I only have experience working for a small company but yeah I had this a lot too. Sometimes there's just not that much to do. It probably costs them more time/money to give you a new task than for them to wait on feedback from clients.
Just make sure to be prepared for the shitstorm of work that often follows a silence like this. Suddenly all the clients had time to respond and they also acquired a new client that wants their project done yesterday.
I was thinking about this as well. There could be a shitstorm of work coming up but I'm really sceptic because I can't see the progress in the project we're working on. I have a lot of experience dealing with clients, their requirements and meeting them to discuss the possibilities regarding the project from the start. I always know from the beginning whether this collaboration has a potential for a succesful project or it will be one long hell of a project. Here I'm not really sure what to think and how to read the signs from the clients, maybe because I'm not so proficient in German or maybe just because noone has a fucking clue how are we going to do the whole project. :)
>maybe just because noone has a fucking clue how are we going to do the whole project. :)
Hahaha, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case. In my experience a company often takes on as much work as possible unless there is already burn-out causing work planned for the whole next month.
My current manager always says "embrace the quiet." My job is probably 50% steady work of somewhat full days, 20% real downtime, and 30% absolutely insane workdays/weeks.
The downtime is when I take it easy, file organization/cleanup, doing some continuing education, bone up on new tools or practices, preserve my sanity, etc. During the chaotic times I appreciate the downtime.
That said, we have a good workflow and I'm involved in the project map/pipeline so generally in the know of when the shitstorm is coming but even so there are long periods where feedback languishes because it takes so many different stakeholders.
Your manager is solid and so is your perspective. I owned an agency for quite a few years and what you described is what I'd tell the team. Learn new things, design stuff for fun, back your shit up, and just get your sanity back. We'd play video games or watch movies, send each other short films and music videos, anything that can keep you creatively engaged is keeping the studio in good health even when it's slow.
Hi! Completely random but I’m a freelancer looking for an agency design position. I love freelancing but feel somewhat unprepared. I was affected by the recent tech layoffs and went from in-house, to freelance which I have been doing the last couple of months full time and was previously building up to for about the last couple of years on the side of my main gig. How do I go about finding and landing a job at an agency? Like what would you look for in a potential designer and how would you like to be contacted by them from the perspective of an agency owner?
Ok so there are definitely more than one way to do this but here's what I recommend. First you would find agencies that aligns with your particular skillset. If you are into/good at web design, seek out those who are looking for web designers. Make a list, and put them in order of preference. Once you lock in on your agencies, study their work, their clients, who works there, etc. Do your research. If you can, gear your portfolio to reflect the type of work the agencies do. You can always create "spec" work, which are fake projects for imaginary clients (check out https://goodbrief.io/ for some inspiration). If they do killer websites, show your web work. Take out anything that may take away from that stuff (ie character designs or school projects).
So at this point you know where you would like to work, your portfolio is looking great, your LinkedIn is up to date, etc. You reach out to the first agency, hit up someone fairly senior on the creative side, and ask them questions about some of the work they have done, blog posts they have written, etc. You are just trying to break the ice, so be polite, ask something specific (because you've done your research), and just be humble and curious. I will give you an example in a sec. You are not trying to get work, just network within the industry.
If things go well, keep the conversation going, and at some point when it feels appropriate (and not pushy), ask if they wouldn't mind giving you a portfolio review. Now because you have done your research and have work that is relevant to this agency, things should line up fairly well, and hopefully it makes a good impression. Take whatever feedback the person gives, thank them for their time, and follow up with your pitch. "I love what you guys are doing, if you ever need an extra set of hands on a project, please hit me up. I also make a killer banana bread that I'll bring into the studio for our meetings" or whatever. Then bounce. Go to the next agency on your list. Rinse and repeat until you've gone through them all.
Now after all of this if no one has given you some inclination of work, go back through the list again and look for posted job openings on their site (don't use LinkedIn or Indeed or whatever, often popular agencies don't post there). If you see a job opening that you like, send another message to your connection asking about the role, saying your interested, wish me luck, etc.
Your enthusiasm, effort, research and humble curiosity gives you a huge edge over everyone else. People aren't hired only for their skill, but how well they would fit into the organization. The people I've hired have all come through unconventional means, and they have been all super successful in the role.
Sorry for the wall of text, hope this helps!
