Minneapolis-based creative agency Colle+McVoy has come up with an ingenious way to get employees to do the one thing everyone’s lethargic about: fill their timesheets. C+M has built a device called “TapServer” that uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) and custom-written software to dispense free beer to any employee who fills his/her timesheet on time. … [Read more...]
What Happens When An Over-Anxious CEO Tries To ‘Help’ His Design Team
Design-illiterate senior executives are the bane of creative teams everywhere. You can tell the accounts and servicing guys to piss off but how do you get the message across to the CEO? You want to be in their good books but their lack of design aesthetics coupled with an over-enthusiastic urge to show their creative skills is the stuff that nightmares are made of. … [Read more...]
This Design Studio Has Desks That Vanish After 6pm So Employees Can Relax Or Go Home
Amsterdam-based design studio Heldergroen has a cool work culture and a cooler office to go with it. Designed by Bright Green and built by Zecc Architects, the workspace clears out after 6pm to make room for recreational activities so that employees can maintain a healthy work-life balance. Steel cables attached to wooden desks lift them up into appropriately built ceiling … [Read more...]
Always Show Up For A Meeting 5 Minutes Late, Here’s Why
When it comes to the workplace, perception matters. You want to play your cards right and 'appear' busy. If you've been showing up for meetings on or before time, you're doing it all wrong. This brilliant graphic shows the correlation between the time you enter for a meeting and your co-workers' perception of you. The sweet spot is 5 minutes after the meeting has started. … [Read more...]
How To Deal With Clients Who Steal Your Ideas And Hire Another Agency To Implement Them
Last week, our post on how to handle difficult clients gathered a fair share of eyeballs and appreciation. But what about those scumbags who invite you for a pitch, listen to your ideas, and then hire the cheapest agency to implement them? How do you deal with those jackasses? Well, here's a nifty piece of advice from Bodhisatwa Dasgupta, Creative Director at Grey Worldwide, … [Read more...]
15 Types Of Difficult Clients And How To Handle Them Effectively
Every agency has that one client from hell. The one who monopolizes your time, frustrates the entire staff, and makes unreasonable demands. If you've got more than one, you probably spend three out of four weekends in office. If we apply the Pareto principle (or 80:20 rule) to the agency-client relationship, 80% of an agency's resources are utilized in managing 20% of its … [Read more...]
How Managers Are Killing Productivity With Useless Meetings That Cost $37 Billion/Year
Every year, more than $37 billion is spent on unproductive meetings according to research compiled by online meeting service provider Fuze. Executives consider more than 67% of meetings to be failures, yet there are 25 million meetings per day in the U.S. alone. This infographic explains the causes and offers tips to improve workplace productivity. … [Read more...]
Designer’s Guide To What Clients Really Mean When Providing Feedback
Designers, we salute you. No one takes more client crap than you (except coders). Every day in office is an anger management exercise for you. Everyone knows Photoshop is just as easy as MS Word and all it takes is 2 clicks to create the next Mona Lisa. Not everyone can become a writer but everyone has an inborn desire to design, specially the clients. In times like these, we … [Read more...]
The Different Types Of People In Every Agency And Their Funny Habits
They're as common as rice and potatoes - the annoying co-workers bent on ruining that perfect day at work. We've all got nicknames for them but the funny folks at New York-based digital agency Mizaplas just turned up the heat with Workwankers, a hilarious set of posters dedicated to the scum of the work universe. … [Read more...]
Things That Drive Creative People Nuts
We all have phobias - spiders, heights, clowns - but creative types see things differently. Their fears stem from stretched type, bad packaging, internet outages and hovering bosses. … [Read more...]
This Is How The Account Guys Catch Creatives Trying To Leave Early On A Friday
If you've ever worked in the creative department of an ad agency and wanted to leave early on Friday, you'll identify with this video. … [Read more...]
A Closer Look At Agency People And Their Funny Habits
People who work for creative agencies are a special breed. From copywriters and art directors to accounts and finance, each department has its own set of quirks and idiosyncrasies. Big Orange Slide has come up with an amusing infographic that examines a few of these agency 'species' and draws some arbitrary but fairly accurate conclusions. Check it out below. … [Read more...]
Why The Best Ideas Come To You Where You’re Alone And Not In Group Meetings
Do you snore your way through the brainstormings in your office while others try and hog the limelight? Do you believe that these group sessions actually hinder the ideation process? Do you look forward to going back to your workstation so you can brainstorm alone and share your ideas with the team later? Well, here's confirmation that you're not wrong in your approach. … [Read more...]
Why Copywriters Have The Best Job In The World (Infographic)
In the past, we've shared infographics dedicated to clients, agencies, designers, and developers, which made our copywriter friends a little uncomfortable. Sometime back we received a mail saying how much they thought our copy stank (hell, don't we know that, it's written by designers) and how we need to share more articles on writing and content creation. … [Read more...]