My new project is a group project, wherein we redesign a crappy website. Or should I say, "a website that needs help with its design"? Having spent the last few years of my Marketing career designing websites, I'd like to think I have earned the right to be blunt.
This project got me thinking about why I left creating Marketing, and when I saw the webpage (not even a site, just a page) that my old employer settled on (after I quit in disgust), I remembered. I remembered how I spent 20 hours a week - half of my 40 hours - busting my ass to design a site for the company, only to have the owner reject it because it "wasn't what he wanted" - not that he could tell me what he wanted; just that he'd "know it when he saw it". Gee, thanks for the creative input! I remembered how he brought in one of his buddies - a retired electrician, who had picked up website design as a hobby, and was trying to make a business of it - to "teach" me how to design a website.
That day, it was all I could do not to quit on the spot (which I did a few weeks later; and six weeks after that, my division was closed when they discovered that replacing me for what they were paying me proved to be harder than they thought. I still feel badly about that, considering it put some good people out of work). Anyhow, my point was that I went to school to learn Marketing and Design and Photography; to understand how different cultures reacted to different marketing techniques (the Japanese love pictures, the Germans love text); and in the process of climbing my career ladder, earned a reputation as one of the best in my field thanks to my education and creative skills. This man picked up web design as a hobby and - with no education whatsoever - decided to try and make a second career of it, starting with his buddy's company as his very first client!
I remember asking him if he had any artistic skills, and he responded, "No, I grab all of my pictures and graphics off of the Internet". Apparently, in addition to all his other shortcomings, the man had no understanding of copyright laws. I also remember him trying to tell me how to design a "successful website". Thankfully, the CFO walked in at that very moment and intervened before the flames shooting from my eyes incinerated the man.
At least they used the logo I had to redesign from nothing. (There was no electronic copy of the logo, and the only print copy they had of was so pixilated, it could not be used. The font was unique to the company, so I had to make an electronic version of it, pixel by pixel. It was hours of long, boring work, but at least it wasn't for nothing).
Anyhow, this project is reminding me why I do not want to go back into Marketing Communications - the stress and burn-out is too much to sacrifice. If I don't go the path of education, Public Relations will be what I choose. Why I ever left it in the first place, I can't remember...maybe this project will help with that, too.
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