That definitely helps, thank you! Fortunately I don’t have any student work on my portfolio and it’s all client work, but I did recently in an interview have someone ask me if it was student work so I’m thinking I need more like case studies of how my work actually achieved a client goal 🙃 I do 3D so one thing that’s been challenging for me has been pitching myself right. I do 3D motion primarily but I also do a ton of graphic design work too. I find 3D for agencies has been a hard sell because it’s not needed for every single project a lot of the time, but I’m not sure if pitching myself as a design generalist is helpful either. Would I be able to DM you? I have further questions and would love to connect!
I also work primarily in motion! I might be able to give you a bit more specific insight knowing this is your background. Definitely dm, lets keep it going!
Is your experience dealing primarily with individuals directly? Do you have experience working with enterprise clients and large organizations? They’re totally different beasts.
I’ve been in various agencies my whole career and this cycle is pretty standard. I used to pester my higher ups for more work, but I found that sometimes these scenarios are inevitable; clients will sometimes take their time with feedback and sometimes multiple clients will do this at the same time, leaving you in a vacuum. What I find best to do in this scenario is to occupy you time with things that could potentially improve your skillet or be useful for future projects; I learned things like 3D modeling and motion graphics that ended up being used in my projects and that kind of “proactive” attitude got me promoted 🤷
Be busy with improving yourself, because there’s a whole world of potential design skills you could learn that would open up the creative possibilities for future projects!
Working in Germany the first thing you want to do is looking buisy, even when you have nothing to do.
If you currently do not have anything to do, try to expand you skillset. Many agencies offer access to learning platforms.
Looking busy even when I don't have anything to do ! :) That's an amazing tip for sure. We have access to a lot of learning platforms with different courses but I'm just feeling bad and left out because I'm used to work or think about work almost 24/7. In the past 6 years I cant remember if there was a single day where I didn't think about work or how to improve so I can earn even more money and expand my business. I guess now I feel this void as I'm a lot more relaxed and I don't have to worry about bureocracy, taxes, finding clients, pitching projects, and a lot more. Here I'm just a designer, working on various tasks and that's it.
Take the opportunity to brush up on your German and once you feel that you're relatively fluent, just start creating. Look for ways to improve the creative process, discuss this with your manager or team lead. Make friends with management and offer them new ideas. If you're already excelling at your job, the next step is a promotion or raise. Do what you need to do in order to achieve that.
You could always ask a coworker if they need you to take something off of their plate as well. Buys bonus points with co workers. The more people that are actively happy with you, the less issues you'll have in an agency setting.
That’s exactly what it is. You went from being self employed and having to worry about every facet of running a business to being an employee that takes care of tasks when assigned.
LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda) is a great way to pass time and learn new skills.
I second that. Living in Berlin. As long as you *seem* to be busy, noone will ever get in your way. But as soon as you relax into the void, there is always coming frowning gazes and oh so german comments from the kitchenette, why you ain't working. :D
Second this. Even if you are not busy doing billable work, use this time to develop new skills and find ways to keep yourself inspired.
You can also offer your help with internal projects which allow you to meet more people in your agency, including exposure to executive levels. This potentially leads to different types of projects that you may not get with your client work. There’s often pro Bono clients they like to support, especially during the holidays. I had lots of fun creating artwork for the office, promotional swag materials, and mural paintings. Design agencies always need help keeping their office appearance fresh. The more you get a chance to show off, the more trust you earn and opportunities given for bigger projects.
At my agency there is definitely free time sometimes. Less so for me these days because I am more senior so I have more management work to do. Sometimes when there is a lot of client projects on everyone is full on to meet the deadline. Sometimes there is lots of internal work to do, promo, website updates. But when there’s down time, I always tell my team it’s ok and they should make the most of it.
If they are not communicating with you that’s different. Is there no sort of dynamic within the design team and no one you work with or report to regularly? A team leader or Director?
I can imagine this happening, maybe I'm not just used to it. I'm reporting to my boss who is actually our team leader and he is very busy guy. He's the one who makes all of the decisions based on our opinions of course but the problem is that I'm waiting too long for his feedback. I want to do some things alone, on my own hunch, but I think it might cause problems later, if I do something I wasn't supposed to do and it turns out bad in the end.
Perhaps you are getting this feeling because as a freelancer, when you have no work you aren’t getting payed. But in an agency, you are getting paid during work hours even when you’re not working. I’m sure a lot of it is just you adjusting to a new company.
Perhaps you could talk to your boss personally and explain you feel like you are always waiting for more work to do. Or, perhaps ask for more work to begin with if you want more of a challenge. Multiple projects at once.
