RGD Rules - Concluded

Responsibilities of Employers

Many of the values RGD outlines for individuals also clearly apply to employers of designers. A creative professional could find themselves rising through the ranks of a design studio to become a manger. Leadership and team management are not skills that we excel at naturally. Most designers spend hours and hours in solitary work creating graphics. Being in charge of others is not at the forefront of our thoughts.

Understanding this, RGD outlines the key values a good employer should express. Firstly, the employees should never be asked to break any of the established RDG rules. Potential clients may request spec work, which should always be rejected even if the employees are paid for their time. Speculative work should never be accepted as appropriate.

Another potential pitfall is the need for good time management. Creative professionals always struggle with procrastination and require clear deadlines and expectations. As an employer, we have the added responsibility of creating and enforcing them. In addition to deadlines, we must also be prompt with email replies from employees. Designers will often run into roadblocks that need a decision, so we must respect their time and provide answers as soon as possible.

Finally, the design employer must also ensure a safe work environment. The creative professional can take many forms, although certain trends and stereotypes do emerge. Graphic design attracts men and women in equal measure. Visual communication gives voice to the quietest among us. Graphic designers tend to be more introverted and have great sensitivity. They often come from marginalized communities and have diverse backgrounds and interest. This means an employer must take extra effort to be inclusive. In the field of design, the typical workplace diversity issues can be inverted. Women bosses need to ensure they hire men and LGBTQ bosses should ensure they hire cisgenders. Employees should always feel welcome.

Responsibilities of Educators

Teachers of Graphic Design must be wary of their influence on their students. Similar to employers, educators must strive to ensure a safe environment for new designers. Learning design requires creative expression, which can make an individual feel especially vulnerable. Students must be treated with compassion and dignity when they inevitably make mistakes.

Accepting and giving appropriate and helpful criticism is essential to growth as a designer. Critical reviews, articles, and blogs are all aspects of design work that can show off ones writing skills as well as their design knowledge. A well-written and intelligent critical review of another designer can help validate yourself and your subject as designers in the world. Collaboration is a good thing in our profession, but it can descend into cruelty if you are not careful. Learning to appropriately criticize the work of others is an essential skill that must be developed in the classroom.

The educator also has the responsibility to teach students how to navigate the social dynamics of the design field. There is constant demand for speculative work and unpaid exposure. Designers need to learn to value their time and effort in a world full of people eager to belittle their work.

Designers also need to recognize the type of meta-information that they should know. A designer must obviously be well-read in their field, but they also must have knowledge of cultural symbolism and accessibility. As mentioned in the responsibilities towards clients, the design student must recognize failures and deftly correct them. This means the educator has the responsibility to always reinforce the needs of marginalized communities and the effects of unintended symbolic messages.

RGD Responsibilities 4 - 5 - 6

…to society and the environment

Everyone wants to do the right thing for the environment, but whose got the time? In all fairness, consumers are not the real problem when it comes to climate change, but that is a different discussion. My point is that most people are not in the position to spread useful information on a wide scale. In the 21st century, we have learned that garbage often comes in the form of bad information. Graphic designers do not create that information but they are charged with communicating and explaining it. We have a broad obligation to improve society by rooting out disinformation. Our compelling designs should never compel people towards lies.

This means that graphic designers must always stay abreast of good information on current events as well as historical significance. Designs made with good intentions can perpetuate bad stereotypes. We must gracefully steer clients away from distasteful ideas and values by supplanting them with better, more realistic ones.

We must also be knowledgeable about physical manifestations of design, i.e. paper. Posters and fliers, business cards and stationery all have their own environmental impact. We must advise clients on the ideal choice that minimizes carbon footprint. We should also consider the physical location of supplies to ensure all local options are utilized to their fullest.

Society also comprises individuals of all abilities. Clients are not expected to be up to date on the most relevant codes and policies regarding accessibility. Designers are obliged to inform clients about violations and necessary revisions, and they should insist on the problems being corrected.

