, how visible is your creative team within your company?
Total Voters: 5
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