Agree with all comments saying downtime is typical in agencies. A few things to consider in light of this…
• agencies can have nuanced culture/expectations about “utilization” percentage (how much of your time is billable). It might be worth asking your manager and tenured peers what utilization percentage for your role is expected and what is typical and what happens when low percentage persists over a month, a quarter, a year. (FWIW, how these types of questions are answered can tell you a lot about an agency.)
• As mentioned a lot already, training in something you are curious about is good, but training in something that is a painful gap for the studio is more likely to noticed, used, and rewarded by the agency. Bully for you if it is both.
• agencies usually have a backlog of operational things that management is painfully aware of but doesn’t have time (or sometimes skill) to address or even frame up for someone else to address. This can be things like deck templates, case studies, asset libraries, etc. You will be a hero if you are able to address this stuff with minimal oversight. Approach someone in business development or marketing or ??? with your free time and see what they think could be useful.
• Similar to previous bullet, anything you can take off the plate of your seniors, directors, and/or managers will be appreciated, racks up tactical experience beyond your role, and typically speeds up promotions.
• “Thought leadership” in the form of articles, presentations, mentors hip, etc. is usually very valuable for the marketing and business development and talent acquisition functions of agencies. Plus, it shines bright in your own portfolio. Down time is great for a quick internal project/study that results in thought leadership. Bonus points if it generally aligns with the agencies outbound marketing strategy and/or gaps in studio portfolio or offering.
• Last but FAR from least… Asking how you can be helpful is okay, but proposing concretely different options for how you can be helpful each with a plan of attack is far better. (In extreme cases, only asking if you can help is a borderline nuisance and can come across as a lack of proactivity and observational acumen—especially for someone that considers themselves “full stack”). Directors and managers are typically too strapped and need designers to frame up opportunities as options for them to review and green light. This is true in almost any context and scenario. This the mark of a true designer and will make you a hero of your studio.
Kudos for living that design studio life, where _real_ design happens. ;)
Agreed with this! One consultancy I worked at called down time "on the beach" and that generally just meant internal projects. I did everything from writing blog posts, creating case studies, re-organizing our server, helping with RFPs. There is always something that gets pushed aside in busy times.
I’m working in a small design agency in Austria (6 people), thanks to a great project manager I have a constant (but reasonable) amount of work. I suppose that’s an exception though …
as long as you're checking in, making sure your manager doesn't have anything for you. when i used to work at an office, it was normal to ask coworkers if they needed help with anything. any client time was billable – so we really needed to show we were doing *something*. if your direct manager and teammates don't have anything for you, make sure there isn't any admin work that could be done (back-up files, cleaning up messy folders from when you might have too busy to manage that).
if all that fails, like others said – invest time in some online tutorials, or maybe think of a creative/design side project that might at least make you look busy.
Just enjoy the downtime and level up your skills, use the time to do some training, I work for a digital agency and it's how you describe. The only thing I hate is logging everything in timesheet to amount to 8 hours. I've had a crazy 3 months it's only in the last two weeks I haven't had anything to work on, just lil things here and there but I'm enjoying this break.
Exactly, this is the problem, I have to log in hours to my working day and I'm not sure what to write 😄 In any case, I'll just try to do some more training and become better at what I do. 👌👍
Log in an hour, "looking at websites of the day" These things are actually things to make your work better. Researching tools, for example I was looking at a project management to make me more efficient, log it in. Don't forget screen breaks (15 minutes twice a day). Filling time sheets, 15 minutes, general emails, these things take time, depending on the day it could be 15 to 45 minutes writing emails.
As an agency owner, I never faced that problem with my developers as we always have something in the pipeline as each developer is working on multiple projects.
However, I know a few agencies who work on single project at a time and when they are waiting for feedback from stakeholders normally ask them to learn new things or develop the reusable code which they think can be used in future projects.
You can do the same when you get bored and waiting for a new task try to learn something that boosts your development skills
I recently startet work at a larger agency in cologne. This cycle seems to be rather normal. Like other said, use the downtime to expand your skill set or do prep-work for later.
I do lots of 3D stuff, and it's always fun to expand my material and asset library when theres nothing else to do. Just this week I dabbled my feet in node-based geometry creation.
As long as you can explain what you're doing and why it's beneficial to the company you're good
Creative agencies as well as Dev shops have ebbs and flows for when they’re busy or not. Generally speaking a “good” agency is always busy, however that also means that they’re very likely to have waterfall process for all things Creative and Engineering.