The most interesting part of this rule is the encouragement to donate 5% of a designers yearly work to pro bono clients. There is an infinite supply of companies and organizations that deserve good design work but have no budget for it. “Exposure” is a laughable term, but choosing a good pro-bono client can have big rewards in this way. One key point is to always itemize your work and present the client with a full invoice that concludes with a -100% discount. This way they must respect the time and value of your work.

… to competition and fees

Spec Work is a real dirty word in the design world. It can be very hard to argue that a designer should never engage in these spec work competitions while so many amateurs do it every day. This is where a company offers a reward for the best logo design and posts the challenge on social media. It can take many forms, but this encourages amateurs and freelancers to do work for potential pay. Even the “winner” of such a contest is unlikely to gain a repeat client or useful reference.

As designers, we need to help end these spec-work challenges by not participating in any aspect. We may be approached with real contracts to judge or promote these contests. These jobs must be turned down unless the client is intending to compensate every single competitor. Any bad practices should be reported to the RGD so that other designers will not fall victim to their unreasonable requests.

This rule becomes a bit sticky when you consider nonprofit organizations. These companies have revenue and payrolls and expenses and investments, etc. Designers must not feel pressured to donate their work to an organization simply because it is a nonprofit or other charity, church, or social group. RGD advises limiting our pro bono work to 5% of our annual revenue. Remind clients of this whenever necessary.

…to my intellectual property

Acknowledge collaborations and do not piggy-back on others work. Even the most subtle choice can lead a viewer to believe you were the primary creator of work. A designer should always put all the relevant credit on any work so the viewer can easily see. Collaborations are important and they can highlight a designers ability to work on a team, so one should never pretend they had sole authorship of a group effort. Furthermore, it is silly to insert yourself into team successes when you had no real part in the project.

A designer like an artist must always actively defend their intellectual property rights. The intangible nature of digital media makes it very easy to casually plagiarize content. A designer should always ensure their digital fingerprint is securely in place on all content they create, but this does not fully negate the threat of image stealing. Ensure every client understands their responsibility. If a stealer of content can be linked to a client, then that client should suffer some punishment, at least by losing you as a designer.

The client must always credit your work wherever appropriate, but you as the designer should also take this into consideration when it comes to your reputation. A designer may become associated with a certain product or segment of society which could be undesirable. If you are ashamed of a client, you should not work for them.

Regarding the intellectual rights of other designers, you should always consider yourself in their position. Do not release design files or source images without consulting the creator of those files. Clients may ignorantly give you access to files without considering the designer who made them. It is the RGD member who is required to notice and advise the client rather than exploiting their ignorance.

Deeper into RGD

A side note - whenever I read RGD, I think about the reddit page titled Reddit Gets Drawn, wherein users post pictures of themselves to be drawn by other users as art models. It can be fun practice.

Responsibilities to Clients and Employers

Moving downward through the hierarchy of priorities, the RGD next focuses on the paying customer. It is only sensible to keep oneself afloat first. All cynicism aside, the responsibility to the clients and employers is another point that should go without saying - do not lie about your abilities, pay your subcontractors, and avoid releasing public information.

This rule becomes interesting when considering conflicts of interest. Not only must designers be wary of how single clients are affected by current events, etc., but you must also note the effect one client might have on another client. Your clients may have problems being connected even tangentially to a theoretical rival in their industry. The idea is to be up front with your other clientele. Customers may not actually be concerned with a conflict of interest as long as you are up-front with your work.

Another aspect of this rule is to never withdraw service without providing adequate reasoning and documentation. Here is another example where writing excellent contracts will pay off. Perfect wording can empower the designer to escape nightmare clients. Even in the moderate challenges, a good contract can dissolve arguments efficiently.

The best practices advised by the RGD pertaining to this rule revolve around good communication. Firstly, always make a good contract. Second, always try to make the client fully understand the contract before they sign it. Third, get a contract in writing, signed and dated, as soon as possible.

The Second Rule of RGD

Responsibilities to the Profession and Other Members/Designers

Moving forward through the list of rules, part two focuses on the profession of design as a whole. Designers often find themselves collaborating and outsourcing and freelancing to achieve their goals. It is important to maintain relationships with people working in the industry, even when they are not members of RGD.

