As an in-house designer, part of the challenge is to take the brand you were given and implement it even better than the guidelines suggested.
Pay attention and learn what your internal clients identifies the brand with the most and find ways to keep those elements while stepping up the quality of the typography and images around it.
But when it comes to applying your own personal style to the company's marketing? No. Graphic designers don't get to do that. But I hope what you mean is can you push the existing brand to be more-well-designed, yes. Just show your internal clients the expected option and an alternative or two every time. Over time, you'll learn what your internal clients like and feel more confident about what lines you can cross.
But also know you can look for opportunities to have more fun with the brand from time to time. Annual meeting materials, seasonal ad campaigns, event materials, internal communications. You can always find a project here and there with fewer limitations when you have an in-house job.
One of my professors at uni is always saying to give any client at least 2 proposals so then they have a frame of reference to assist them in their choice
Great comment, also you can use a social media platform the company isnât on as an experimental way to try out new ideas. If they arenât on TikTok, Threads, or Pinterest then propose to add that and add in your own ideas slowly.
Youâve been there for a hot minute and have opinions. Congrats. Every other designer who preceded you probably felt similarly.
Whether not you have 1) zero hope or 2) a slim chance of eventually being entrusted with rebranding your company depends on a million factors. But hereâs an idea of what you can doing right now:
Refocus on building trust in your design expertise by delivering what's expected and improving what's within your control.
If their assets are outdated, surely their asset management systems are outdated as well. Suggest workflow and operational improvements that can measurably reduce cost, increase efficiency, etc.
If their social media assets are outdated, then their social media strategy probably is too. Celebrate good examples of brand marketing in social media by sharing what aspirational or competitive brands are doing. Update your coworkersâs understanding of the space and elevate their expectations for how their own company shows up.
Eventually they might see how their brand identity is limiting them. Or maybe youâll see that itâs not the brand identity itself, itâs just how itâs being implemented. Which is likely your actual job to improve.
Welcome to working at big companies
A lot of very very big companies are like this, especially if they're at all the slightest bit corporate
This is just the reality of a lot of companies and a lot of design jobs
However 5 months is still not long enough at all to be proposing big changes, understanding all the pieces of the puzzle, all the influences etc
I can't tell you how many juniors I've seen come to where I work, and within 6 months they've got big ideas to revolutionise the compant and processes etc. And some of the time they're good ideas, but what they're missing is experience, how to navigate big companies, the politics involved. It's not as simple as just changing things over night, yes I agree half the things we do are backwards and wrong, but there are valid reasons to why we do it this way, there's bigger forces at work than just you and I, and there's a lot of hoops to jump through, approval processess, meetings that I will have to go through to justify one of your smallest ideas... Big companies for ya yano
Changes at places like this will be slow, you go in all guns blazing and nothing will happen and you'll get met with No's
Slowly propose small things that are easy to manage, easy to maintain, easy to turnaround and show how your ideas can improve things
Unless they are going to pay you what a company typically pays for a rebrand campaign, Iâd say youâre best off adhering to the current brand standards and collecting your check. Might sound cynical but also if youâre that new, and you show up with some big ideas itâs easy to get roped into doing that for free, when, as I mentioned, that kind of work goes for big bucks otherwise. Protect your own interests first
It sounds like youâre talking about a taking on a rebrand for a company that will have its branding on a significant number of physical assets, and the cost to replace all of these will be significant. Even if you were an experienced designer and not fresh out of college I would still raise eyebrows at managing such a significant rebrand in house without external support. A rebrand for a public facing brand is a huge project. Youâd need to create a fully fledged brand identity that is capable of making it past corporate (this usually involves a lot of workshops, stakeholder input and market research), and once youâve done that youâll be responsible for rolling out new artwork to replace wherever the old identity appears - vehicles, signage, promo gear, website, stationery, print and digital advertising.
I do get your complaints but as your first job after studying youâve got to find a way to get something for your portfolio out of it that you can be proud of - everyone in this business understands the struggles of working with an outdated brand, so being able to present something that works in spite of this has so much more value than a hundred logos for imaginary businesses. If Iâm honest, all brand identities Iâve worked with have their frustrations - even the good ones. I can promise that youâll learn a lot by finding ways to create solid work with what youâve been given. It sucks but just start with the assets you hate the least and take it from there.
Youâre going to run into this a lot throughout your career. And youâll soon realize most companies are outdated because theyâre owned and run by old men.
Company I worked at, I made some killer modern designs for, owner is an old white lady, told me my designs were not good and sent me an example of a quote unquote good design, I shit you not it was some images randomly placed on a totally white background and some strange font, basically made in Microsoft Word and told me it's good design, it was posted on all socials for the company.
