Everyone in my company (the titular computer shop in Witney) has tried graphic design at some stage in their career as a computer technician. All of them over the past 18 years! I think it is because the logical mind-set that is needed to diagnose and fix computers doesn’t allow the technicians to use very much use of their creative side so the first opportunity they have to design something that’s what they want to do.
Slightly worse for me than having a non-creative person do graphic design is that my engineers almost certainly have the computer skills to work out how to use the graphical software tools like Adobe Photoshop. This means that they always have a go at designing something for our marketing ideas.
I always have a problem telling a computer engineer that the “poster” they have lovingly designed is not what I wanted. They have the best intentions of saving the company money by working out how to master the brilliant Adobe Photoshop and create what in their eyes is a graphical masterpiece.
Now I have become a bad boss!
I have seen hurt in their eyes that I their boss doesn’t appreciate them when they attempt graphic design and I am not impressed with the results.
I had tried the “do it yourself job” to getting posters and flyers done but I was out of my depth. I didn’t think I could afford the services of a graphical designer. Jayson was referred to me by Mark Orr of Printing and Mailing when we went on a BNI training course together. (BNI is a business network referral group)
Here is one graphic that he designed for me. I explained that we have to solve problems. When the Rubik’s cube came out I spent a very long time to finally crack it, so the image resonated with me. I hope that the image means something to other people too.
Here is another example; after spending time explaining to Jayson that our Computer workshop in Witney was always busy and that since 1995 we had repaired over 8,000 computers he came up with this masterpiece.
The bee is known for being busy and productive, linking this with the company colour (orange) it becomes the perfect image for use to use. I was so impressed it that I asked Jayson to make a version that I could use on the bottom of my shop windows to hide some horrible tiles.
I remember him telling me that his computer took a long time to “render” the image because of its size. I gave him the dimensions of the space to cover, he produced the artwork, I approved and sent it to Witney sign writers by email and they made it up and fitted it. Job done.
My point is, talk to Jayson Winters and tell him what you would like and he will design something for you. If you don’t like it then give him some feedback so he can rework it. It is better for me to get my IT support engineers to fix computers rather than letting them spend time creating possibly dodgy artwork.
After a while it became very interesting that Jayson designed images and publications for me to use that I liked straight away. Working with Jayson over the years has meant that he “gets” what I want. This means that he can be very efficient which happily keeps the fees down.
I have one tip for you. If you ever use any graphic on a website make sure that you describe the image in the description section and alt text section in the properties of the graphic using your keywords – just like I have done with this blog.
I would be delighted if you made a comment.
Kevin Ackland