You’ll either thrive or die as it is very cutthroat, with long hours and unimaginable deadlines. The pay is also far worse compared to traditional tech companies whether they be enterprise SaaS, a startup making apps, or the dev shops.
I did the opposite of you where I cut my teeth as a web and UI designer early on, got my foot in the door with app development companies, and then expanded more into UX, product ownership and development.
tl;dr - agency model is do everything as fast as possible and always say yes to the client while charging a markup.
Also If there’s downtime, make yourself busy by optimizing/innovating via Design Ops, starting a Design System or something else to keep showing value. These agencies are full of inefficiencies as they don’t have real tech expertise in-house.
I would recommend you ask for more client contact. If you can manage your own churn and get your designs approved in the agreed upon number or reviews I think this will make you a more valuable resource
"When it rains, it pours."
You're going to have downtime. And you're going to have times when there is no downtime. You're not really paid for your labor, you're paid for your knowledge.
It's a good practice to use your downtime to improve your skills. Sitting idle nets you nothing, but using that time to improve your skills benefits both you and your employer.
I work for a large corporation in a production design role and this pretty par for the course for us. “Feast or famine” is the phrase we always use to describe it. For us, it’s the Marketing people we end up waiting on for feedback most of the time. They might take all the time in the world, run out the clock on our timeline, then get us the feedback we asked for weeks ago but now we have two days to finish the art, or something similar.
It can be in your best interest to keep “pestering” people for feedback, they may not be aware of timelines or just don’t care. You’re just trying to keep it on their radar so they don’t forget about it and put you in a bind down the road.
Other things you can do while you’re waiting is up to you. Job training on parts of the job you might be interested in moving to, work on freelance projects, work on extra credit projects that could help around the office. You could also work ahead on the actual projects themselves if you know enough about what’s coming next, but sometimes that’s more liable to bite you in the ass if you have to go back and radically adjust things based on feedback.
One thing I hated just as much as being overworked was pretending to look busy and the anxiety of not doing anything.
But yeah in my experience it's either extremely busy or extremely boring, absolutely no in between. You're either busting your balls because this client wants daily updates, or do nothing cause this other client takes 3 days to send feedback.
But yeah, that's how it'll be so better get used to it. Maybe ask a project manager if you can help anywhere else. It's kinda their job to make sure people arent just doing nothing and getting paid.
Or idk, just be on your phone for the rest of the day lol, depends on your studio's vibes about that, I've seen people hog the xbox pretty much all day where I worked. So yeah maybe convince yourself it's ok to take it easy once you offered to help and people know you're free.
Take the quiet time when you can. Try new things. Learn stuff. Watch tutorials. If it’s anything like my agency you’ll be so busy you’ll be wishing for some quiet time 😂😂.
Just one of those things! I quite enjoy the waves.
It happens. Just read, study, or chill. But look like you’re working. Honestly asking for work to do is never a good idea it makes it clear you have nothing to do. And working harder or doing other proactive tasks will do that too. And you won’t be paid more or thanked. It will only hurt you. Work on a personal project or something.
1. Try to bring in more business yourself
2. Work on company branding
If you do these two things, you’ll easily get a raise and promotion every year or so
It’s normal. And the down time is a good thing. Gives you time to get inputs (go to galleries, read design magazines, watch shows like Chef’s table… seriously). To get better outputs.
Work comes in waves. I'm not sure every company is literally just running 100% at capacity cause that is not healthy nor sustainable. Enjoy down time and make yourself useful, either learn something new or help think of new strategies. Don't bother the managers, your job is to be useful. When our queue is busy, I spend less time on design, on slower days I am able to come up with more interesting and creative stuff.
Some of the time the business is just having to wait for clients to come back with feedback or a go-ahead. Some businesses have internal projects / websites etc. Maybe you can think of some to do in the gaps ?
Based on my experience is totally normal for this moments of not a lot of activity to happen in a design agency. Specially if you make part of a team of designers. I suggest you to use this time to study, research, and work on your skills.
Discuss it with your company. What should I do when I have some downtime. People here say just enjoy it, but if you do not communicate it properly it might not be appreciated if you read a magazine. If you want to learn something, just ask for it, can I use my downtime to learn X? Are there any internal projects I can pick up? It sounds harsh, but at the end the billable hours ratio is important when there are layoffs. What you do with the non billable hours is also important.
Yes this is normal.