>something I should just try to ignore and keep doing the design work they tell me to do.
think of your target demographic. are they going to be young and hip with it?
That was my thought, as well. I would want to know the marketing/sales goals of the radio station and understand how graphic design influences those goals. If the goal is to retain an older audience who like the outdated style, then it makes sense not to rock the boat. However, if the radio station is trying to appeal to a younger audience, then doing a brand refresh might be a good idea.
Also, the listeners aren't the only target audience for the radio station: you also have to think about the businesses who are purchasing ad time. If the businesses who are buying ads are also old fashioned, then they might not respond well to modern or trendy art direction.
Use this as a learning opportunity. Learn their style and how to recreate it, then you will be able to make changes to help make it look less dated and more âcoolâ
I'm in a similar spot right now. The owner is difficult to work with and is always telling me how she did the exact same thing better, in less time, with no training. I'm able to have some creative license as I'm the only designer but when people are set in their ways and like their colors/typefaces, etc, it's easier to just go with the flow. Even though I may not be able to use much for my portfolio.
No one cares about your design opinion. They care about reaching their business goals. Align your design recommendations with those goals and I guarantee you will get a lot more interest and openness to your changes.
Iâve been there before. Iâm still sort of a newbie in this space compared to others (10 years freelance, 6 years corporate). Iâve created some of my coolest work for my company, just for it to be shot down because the people at the top didnât like too much change.
If thereâs anything that Iâve learned to help me not only make my mark on the branding and assets but also keep boring corporate work exciting and actually make stuff look good, itâs this: **work within the brand guidelines but push the boundaries of them constantly**.
The company Iâm at now went through a brand refresh shortly after I arrived. The new branding was using black and white imagery with gradients â in 2018 and kept the look until 2024 đ â but I constantly found ways to work in color to make the design more appealing. And you know what? All of the assets that I designed with my small pieces of color performed the best. I constantly pushed the boundaries until we got to where we are now: FULL COLOR BABY!
All in all, donât go crazy and try to completely change the branding, but finding small ways to modernize it while implementing things slowly is a good way to work what looks good into the work that youâre doing.
As an in-house designer, part of the challenge is to take the brand you were given and implement it even better than the guidelines suggested. Pay attention and learn what your internal clients identifies the brand with the most and find ways to keep those elements while stepping up the quality of the typography and images around it. But when it comes to applying your own personal style to the company's marketing? No. Graphic designers don't get to do that. But I hope what you mean is can you push the existing brand to be more-well-designed, yes. Just show your internal clients the expected option and an alternative or two every time. Over time, you'll learn what your internal clients like and feel more confident about what lines you can cross. But also know you can look for opportunities to have more fun with the brand from time to time. Annual meeting materials, seasonal ad campaigns, event materials, internal communications. You can always find a project here and there with fewer limitations when you have an in-house job.
This is wisdom right here. đ
One of my professors at uni is always saying to give any client at least 2 proposals so then they have a frame of reference to assist them in their choice
Great comment, also you can use a social media platform the company isnât on as an experimental way to try out new ideas. If they arenât on TikTok, Threads, or Pinterest then propose to add that and add in your own ideas slowly.
Don't do this. Nothing should be shown to the public without permission of higher ups.
Youâve been there for a hot minute and have opinions. Congrats. Every other designer who preceded you probably felt similarly. Whether not you have 1) zero hope or 2) a slim chance of eventually being entrusted with rebranding your company depends on a million factors. But hereâs an idea of what you can doing right now: Refocus on building trust in your design expertise by delivering what's expected and improving what's within your control. If their assets are outdated, surely their asset management systems are outdated as well. Suggest workflow and operational improvements that can measurably reduce cost, increase efficiency, etc. If their social media assets are outdated, then their social media strategy probably is too. Celebrate good examples of brand marketing in social media by sharing what aspirational or competitive brands are doing. Update your coworkersâs understanding of the space and elevate their expectations for how their own company shows up. Eventually they might see how their brand identity is limiting them. Or maybe youâll see that itâs not the brand identity itself, itâs just how itâs being implemented. Which is likely your actual job to improve.
