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Open poll:
Do yall think posting about www.big4transparency.com on linkedin is a good idea to increase the reach, and people will think “oh cool, good initiative”
OR
Will it be suicide in terms of all my contacts and relationships from my previous firm and people will just think i’m stirring up shit
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Cut your lifestyle costs dramatically. Seriously. Move to a smaller market and only accept remote positions that pay higher than the local market average.
No one needs to live in a HCOL market to create. Zig where everyone zags.
You can do anything you put your mind to, OP, I believe in you. You may think tech is the answer, but the real answer is knowing capitalism wants you one paycheck away from losing it all. Get to a lifestyle where you're only 32 paychecks away from that.
Will say as a conceptual AD who started in design: in tech right now the only way to get a gig is a thru a design director’ job . Nobody cares about spots or cares about activations. They want you to be a figma God who can do brain systems and kick along their comms.
A lot of agencies have built dedicated brand design practices out of the advertising work. Mullen, Wieden, Goodby, etc. Focus on getting in there.
Design is being used and abused as a loss leader like social and (to an extent) production was a bunch of years ago.
These departments are being unfairly used as a value add to secure broadcast budgets that are shrinking. Go to a smaller shop where they actually want to bill a premium for your time.
Currently thinking through this, too. Tech seems like the obvious choice $ wise but idk much about the industry from it being a dead end. Saw people mention frequent layoffs but that seems like every other week in advertising…
I got an offer from FAANG last year but declined it because I would need to relocate (and I own a home in where I currently live so it’s not doable). The package was really good but from friends from the inside the projects are boring. They all had to freelance something fun on the side to keep their book updated - just makes me worried that if I get laid off after a few years I won’t be competitive in the market anymore
That’s a big pay cut. I thought design shops, though often smaller, were pretty in-line with agencies. You may not be in a position to do this, but for what it’s worth, I willingly took a step down in title and a pay cut to go from advertising to a design shop and was back at the same level in about a year, which was the hope and plan.
Nail on the head. Pay is pretty in line. And everything you said is true. Lots of B2B and tech brand work, lots more project work with few retainers. Which keeps things varied and interesting, but so much more pitching as a consequence. Pros and cons, I guess. But the pros are what I wanted. The role of strategy at a design shop is so much more fulfilling for me. Much more hands on, formal research and I do a lot of narrative work and writing/concepting in general. Not just set up slides for creative ideas. Clients come for strategy. It’s not just a supporting function. But it’s all just personal preference, I guess.
While I love graphic design and it's been my calling for the last 25 years, I feel like I have to get out of it. I thought I was scratching out a living but it turns out I was making top end of the spectrum. Now that I've been out of work for a year and searching for a new job, it seems I need to have UX, motion graphics, video editing and creation, social media management and content development, for roughly half of my former salary. It seems staying im design is a case of diminishing returns.
I'm at the point of pivoting to either a PM certification or AI roles just to stay relevant and employable.
One option, Learn UI/ CX then you can put your design thinking into practice and add more value earlier in the process - albeit in a different workstream.
Learning UX Design. Practically all Art Direction, Design jobs require it now as well as learning the programs to implement UX Design, ie., Figma, etc.
Just move into art direction, unless design is a life affirming passion. It’s nice to be an AD with a really strong design background.
It is an affirming passion - I do a lot of side projects out side of advertising as well and tbh don’t feel like art directing in advertising at all. Have got an offer w/ CD title but it was too much advertising advertising - which lost the design part I really love. So yeah, mostly thinking of switching industry not focus
Get an MBA and build frameworks that look like money
OP, for what it’s worth, the title of the person seems to often have “Director” in it. 🧐
Which makes me think this person most likely doesn’t work in the actual advertising industry. More than likely they’re some marketing exec somewhere brandside.
Because most people in this industry would give the exact opposite advice.
I don’t have an answer but feel similarly.