line cooks vs chefs
Apr. 19th, 2022 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kradeelavthere's a phenomenon i've been seeing at work among the designers, now that a fair few teams have rotated in and out, only lately been able to articulate. this is something I can see easily going for engineers as well, really anyone in a line of work where you're Building Something.
most, if not all designers tend to gradually align themselves to the poles of line cooks or chefs.
me? I'm a line cook. design is strictly a 9-5 business, crank 'em out as the suits and consumers want them. not half-assing the job, mind you, you still want to take pride in your work and also leave the aforementioned two audiences with a satisfied feeling. but. i'm not going to obsess about a pixel's shift here or there overnight, or come out with a cleaver if somebody requests the design equivalent of a "well done filet" :P it's your money, my man.
my most recent ex-manager was a classic chef. talented as hell, had the gift of being a leader as well as a designer that cared deeply, deeply about each and every mini graphic let alone entire campaigns worth. cared about the execution all the way down and would frequently clash with the suits above him as as far as His Vision went (ultimately the lion's share of the reason for his departure; he even agreed with me on these terms and the definitions when I brought it up a few weeks after). these are the Visionaries with a capital V.
mind you, this isn't to say line cooks can't do strategy - they just tend to err on the side of practicality rather than, hm. holistic masterpieces that win awards? if it saves time by 20% by potentially sacrificing 5% of the Design Vision, absolutely that's a gamble they/(I) will take, but a "chef" type of designer never would. (personally I'd argue corporate work is inherently compromised by default since big daddy el jefe can always overrule your grand vision even if you have every other suit on board (ha) and it's either the vision or the paycheck, sometimes. I can be a chef in my private time when it's *me* that's the big daddy for creative projects.)
i think a lot of times, corporate burnout happens when you slot a "chef" into a role that's fundamentally suited better to a line cook, and vice versa. I know I would be deeply miserable if asked to be truly blue-sky creative for the 9-5, because the way I'm actually a "chef" is uh, through kink art which is also inherently anti-corporate. x) my brain just don't work for fun like that, man. and likewise - god knows i've seen so many "chef" -type of designers who end up clogging the conveyor belt of corporate work when it's truly the "get it done on time" part that actually brings the money in.
[taps brain] know thyself.
most, if not all designers tend to gradually align themselves to the poles of line cooks or chefs.
me? I'm a line cook. design is strictly a 9-5 business, crank 'em out as the suits and consumers want them. not half-assing the job, mind you, you still want to take pride in your work and also leave the aforementioned two audiences with a satisfied feeling. but. i'm not going to obsess about a pixel's shift here or there overnight, or come out with a cleaver if somebody requests the design equivalent of a "well done filet" :P it's your money, my man.
my most recent ex-manager was a classic chef. talented as hell, had the gift of being a leader as well as a designer that cared deeply, deeply about each and every mini graphic let alone entire campaigns worth. cared about the execution all the way down and would frequently clash with the suits above him as as far as His Vision went (ultimately the lion's share of the reason for his departure; he even agreed with me on these terms and the definitions when I brought it up a few weeks after). these are the Visionaries with a capital V.
mind you, this isn't to say line cooks can't do strategy - they just tend to err on the side of practicality rather than, hm. holistic masterpieces that win awards? if it saves time by 20% by potentially sacrificing 5% of the Design Vision, absolutely that's a gamble they/(I) will take, but a "chef" type of designer never would. (personally I'd argue corporate work is inherently compromised by default since big daddy el jefe can always overrule your grand vision even if you have every other suit on board (ha) and it's either the vision or the paycheck, sometimes. I can be a chef in my private time when it's *me* that's the big daddy for creative projects.)
i think a lot of times, corporate burnout happens when you slot a "chef" into a role that's fundamentally suited better to a line cook, and vice versa. I know I would be deeply miserable if asked to be truly blue-sky creative for the 9-5, because the way I'm actually a "chef" is uh, through kink art which is also inherently anti-corporate. x) my brain just don't work for fun like that, man. and likewise - god knows i've seen so many "chef" -type of designers who end up clogging the conveyor belt of corporate work when it's truly the "get it done on time" part that actually brings the money in.
[taps brain] know thyself.