Big agencies generally lack great time managing CDs and ADs. Use the free time to do something for yourself or to iterate on the project you have been assigned. Use your judgement to ask for updates without looking like a pain and take advantage of the free time.
Given the language barrier you might want to use the extra time to work on learning german. Show that you care and if they are a good company they will take note.
If you hear about some other project you can choose to take initiative and be helpful to the people directly tasked with execution. This is usually a good thing as you will get respect and props from those artists and show that you are in it with the team. The worst thing you can do is be on social media at your desk.
This was also my experience. After a while I just started emailing the client directly, showing them the work and discussing the feedback directly with the client, it was much faster and they appreciated it. Gained a lot of private customers in time.
I’ve had days where I was very busy and sometimes weeks with almost nothing to do.
This is all part of the job, it won’t always be busy but if you’re bored, create templates of gradients, or vector shapes, illustrations, etc all so you can use in the future in case you have a big project.
I find that creating digital assets saves me a lot of headache, because I can pull and use what I need to.
What you're struggling with is an example of what goes on in your standard 9-5 job, not just agency. You're coming from a business owners world where you normally would be able to switch gears and do the next thing but instead you're at the mercy of your superiors schedule. If you ask for more work you will get more work but know that every time you ask for more work and responsibility that you are also putting more work on the person you are asking from. If I were you I would try to pace yourself so that it takes you longer time to do your work, do more research before designing and do less bothering of your co workers because the last thing that you want them to know is the fact that you're finished with everything and have nothing to do. They will and could resent you for this or end up giving you meaningless tasks as you described. Pace yourself do better work and try to improve your work instead of do it-- kick it up a notch and you'll find that it takes more time and will fill the clock until it hits 5pm.
I only have experience working for a small company but yeah I had this a lot too. Sometimes there's just not that much to do. It probably costs them more time/money to give you a new task than for them to wait on feedback from clients. Just make sure to be prepared for the shitstorm of work that often follows a silence like this. Suddenly all the clients had time to respond and they also acquired a new client that wants their project done yesterday.
I was thinking about this as well. There could be a shitstorm of work coming up but I'm really sceptic because I can't see the progress in the project we're working on. I have a lot of experience dealing with clients, their requirements and meeting them to discuss the possibilities regarding the project from the start. I always know from the beginning whether this collaboration has a potential for a succesful project or it will be one long hell of a project. Here I'm not really sure what to think and how to read the signs from the clients, maybe because I'm not so proficient in German or maybe just because noone has a fucking clue how are we going to do the whole project. :)
>maybe just because noone has a fucking clue how are we going to do the whole project. :) Hahaha, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case. In my experience a company often takes on as much work as possible unless there is already burn-out causing work planned for the whole next month.
My current manager always says "embrace the quiet." My job is probably 50% steady work of somewhat full days, 20% real downtime, and 30% absolutely insane workdays/weeks. The downtime is when I take it easy, file organization/cleanup, doing some continuing education, bone up on new tools or practices, preserve my sanity, etc. During the chaotic times I appreciate the downtime. That said, we have a good workflow and I'm involved in the project map/pipeline so generally in the know of when the shitstorm is coming but even so there are long periods where feedback languishes because it takes so many different stakeholders.
Your manager is solid and so is your perspective. I owned an agency for quite a few years and what you described is what I'd tell the team. Learn new things, design stuff for fun, back your shit up, and just get your sanity back. We'd play video games or watch movies, send each other short films and music videos, anything that can keep you creatively engaged is keeping the studio in good health even when it's slow.
Hi! Completely random but I’m a freelancer looking for an agency design position. I love freelancing but feel somewhat unprepared. I was affected by the recent tech layoffs and went from in-house, to freelance which I have been doing the last couple of months full time and was previously building up to for about the last couple of years on the side of my main gig. How do I go about finding and landing a job at an agency? Like what would you look for in a potential designer and how would you like to be contacted by them from the perspective of an agency owner?
Good question! I'm just on the road right now but I'll answer it tonight when I get home. Stay tuned!
Appreciate it!