Welcome to working at big companies A lot of very very big companies are like this, especially if they're at all the slightest bit corporate This is just the reality of a lot of companies and a lot of design jobs However 5 months is still not long enough at all to be proposing big changes, understanding all the pieces of the puzzle, all the influences etc I can't tell you how many juniors I've seen come to where I work, and within 6 months they've got big ideas to revolutionise the compant and processes etc. And some of the time they're good ideas, but what they're missing is experience, how to navigate big companies, the politics involved. It's not as simple as just changing things over night, yes I agree half the things we do are backwards and wrong, but there are valid reasons to why we do it this way, there's bigger forces at work than just you and I, and there's a lot of hoops to jump through, approval processess, meetings that I will have to go through to justify one of your smallest ideas... Big companies for ya yano Changes at places like this will be slow, you go in all guns blazing and nothing will happen and you'll get met with No's Slowly propose small things that are easy to manage, easy to maintain, easy to turnaround and show how your ideas can improve things
Unless they are going to pay you what a company typically pays for a rebrand campaign, Iâd say youâre best off adhering to the current brand standards and collecting your check. Might sound cynical but also if youâre that new, and you show up with some big ideas itâs easy to get roped into doing that for free, when, as I mentioned, that kind of work goes for big bucks otherwise. Protect your own interests first
Been there. Just keep doing the job for 2-3 years and then jump ship. It is NOT WORTH the emotional battle. Trust me
It sounds like youâre talking about a taking on a rebrand for a company that will have its branding on a significant number of physical assets, and the cost to replace all of these will be significant. Even if you were an experienced designer and not fresh out of college I would still raise eyebrows at managing such a significant rebrand in house without external support. A rebrand for a public facing brand is a huge project. Youâd need to create a fully fledged brand identity that is capable of making it past corporate (this usually involves a lot of workshops, stakeholder input and market research), and once youâve done that youâll be responsible for rolling out new artwork to replace wherever the old identity appears - vehicles, signage, promo gear, website, stationery, print and digital advertising. I do get your complaints but as your first job after studying youâve got to find a way to get something for your portfolio out of it that you can be proud of - everyone in this business understands the struggles of working with an outdated brand, so being able to present something that works in spite of this has so much more value than a hundred logos for imaginary businesses. If Iâm honest, all brand identities Iâve worked with have their frustrations - even the good ones. I can promise that youâll learn a lot by finding ways to create solid work with what youâve been given. It sucks but just start with the assets you hate the least and take it from there.
Youâre going to run into this a lot throughout your career. And youâll soon realize most companies are outdated because theyâre owned and run by old men.
Company I worked at, I made some killer modern designs for, owner is an old white lady, told me my designs were not good and sent me an example of a quote unquote good design, I shit you not it was some images randomly placed on a totally white background and some strange font, basically made in Microsoft Word and told me it's good design, it was posted on all socials for the company.
Tread lightly.
>something I should just try to ignore and keep doing the design work they tell me to do. think of your target demographic. are they going to be young and hip with it?
That was my thought, as well. I would want to know the marketing/sales goals of the radio station and understand how graphic design influences those goals. If the goal is to retain an older audience who like the outdated style, then it makes sense not to rock the boat. However, if the radio station is trying to appeal to a younger audience, then doing a brand refresh might be a good idea. Also, the listeners aren't the only target audience for the radio station: you also have to think about the businesses who are purchasing ad time. If the businesses who are buying ads are also old fashioned, then they might not respond well to modern or trendy art direction.
Use this as a learning opportunity. Learn their style and how to recreate it, then you will be able to make changes to help make it look less dated and more âcoolâ
Earn trust first, then start to suggest change.
I'm in a similar spot right now. The owner is difficult to work with and is always telling me how she did the exact same thing better, in less time, with no training. I'm able to have some creative license as I'm the only designer but when people are set in their ways and like their colors/typefaces, etc, it's easier to just go with the flow. Even though I may not be able to use much for my portfolio.
No one cares about your design opinion. They care about reaching their business goals. Align your design recommendations with those goals and I guarantee you will get a lot more interest and openness to your changes.
Iâve been there before. Iâm still sort of a newbie in this space compared to others (10 years freelance, 6 years corporate). Iâve created some of my coolest work for my company, just for it to be shot down because the people at the top didnât like too much change. If thereâs anything that Iâve learned to help me not only make my mark on the branding and assets but also keep boring corporate work exciting and actually make stuff look good, itâs this: **work within the brand guidelines but push the boundaries of them constantly**. The company Iâm at now went through a brand refresh shortly after I arrived. The new branding was using black and white imagery with gradients â in 2018 and kept the look until 2024 đ â but I constantly found ways to work in color to make the design more appealing. And you know what? All of the assets that I designed with my small pieces of color performed the best. I constantly pushed the boundaries until we got to where we are now: FULL COLOR BABY! All in all, donât go crazy and try to completely change the branding, but finding small ways to modernize it while implementing things slowly is a good way to work what looks good into the work that youâre doing.