The Sleeping Bag Under the Desk
How on earth are you managing to split your time between so many projects?
DP: It's funny, actually, because I was asked to speak at the quality of life summit which is probably the biggest mistake they've ever made. I just said to them, take a trip to Japan and look at the sleeping bags under the tables, and you'll see there's no "quality of life". It's not to be mean or anything, it's just that they want to succeed and these people are our competitors.
I work till about one or two every night. I've been 25 years in the business, and that's the hours I put in. I literally couldn't get it all done otherwise.
You see this sentiment quite a bit in the ad/design industry. After all, when you're competing for work and awards against the likes of Big Spaceship, R/GA, or Crispin Porter Bogusky, or any other number of large, famous shops, wouldn't you go all out?
Sure.
But when you're just working? When new work isn't on the line, and the site isn't launching tomorrow?
It's a sick cycle. We all want to do good work. We all want to get recognition. But, we've gotten so caught up in the cycle of the creative world, that we start to think it's the whole world. It's not.
I've been fortunate. I put in long hours at Stick & Move, and enjoyed my time there, but after a year I had enough. There's only so much you can give up. Since then, I've proudly never worked an all-nighter. I've never worked on a weekend, except when I wanted to. Partly for family. Partly because I've rediscovered having goals outside of work.
You know what? I'm a better worker for it. Sure, I may have had a moment of genius inspired by total and utter panic at 3am when I needed just 1 more idea, or needed to figure out something wasn't working in Flash, but now I'm better at managing my time and getting work out faster because, damn it, I expect to be home.
What's weird is that even outside of work-enforced hours, we often push ourselves to stay creative, which is good. We do freelance work at night, or contributing to design blogs or forums, or if you're super-famous, speak at or organizing design events. It's cool. But what impact is our work having? Why are we pushing ourselves so hard? To sell a dozen more shoes? To sell a couple more movie tickets?
We all want to do good work, but is it worth it? It's just ads. It's just work. It's just a game. It's just a tool. It's just industry awards. We aren't saving the world, curing cancer, or ending war. We are a luxury, and it's time we reminded ourselves of that an stop taking things so seriously. In the endless manifestos that get passed around to stop spec/pitch work (passed around by well-established agencies and designers) or encourage sustainable design, we've forgotten to pass around the manifesto to encourage sustainable careers and employees. Kudos to all of the shops who work to make their employees happy, and treat them with respect and love. Kudos to the shops that reward the long hours, and kudos to the people to work to make them unnecessary in the first place.