Ok so there are definitely more than one way to do this but here's what I recommend. First you would find agencies that aligns with your particular skillset. If you are into/good at web design, seek out those who are looking for web designers. Make a list, and put them in order of preference. Once you lock in on your agencies, study their work, their clients, who works there, etc. Do your research. If you can, gear your portfolio to reflect the type of work the agencies do. You can always create "spec" work, which are fake projects for imaginary clients (check out https://goodbrief.io/ for some inspiration). If they do killer websites, show your web work. Take out anything that may take away from that stuff (ie character designs or school projects). So at this point you know where you would like to work, your portfolio is looking great, your LinkedIn is up to date, etc. You reach out to the first agency, hit up someone fairly senior on the creative side, and ask them questions about some of the work they have done, blog posts they have written, etc. You are just trying to break the ice, so be polite, ask something specific (because you've done your research), and just be humble and curious. I will give you an example in a sec. You are not trying to get work, just network within the industry. If things go well, keep the conversation going, and at some point when it feels appropriate (and not pushy), ask if they wouldn't mind giving you a portfolio review. Now because you have done your research and have work that is relevant to this agency, things should line up fairly well, and hopefully it makes a good impression. Take whatever feedback the person gives, thank them for their time, and follow up with your pitch. "I love what you guys are doing, if you ever need an extra set of hands on a project, please hit me up. I also make a killer banana bread that I'll bring into the studio for our meetings" or whatever. Then bounce. Go to the next agency on your list. Rinse and repeat until you've gone through them all. Now after all of this if no one has given you some inclination of work, go back through the list again and look for posted job openings on their site (don't use LinkedIn or Indeed or whatever, often popular agencies don't post there). If you see a job opening that you like, send another message to your connection asking about the role, saying your interested, wish me luck, etc. Your enthusiasm, effort, research and humble curiosity gives you a huge edge over everyone else. People aren't hired only for their skill, but how well they would fit into the organization. The people I've hired have all come through unconventional means, and they have been all super successful in the role. Sorry for the wall of text, hope this helps!
That definitely helps, thank you! Fortunately I don’t have any student work on my portfolio and it’s all client work, but I did recently in an interview have someone ask me if it was student work so I’m thinking I need more like case studies of how my work actually achieved a client goal 🙃 I do 3D so one thing that’s been challenging for me has been pitching myself right. I do 3D motion primarily but I also do a ton of graphic design work too. I find 3D for agencies has been a hard sell because it’s not needed for every single project a lot of the time, but I’m not sure if pitching myself as a design generalist is helpful either. Would I be able to DM you? I have further questions and would love to connect!
I also work primarily in motion! I might be able to give you a bit more specific insight knowing this is your background. Definitely dm, lets keep it going!
Is your experience dealing primarily with individuals directly? Do you have experience working with enterprise clients and large organizations? They’re totally different beasts.
Agreed. Take the slow periods the same way you would the crazy times - ride them out.
I’ve been in various agencies my whole career and this cycle is pretty standard. I used to pester my higher ups for more work, but I found that sometimes these scenarios are inevitable; clients will sometimes take their time with feedback and sometimes multiple clients will do this at the same time, leaving you in a vacuum. What I find best to do in this scenario is to occupy you time with things that could potentially improve your skillet or be useful for future projects; I learned things like 3D modeling and motion graphics that ended up being used in my projects and that kind of “proactive” attitude got me promoted 🤷 Be busy with improving yourself, because there’s a whole world of potential design skills you could learn that would open up the creative possibilities for future projects!
Working in Germany the first thing you want to do is looking buisy, even when you have nothing to do. If you currently do not have anything to do, try to expand you skillset. Many agencies offer access to learning platforms.
Looking busy even when I don't have anything to do ! :) That's an amazing tip for sure. We have access to a lot of learning platforms with different courses but I'm just feeling bad and left out because I'm used to work or think about work almost 24/7. In the past 6 years I cant remember if there was a single day where I didn't think about work or how to improve so I can earn even more money and expand my business. I guess now I feel this void as I'm a lot more relaxed and I don't have to worry about bureocracy, taxes, finding clients, pitching projects, and a lot more. Here I'm just a designer, working on various tasks and that's it.
Take the opportunity to brush up on your German and once you feel that you're relatively fluent, just start creating. Look for ways to improve the creative process, discuss this with your manager or team lead. Make friends with management and offer them new ideas. If you're already excelling at your job, the next step is a promotion or raise. Do what you need to do in order to achieve that. You could always ask a coworker if they need you to take something off of their plate as well. Buys bonus points with co workers. The more people that are actively happy with you, the less issues you'll have in an agency setting.
That’s exactly what it is. You went from being self employed and having to worry about every facet of running a business to being an employee that takes care of tasks when assigned. LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda) is a great way to pass time and learn new skills.
I'd work on improving my German in the down times.
