Saturday, September 02, 2006

blogword of the week- end

Once upon a time there was a designer who had a mind of her own.
She believed she knew what she was talking about.
She believed she could change the word through better design.
She believed that despite the MBA's lurking out there trying to spoil things, there was a way to finally eventually make them see what GOOD design really was and what it could accomplish, if given a fair chance.

So she took out her gun and went and shot all of them.

The End.

33 Comments:

At 6:35 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

LOL!! Jammie, that was the best one yet. I think you deserve a prize for this one.

 
At 8:24 AM, Blogger KM said...

oh my GODD!
do we all eventually aspire to do the same thing!!!
honestly...how do you make them understand that it was YOU who spent four years studying design and not them...and just for that im posting this excerpt from sami shah's blog...after his resignation.
"I won't be an Art Director. I won't be a Copy Writer. I won't be ignoring a life-time of training in design and writing to churn out some crap that the client is positive is the greatest ad ever, just because their mediocre IBA/CBM education has ill-prepared them to do anything other than change the diaper on a diarrhetic chimpanzee.
No more putting up with the useless and entirely idiotic opinions of a bunch of self-important idiots who have decided that since they are "Brand Managers" their words carry some weight"

lol...ufff this post was perfect!!!

 
At 9:38 AM, Blogger M K Abbas said...

Ah come on, that gross generalization - MBAs can SEE the good in a design as well. Its just how you sell it ;)

 
At 1:05 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

:)

*loved the ending*

 
At 1:06 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

khizzy: sami shah rocks :D

 
At 2:03 PM, Blogger jammie said...

cocaine- :) as much as i like you, by using the word SELL here you just proved my point- bot all design needs to SELL- be functional yes- and be functional in a way only a designer can understand and make it so- sorry but its like that :) hehe/

khizzy- have heard sami talk on that at indus briefly- and i have to say i agree with him- i possibly hate them less but thats also because ive managed to avoid mainsream advertising and have stuck more to design- :)

mansoor we all like fairytale endings dont we? hehehe-

 
At 2:13 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

whats there in a design??anyone could be a designer if they wanted to.its a profession for low iq ppl-requires no intellect or brain-as for mba or engineering or medicinr you need loads of brain

 
At 2:58 PM, Blogger jammie said...

although i dont entertain anonymous comments favourably- for the sake of clarity, what you are saying is that one must assume that every MBA or doctor out there is a person of high intellect- hahahaha. umm i dont think so- neither can you say that of designers- the point of this post is that we should stick to what we have been trained in-

 
At 4:45 PM, Blogger Bee Amma said...

Can people just stop bashing people from other professions, its the gayest thing ever! Do something useful with your lives, help people however you choose to do so and leave everyone else alone!! I am sooo tired of everyone trying to show off so hard how "intellectual" they are. Ok veering off the point of anthing that anyone said here, and going off into my own little rant here
*Rant over*

*smiles sweetly*
*tiptoes away*

 
At 12:25 AM, Blogger DysfunctionaL said...

I agree with that fact that one should stick to what they've been thought..
but I also feel that the difference in the chain of thought comes up with HOW u've been taught..
MBA's for 4/5/6 years of their academic life are, in a nutshell, taught about how to SELL more, how to make more PROFIT etc.. so they will only look at a design with that point of view..
a designer, however, is more passionate about the creativity put in, how appealing it looks, if the concept is original and if the colors fit well..
i dont know if u'll agree with the example i use here.. but the recent commander safeguard advertisement/cartoon is one..
an MBA will see what an amazing way it is of creating more safeguard awareness in the society and well, SELLING more safeguards subsequently.. while a designer might look at the creative aspects of the whole thing..
in short, both the professions need to work WITH each other.. not against.
just my two cents.. =)

 
At 12:27 AM, Blogger DysfunctionaL said...

and obviously in the above i meant..
I agree with that fact that one should stick to what they've been TAUGHT...

 
At 5:59 AM, Blogger mars said...

you a contract killer too haan?

 
At 2:09 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

not that i agree or disagree with anyone in particular, just thought i'd mention to anonymous... yea a doctor spends 4,6 or 8 yrs getting his degree - depending on how much he specialized in it - but who is to say that YOUR doctor is not the one who passed with a 51%?

as a society, our mindsets have been conditioned to give doctors and mba's way more credibility and respect than artists/designers.

however we forget that it takes one for the other to be successful!! ok... i exaggerrated! deep inside we all know, without the artist/designers creativity that gives the MBA's widget a boostful kick in the market!;)

 
At 10:57 PM, Blogger insiyasyed said...

yesterday- i was talking to abbu on the breakfast table and he said something about his experience at an ad-agency.

his clients weren't happy with him because they "thought" the design/concept is not what they need. and since the client pays he should be heard and taken seriously!

in response abbu said: when you go to a doctor you pay him. but do you "tell" him what you "think" is the right medicine?

