This is a completely un-technical posting, with just a simple work philosophy.
The simple work philosophy….
Do your best at what you were hired to do.
This is something that pops into my head quite often. It should really exist as a constant buzzing in my brain. The thinking being that the people you are doing work for are expecting a certain level of execution and professionalism. If you are just pumping the work out without much thought, you are not doing what you were hired to do.
Take your time. Look over your work. Look at it inside and out and from many different angles. Only pass the work along to the next step in the review process when you’ve completely combed over every detail.
One of the major challenges that we designers and production artists have is that of tight time frames. All I can say is - try to push back on the project managers pushing you to turn the work around in a time frame that ensures problems rather than professionally executed work. It’s better to have the work delivered a day late, than delivered on time, but incorrect. The work will come back for correction anyway and you will look bad rather than the project manager looking bad for pushing the work through too fast.
By pushing back and doing your best work, you will be more respected in your professional abilities and you will ultimately make the project manager look better by having them deliver professionally executed work. And the more you (respectfully) push back, the more you will be respected.
And you have to ask yourself - Am I just a malfunctioning machine in an old assembly line or am I a professional offering a skilled service?