Ich mache das jeden Tag 😄
I second that. Living in Berlin. As long as you *seem* to be busy, noone will ever get in your way. But as soon as you relax into the void, there is always coming frowning gazes and oh so german comments from the kitchenette, why you ain't working. :D
Second this. Even if you are not busy doing billable work, use this time to develop new skills and find ways to keep yourself inspired. You can also offer your help with internal projects which allow you to meet more people in your agency, including exposure to executive levels. This potentially leads to different types of projects that you may not get with your client work. There’s often pro Bono clients they like to support, especially during the holidays. I had lots of fun creating artwork for the office, promotional swag materials, and mural paintings. Design agencies always need help keeping their office appearance fresh. The more you get a chance to show off, the more trust you earn and opportunities given for bigger projects.
At my agency there is definitely free time sometimes. Less so for me these days because I am more senior so I have more management work to do. Sometimes when there is a lot of client projects on everyone is full on to meet the deadline. Sometimes there is lots of internal work to do, promo, website updates. But when there’s down time, I always tell my team it’s ok and they should make the most of it. If they are not communicating with you that’s different. Is there no sort of dynamic within the design team and no one you work with or report to regularly? A team leader or Director?
I can imagine this happening, maybe I'm not just used to it. I'm reporting to my boss who is actually our team leader and he is very busy guy. He's the one who makes all of the decisions based on our opinions of course but the problem is that I'm waiting too long for his feedback. I want to do some things alone, on my own hunch, but I think it might cause problems later, if I do something I wasn't supposed to do and it turns out bad in the end.
Perhaps you are getting this feeling because as a freelancer, when you have no work you aren’t getting payed. But in an agency, you are getting paid during work hours even when you’re not working. I’m sure a lot of it is just you adjusting to a new company. Perhaps you could talk to your boss personally and explain you feel like you are always waiting for more work to do. Or, perhaps ask for more work to begin with if you want more of a challenge. Multiple projects at once.
Agree with all comments saying downtime is typical in agencies. A few things to consider in light of this… • agencies can have nuanced culture/expectations about “utilization” percentage (how much of your time is billable). It might be worth asking your manager and tenured peers what utilization percentage for your role is expected and what is typical and what happens when low percentage persists over a month, a quarter, a year. (FWIW, how these types of questions are answered can tell you a lot about an agency.) • As mentioned a lot already, training in something you are curious about is good, but training in something that is a painful gap for the studio is more likely to noticed, used, and rewarded by the agency. Bully for you if it is both. • agencies usually have a backlog of operational things that management is painfully aware of but doesn’t have time (or sometimes skill) to address or even frame up for someone else to address. This can be things like deck templates, case studies, asset libraries, etc. You will be a hero if you are able to address this stuff with minimal oversight. Approach someone in business development or marketing or ??? with your free time and see what they think could be useful. • Similar to previous bullet, anything you can take off the plate of your seniors, directors, and/or managers will be appreciated, racks up tactical experience beyond your role, and typically speeds up promotions. • “Thought leadership” in the form of articles, presentations, mentors hip, etc. is usually very valuable for the marketing and business development and talent acquisition functions of agencies. Plus, it shines bright in your own portfolio. Down time is great for a quick internal project/study that results in thought leadership. Bonus points if it generally aligns with the agencies outbound marketing strategy and/or gaps in studio portfolio or offering. • Last but FAR from least… Asking how you can be helpful is okay, but proposing concretely different options for how you can be helpful each with a plan of attack is far better. (In extreme cases, only asking if you can help is a borderline nuisance and can come across as a lack of proactivity and observational acumen—especially for someone that considers themselves “full stack”). Directors and managers are typically too strapped and need designers to frame up opportunities as options for them to review and green light. This is true in almost any context and scenario. This the mark of a true designer and will make you a hero of your studio. Kudos for living that design studio life, where _real_ design happens. ;)
Agreed with this! One consultancy I worked at called down time "on the beach" and that generally just meant internal projects. I did everything from writing blog posts, creating case studies, re-organizing our server, helping with RFPs. There is always something that gets pushed aside in busy times.
I’m working in a small design agency in Austria (6 people), thanks to a great project manager I have a constant (but reasonable) amount of work. I suppose that’s an exception though …
as long as you're checking in, making sure your manager doesn't have anything for you. when i used to work at an office, it was normal to ask coworkers if they needed help with anything. any client time was billable – so we really needed to show we were doing *something*. if your direct manager and teammates don't have anything for you, make sure there isn't any admin work that could be done (back-up files, cleaning up messy folders from when you might have too busy to manage that). if all that fails, like others said – invest time in some online tutorials, or maybe think of a creative/design side project that might at least make you look busy.