The rule specifically requires everyone to be honest about their abilities, as well as the abilities of colleagues. It is immature to disparage the abilities of other designers. It is also unhelpful to make untrue claims about your own skills. This would be unethical.

As graphic designers, we could easily fake credentials or steal work in order to gain clients. This practice is not sustainable despite the immediate potential gains.

Clients will ignorantly seek to undercut designers in an effort to save a buck. It is important to actively ensure you are not being used to complete the work another designer has begun. Conversely, designers should not attempt to steal existing jobs by offering cheaper work.

Lastly, and probably most importantly, designers should remain up to date on current software and trends. Design tools are constantly being updated and improved. Part of being a graphic designer means remaining aware of changes in the industry. Clients must have confidence in the designer, and dismissing new trends makes the designer seem out of touch. The designer must put their own opinions aside on things like smartphones or operating systems or they risk becoming an unemployable dinosaur.

The First Rule of RGD

Thinking outside of the box is overrated.

Obviously this is a deliberately provocative statement, but I have often felt that too many people are encouraged to break out of the ordinary in all projects. Imagination and creative thinking should be self-evident requirements to even call yourself a designer. What would be helpful would be some clear and obvious rules to follow.

The Registered Graphic Designers of Canada have established a set of well-considered rules to live by. By adhering to the spirit of these rules we can not only grow our design career, but we can also avoid being sued.

Responsibilities to the Organization

The first rule of Design Club™ is to keep the Design Club™ alive and respected. This rule asks the members of RGD to act with maturity and legality always. It asks we remember that together we all achieve more by reminding the unenlightened of our skills. One way to do this is by remaining knowledgeable of the laws both within Canada as well as any other country in which we may work.

This rule also asks RGD members to always be truthful about their status in the organization. As a member, we should always display our affiliation wherever appropriate. We promise to pay our dues on time, and we will only display our credentials when we are a member in good standing. We also must disclose if our business is in bankruptcy.

As graphic designers, we are privy to client information. We must take every precaution to preserve their privacy, but we must also be prepared to share this information with an RGD inquiry. We trust that the RGD can ensure privacy for our clients and would only request the info if it is necessary.

Purple Carrots

The harvest season is upon us right now. Orange, yellow, and brown are the acceptable colours. Jokes about pumpkin spice are plentiful. Canada has a delightful fall. The distinct division between autumn and winter helps prevent the march of holiday madness into October. Christmas means freezing temperatures and the chance of snow. Fall means Orange.

Apparently fall can mean purple as well. Last April, my partner and I were expanding our vegetable garden by buying seeds from a local homesteader. I was petting a farm cat when she asked me what colour carrots we should get. Thinking this was a joke, I said I preferred the orange ones. What other colours could there even be? Well, purple yellow and white are three of several colour options. It turns out that carrots come in a wide variety. So why aren’t they ever seen in the grocery store or on a salad?

The cynical answer is that consumers are too stupid to recognize a carrot if its not orange. Alternatively, maybe food suppliers just assume we are, and never stock non-orange carrots. The real reason is probably just rampant ignorance. There is not much difference between colours of carrot, so there isn’t really any motivation to push the variety. White carrot vendors are not suffering.

A pile of orange root vegetables says “carrots”. The same pile randomly coloured says “what the hell is this?”

Language evolves to fit the users. Every year, Websters Dictionary adds new words to its lexicon, with annual displeasure from pedantic people. Is ‘yo’ a word? Is ‘selfie’ worthy of the dictionary? How do you spell ‘through’ (thru)? People are quick to forget the slow change they participate in. The word ‘describe’ used to be written ‘descrive’. Over time that ‘V’ sound was replaced by a ‘B’, and now that IS the word. In Shakespeare’s time, people didn’t even have participial words, so they had to say “what do you read?” not “what are you reading?”

So carrots: grocery store owners and customers gradually demonstrated a familiarity with orange varieties, and now that is what a carrot looks like.

Also, the inside of the purple carrots was as orange as ever.