Steak
New Member
Long read incoming.
So, I've been working in the shop I'm at now for about a year and a half. This is the first shop I've worked at besides working for my father. I moved about an hour away to a much bigger city for personal reasons and just to get some experience in a different shop. I was a bit naive in taking the first job that presented itself and thinking it would be what I wanted. The shop is focused on cheap vinyl signs and prints and we also do some screen printing and sublimation. There are only a few people here and I work underneath 2 of them.
My problem is that both of the two people I work under have absolutely terrible design skills and no eye for good design. Almost everything they think would look good, or suggest to customers is straight out of the 90's and either black or red.
The thing that really set me off was recently, a customer came in and wanted a layout for a wrap on his new truck. He was a biker guy and and had a big tattoo on his back of his deceased family and their souls rising into heaven. He liked the theme of "souls" and wanted something based around that. So, my boss makes a layout and asks my opinion, here is what he presented me: http://i.imgur.com/1SbqG.jpg
I was in awe of how terrible it is. I really couldn't say anything for about 2 minutes. I finally said that the flames were horrid and even if the customer did like them there was no way we could print it. He agreed and found a new image and made up a new layout: http://i.imgur.com/yW3NY.jpg
Now, its not uncommon for him to show me something that doesn't really look good, or sometimes downright bad but this one set the bar higher than I imagined he could. I've been wanting to find another job for a while and this was the clincher.
So I guess my question is, is there any hope for him? Is there anything I can do to improve his design without being insulting?
So, I've been working in the shop I'm at now for about a year and a half. This is the first shop I've worked at besides working for my father. I moved about an hour away to a much bigger city for personal reasons and just to get some experience in a different shop. I was a bit naive in taking the first job that presented itself and thinking it would be what I wanted. The shop is focused on cheap vinyl signs and prints and we also do some screen printing and sublimation. There are only a few people here and I work underneath 2 of them.
My problem is that both of the two people I work under have absolutely terrible design skills and no eye for good design. Almost everything they think would look good, or suggest to customers is straight out of the 90's and either black or red.
The thing that really set me off was recently, a customer came in and wanted a layout for a wrap on his new truck. He was a biker guy and and had a big tattoo on his back of his deceased family and their souls rising into heaven. He liked the theme of "souls" and wanted something based around that. So, my boss makes a layout and asks my opinion, here is what he presented me: http://i.imgur.com/1SbqG.jpg
I was in awe of how terrible it is. I really couldn't say anything for about 2 minutes. I finally said that the flames were horrid and even if the customer did like them there was no way we could print it. He agreed and found a new image and made up a new layout: http://i.imgur.com/yW3NY.jpg
Now, its not uncommon for him to show me something that doesn't really look good, or sometimes downright bad but this one set the bar higher than I imagined he could. I've been wanting to find another job for a while and this was the clincher.
So I guess my question is, is there any hope for him? Is there anything I can do to improve his design without being insulting?