:) no explanations needed. :)

 
At 12:59 AM, Blogger inspirex said...

lol......amen on the MBAs!
they think they know it all!
having met and interviewed several from IBA and CBM.....they are not quite all they think! (but they think too much, only of themselves apparently too! :P)

so who all has a gun in the closet?

 
At 8:12 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

i would just like to say that i read your post and someone elses, and i feel for you guys at the advertising agencies.
i wish you all the best and i hope you lives become a little less miserable:)

 
At 8:50 AM, Blogger Niah said...

hahahah.. that was too funny!! sooo truu!

 
At 7:37 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

its interesting to read your comments jamie, but i'm slightly disappinted by seeing you generalize. well here is what i feel.

1. mba's in pakistan are highly overrated, and inexperienced. outside pakistan, most mba's have atleast 4-6 (and often more) years of work experience, whereas in pakistan you can get an mba right after your undergrad degree. so I will give you the fact that mba's in pakistan donot have the best skill set. but there are some who do, and others who gain this over time.

2. although I'm not too sure what you mean by designers, you have to admit that you guys are not conditioned to work in a corporate environment. you see, the clients you work for are in the business to make money, like it or hate it. most "designers" (or artsy fartsy people as I would like to refer to you guys as) have solid technical training, i.e. you know your work, but there is a lack of understanding of the corporate environment. a client is paying you for creative services, but ultimately your client is the one who knows the product, its strenghts, weaknesses and the broader strategy of the product or organization. although as a "designer" you must know these factors as well, it is solely to enable you to design the product. ultimately your client is the entity that is responsible for the strategic objectives of their business, so let them worry about it.

i also believe that your post just goes to show the level of ignorance and arrogance that the artsy fartsy amongst us have nowadays. give some credit to those who are runnign the corporations, if you feel so strongly about their lack of vision and creative taste then try running the company. ideas are good but they must always be accompanied by business acumen which you guys lack.

 
At 7:40 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Narrow minded + arrogant is what this sounds like

 
At 7:49 PM, Blogger sam said...

*gulp* :s

 
At 9:36 PM, Blogger inspirex said...

@ Jammie: im expressing my opinion here, without your permission im afraid.

@ Management Guru: I'd greatly greatly agree to a few points made here, but not quite all. First of all, lets not forget were talking about pakistan, in pakistan hence this post is clearly talking about yuppie grads from xyz business school who think they can change the world with under 6 months under their belt and demand a position no less than a brand manager.

Ill be honest, art doesnt sell, if it did, most artists even in pakistan would be millionaires.

Its always strategy that comes from those that have spent their time studying and analyzing trends.

While I wish that that the client knows his/her brand more than anyone else since in the end its he who is looking into penetration and gettings the numbers crunched, not to mention settingup the industry, but sadly, it isnt so.

Even right now, we see some multi billion runpee brands lost and running amok. sadly, many companys that have brands dont rely on fundamental information to steer the brand in the right direction, but rather use the choices of their spouses or children or just toss a dice to get the answer.

Just as it is unwise to berate all MBAs, i believe it would be equally unwise to put all "artsy" people on th e same plat form by declaring that they are incapable of running a brand.

But very very categorically speaking, some of the biggest old brands that are in this country today, were built by persons who were just a B.com from KU or even less. You really dont need an MBA to do anything, you need brains, but believing that they come packageed with your degree is grossly incorrect.

About me, Ive been on both sides of the fence and fought battles and seen stupidities of all sorts. I also happen to run an online marketing discussion group.

Not an MBA. Indifferent about it.

