: How much caring about design is too much? In-house graphic designer I am working as an in-house graphic designer under the marketing team. I am not sure if the culture in my company is the

@Speyer780

I think everything you've written is a matter of corporate culture.

Every company has a different structure, different positions, different hierarchy, different deadlines, budgets, priorities, personalities.

Maybe at your company Marketing is in charge of design, where in your major competitor WidgetCo there's a dedicated Art department and Marketing has only two people who share a desk.

Maybe your lead designer is accustomed to having a CEO who involved himself in font-size details, so she assumes every company is the same. Maybe she's found out that every decision she makes is criticized and changed, so she's given up making decisions and has turned it over to the group. She's decided that she can't be blamed for a decision she didn't make. Maybe the CMO has a thing about "getting buy-in from key stakeholders" or is a "thumbprint person" (he has to feel like he's left his mark on everything or he hasn't done his job).

Maybe your company's Marketing department feels that a great delayed project is better than a mediocre one on time, and the CEO agrees.

While I may agree that any of those processes is a problem, these are the processes of your current office. Either try to influence people to change the processes, or leave.

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@YK2262411

I worked in-house in a setting where I was the only graphic designer and I answered to the marketing director. Here are a few things I learned that are of relevance:


It's a designer's job to be creative. It's your job to nitpick the tiny details, to obsess about stuff that, if done well, no one will even notice. That's why they bring designers on board, because marketing people don't care about Arial vs. Helvetica or opacity or anything like that. It's your job to care, so definitely sweat the details, form strong opinions, and defend/justify your work.
People like have input and choices. People don't like being told "this is how it's going to be" unless they're blown away by your greatness. Also, design is done in support of something, so you're helping to realize someone's vision, and they may want to be involved in that. Besides, design is fun! So, it's empowering to be part of the process. Perhaps your lead lets people in on minor decisions because of that. Besides, if they're deciding between 12 and 12.75pt font size, they're not questioning the font's color, family, or leading, which your lead might really want to not be altered in critique.
Too many choices can backfire. Some people don't get design or don't care about it, so they hate when the designer is dragging his feet over stuff that doesn't matter to them. This obviously requires learning how to read people.
There are a lot of reasons why nitpicking happens. Sometimes when I'm in a position where I'm comparing between 60% and 68% opacity with someone, it's because someone said 60 and I think 68 is better, or because I can't decide and I want to offload the work. In the former case, I would often do what I was told and then, time permitting, do what I thought was best and let my boss decide. In the latter case, I found that I needed to make some decisions on my own before showing my work to anyone, so that I didn't run afoul of point 3.
"Bad design never killed anyone." I don't believe that's true in all cases, but most times it is. Sometimes you get overruled and you have to execute designs that you think are bad in a certain way. It's okay. Form opinions and defend them passionately, but if you get overruled by a superior, do what they want, and tactfully remind them later whose call it was if someone balks at your work (which didn't really happen in my case that I can recall).


In short, perfectionism is okay if you can get away with extending deadlines, and it's also okay to finish an imperfect job and move on, as long as the people who pay you are happy with your work. There are a lot of reasons why your lead would be so detailed. Perhaps you should ask why!

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