I recently was charged with designing a new template for a
document that goes to a particular entity who declared that ours are “hard to
read” and “boring” and “too technical”. They wished we would use one picture
more often than the thousand words.
Yes, these are boring documents.
Yes, they are technical.
I’ve been working within previously delineated parameters
since I arrived, but now I could break FREE!
*[insert sound of knuckles cracking]*
I turned it landscape. I imported a generic image to fade as
the background of some of the pages. I …had to include staffing… hmm…
Have you ever done something like, oh, say...Grant writing?
Similar deal. Pages and pages of writing the stuff they NEED to know, to know
that you can do what you say you will do. They want to see who is in charge and
why they can be trusted.
WELL… Every time I tried to search for generic images
pertinent to the job, Google asked if I was searching for a particular movie
star with a similar name. SO I used his image as the image for the head guy on
this project. What the hey, it’s just a template!
One of our other guys has a popular name, so I searched by
name, and came up with another movie star! This was getting very cute!
The other names didn’t have movie stars leaping at me, so I
just pulled up a headshot of a Stormtrooper from Star Wars. HAHA! I laughed out
loud so hard over that.
I had also incorporated images of famous places/things to
show our “experience”, so it was a totally fictitious template, but showed
where images would work or not. Like saying “Our guy is so awesome, he
singlehandedly designed Stone Henge!”
I love it. It’s awesome. It's creative. It was fun. I couldn’t wait to demonstrate it
to my superiors. That happened Thursday.
>sigh<
Such a focused bunch.
Did they not recognize the movie stars? Surely they recognized a
stormtrooper! No questions. Just about how that page would be used in an actual
document, where this element would go, etc.
Sometimes it’s so lonely being me. Nobody inside the business
finds it funny, because they’re all so straight-laced. Nobody outside would get
its brilliance.
Still – at least I am appreciated for my “unique skill set”
– honest-to-God Quote.
I really do love my work. I can't wait to find a creative outlet and make friends who will laugh with me at this stuff. Maybe one of my sisters...
The problem with me, is as soon as I realized that they were not going to comment on the images themselves, is that I would have to take it up a level, until all of the 'test' layouts would have pictures of bears with chainsaws for arms and exploding cats and dinosaurs in hats.
ReplyDeleteThat would be hilarious!
DeleteI had to honestly not have wasted time on it, though, so names had to be similar, etc.
...I'm creative compared to my coworkers, but a lot of my blogging friends have me beat. ;-)
I think it would become a challenge for me. The pictures would get more and more extreme until finally they had to have a special meeting to address the look of the new templates.
ReplyDeleteI would laugh with you.
Fortunately I was focused enough on the task at hand that my imagination couldn't wander that far.
DeleteAt least you had fun creating it!! And your good time is all that matters. Well done! :0)
ReplyDeleteHugs!
Valerie
Exactly. Thanks Valerie!
DeleteI don't think that I could do anything like that. I'm glad you had fun creating it! I'm really interested in seeing what it would look like so I could fully appreciate the humor, but I understand why its not on here.
ReplyDeleteI may post elements later. I don't give details about work, but the fictional bits should be okay...
DeleteHmmm, not a single chuckle? Man, they are straight laced. It's always a bummer when no one gets the joke.
ReplyDeleteOnce, on the first day of class, I was writing on a whiteboard while rambling to my students about the syllabus, and then made a joke, which I thought was funny and so I laughed. I turned around to find all fifty students looking at me like I was a total lunatic. What can you do in situations like that but clear your throat and move on?
*Sigh*
I get that "look" a lot. My friends and I understand the same Monty Python, Douglas Adams type humor, and I forget that the rest of the world might not know "what else floats in water", or the significance of "42".
DeleteI've never bought into stereotypes. But where I work, It's hard not to!
I'll laught. In fact I'm laughing right now.
ReplyDeleteHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
That's me laughing with you.
Feel better? ;)
Thank you Misty! You would probably get it.
DeleteI must admit though, I am happy to be known as "the creative one". Which I am. I've been told so...even in the interview I just had where they offered me the official full-time position! Yay!
YAY!!!! Congrats. :)
DeleteAre you sure they weren't laughing because they didn't get it? Maybe they've lived under a rock their entire life. :P
ReplyDeleteI'm actually worried that they didn't want to say anything because it might encourage my nuttiness!
DeleteI will laugh with you. Feel free to send anything to me if it is small enough for email.
ReplyDeleteSee you soon!
Hestia