 
At 9:48 PM, Blogger jammie said...

heheh thanks for your takes people- :) point was simple-

management guru- youre guilty of the generalization you accuse me of- artsy farsy ia also a label- im talking about designers- there is a difference.

as part of our four year design course, we study psychology, branding, marketing, strategy (basic level- not intensive necessarily) and all kinds of things which do give us an insight on how the market sells but the main difference is we study it from a design point of view- which means we DO know what we are talkin about when we suggest design solutions for The Precious Product- you yourself mentioned how we, as a whole apparently, have a lack of business acumen. well on our end we believe you all have a lack of trust in anyone elses profession but your own- fact is some of the most innovative and interesting businessmen in history today are people with creative backgrounds and history-

i agree with you on a lot of things- but im afraid you missed my point altogether- the only way its going to work dynamically is if MBA-types respect the fact that we KNOW what we are doing- we ned to stick to what we each do best and not try to interfere- maybe then we will actually be able to perform as God intended us to- a team :)

inspirex- thanks :)

sam- hahahah- you are a friend MBA so i wont shoot you- needless to say some of you actually are very nice *wink wink*

people with snotty personal comments: go develop a sense of humour please- this is a friendly platform

 
At 10:25 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Doesn't really help to blame each other. As a software developer, I experience the same with clients most of who fail to understand the technical side of things. The misunderstandıng, I guess, stems from the fact that disagreeing for the sake of proving one's own intellectual superiority over the other is becoming a norm.

 
At 11:24 PM, Blogger KM said...

lol..i love this discussion.
ive been exposed to clients telling us what font to use..."add a glow, add a shadow", and over all changing the design of an entire ad...and dont provoke me(lol), cuz if i post the ad here, all the mba's will go quite.
the client went so far as making the ad on powerpoint...and sending it over to be executed by the designer.
the ad turned out so ugly, the designer took a day off and had to be threatened to come to work and make the ad, the creative director went quite, and the company decided that just this once we could avoid putting our name on the ad.

 
At 12:32 AM, Blogger inspirex said...

back in my agency days....one of our clients (which i am guilty of firing) always had the same request: "logo bara kar dain please..."...so we intently kept it small, knowing their request for the size increase would always make it what we wanted it to be initially!

and yes, there have been occasions when clients have talked about a certain design element that wasnt even there in the ad we sent them!

One of my client days, an SVP came up and commented on the negative space in the ad....his point, we're paying for colour on a dawn front page, so why dont we have any? "Is space ko cream colour kar dain......gives a rich look"...he went on and told the agency personally to do it when i refused...and it came...now who can see that "rich" effect on newsprint!

 
At 10:14 AM, Blogger Bee Amma said...

To whoever it was up there that said you don't ask a doc what medicine they will give you..to a degree thats wrong in certain management plans..a doc can advise, its up to the patient what they want in the end. After all they are our "customer" weird as that seems. Not really making any major point here,i am just bored.
LMAO at "artsy fartsy"

 
At 10:17 AM, Blogger Bee Amma said...

plus to whoever it was that said how do you know your doc wasn't the one who passed with a 51%....if you were ill and there was no one to help you....you'd take that too. Im not entirely sure if i am right in saying that there seems to be this fad in pakistan these days to cuss medics...just cos half the population seems to be one. At the end of the day....i don't wanna cuss designers or anyone, but if im having an MI i know who id call :p

 
At 10:51 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

well said Chocopologie, i think youre spot on in your analysis. Surprising the artsies have gone silent! (just kidding Jamie)

 
At 12:19 PM, Blogger jammie said...

hmm- i think choco- that, yes well said in what you conveyed but your comment got a little off track-
this isnt meant to be an indepth analysis on art and design- (both of which are completely different mind you)- and its not about being a budding da vinci either or recognizing art- my point remains clear and simple-

we have been trained to do something- trust us to do it well or don't ask us to do it- dont ask us to do it and then tell us HOW to do it- just like i dont tell you how to research or strategize or make charts (or whatever it is you do. same way dont tell me what colour works and what font is your wifes favourite and what design from abroad you want me to copy. tell me what your company is- tell me what you requirements are- and then, since you HAVE hired me, atleast LISTEN to what i have to say without TELLING me what to do. simple. you do your job- which you do well and let me do mine- which i do better if you arent trying to control me. the reason there is SO much rubbish out there is that people keep meddling in each others work- all im saying is stick to your job and let me do mine-

*bang!!* hehe.

thanks for a very interesting reponse everyone- i think its time to declare this thread closed-:) cheers.

 
At 12:34 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I understand your frustration Jammie. An MBA's job is much more uncertain than an engineer/doctor and designers. They have to boss around to stay in work.

 
At 1:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jamie - whatever happened to teamwork?

 
At 5:17 AM, Blogger Read before use said...

WHy is doctor deemed better than an Mba? Because the studies for the degree requires harder studying.
WHy is and Mba preferred over a designer/artist? Same reason.

That's how it works, most important issue in Pakistan is population control, make that work, then the over flow of Mbas will authomatically be reduced.

 
At 9:48 AM, Blogger saba said...

you've been tagged! see my blog.

 

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