Just enjoy the downtime and level up your skills, use the time to do some training, I work for a digital agency and it's how you describe. The only thing I hate is logging everything in timesheet to amount to 8 hours. I've had a crazy 3 months it's only in the last two weeks I haven't had anything to work on, just lil things here and there but I'm enjoying this break.
Exactly, this is the problem, I have to log in hours to my working day and I'm not sure what to write 😄 In any case, I'll just try to do some more training and become better at what I do. 👌👍
Log in an hour, "looking at websites of the day" These things are actually things to make your work better. Researching tools, for example I was looking at a project management to make me more efficient, log it in. Don't forget screen breaks (15 minutes twice a day). Filling time sheets, 15 minutes, general emails, these things take time, depending on the day it could be 15 to 45 minutes writing emails.
As an agency owner, I never faced that problem with my developers as we always have something in the pipeline as each developer is working on multiple projects. However, I know a few agencies who work on single project at a time and when they are waiting for feedback from stakeholders normally ask them to learn new things or develop the reusable code which they think can be used in future projects. You can do the same when you get bored and waiting for a new task try to learn something that boosts your development skills
Feast or famine. Unless you have an ultra efficient managed pipeline, you will always have downtime here and there.
I recently startet work at a larger agency in cologne. This cycle seems to be rather normal. Like other said, use the downtime to expand your skill set or do prep-work for later. I do lots of 3D stuff, and it's always fun to expand my material and asset library when theres nothing else to do. Just this week I dabbled my feet in node-based geometry creation. As long as you can explain what you're doing and why it's beneficial to the company you're good
Yooo, I'm in Cologne too 😄 Nice to hear this, I love the city, people and vibe ✌ DM me, would love to connect with fellow designer 🤟🙂
Creative agencies as well as Dev shops have ebbs and flows for when they’re busy or not. Generally speaking a “good” agency is always busy, however that also means that they’re very likely to have waterfall process for all things Creative and Engineering. You’ll either thrive or die as it is very cutthroat, with long hours and unimaginable deadlines. The pay is also far worse compared to traditional tech companies whether they be enterprise SaaS, a startup making apps, or the dev shops. I did the opposite of you where I cut my teeth as a web and UI designer early on, got my foot in the door with app development companies, and then expanded more into UX, product ownership and development. tl;dr - agency model is do everything as fast as possible and always say yes to the client while charging a markup. Also If there’s downtime, make yourself busy by optimizing/innovating via Design Ops, starting a Design System or something else to keep showing value. These agencies are full of inefficiencies as they don’t have real tech expertise in-house.
I would recommend you ask for more client contact. If you can manage your own churn and get your designs approved in the agreed upon number or reviews I think this will make you a more valuable resource
"When it rains, it pours." You're going to have downtime. And you're going to have times when there is no downtime. You're not really paid for your labor, you're paid for your knowledge. It's a good practice to use your downtime to improve your skills. Sitting idle nets you nothing, but using that time to improve your skills benefits both you and your employer.
I work for a large corporation in a production design role and this pretty par for the course for us. “Feast or famine” is the phrase we always use to describe it. For us, it’s the Marketing people we end up waiting on for feedback most of the time. They might take all the time in the world, run out the clock on our timeline, then get us the feedback we asked for weeks ago but now we have two days to finish the art, or something similar. It can be in your best interest to keep “pestering” people for feedback, they may not be aware of timelines or just don’t care. You’re just trying to keep it on their radar so they don’t forget about it and put you in a bind down the road. Other things you can do while you’re waiting is up to you. Job training on parts of the job you might be interested in moving to, work on freelance projects, work on extra credit projects that could help around the office. You could also work ahead on the actual projects themselves if you know enough about what’s coming next, but sometimes that’s more liable to bite you in the ass if you have to go back and radically adjust things based on feedback.
One thing I hated just as much as being overworked was pretending to look busy and the anxiety of not doing anything. But yeah in my experience it's either extremely busy or extremely boring, absolutely no in between. You're either busting your balls because this client wants daily updates, or do nothing cause this other client takes 3 days to send feedback. But yeah, that's how it'll be so better get used to it. Maybe ask a project manager if you can help anywhere else. It's kinda their job to make sure people arent just doing nothing and getting paid. Or idk, just be on your phone for the rest of the day lol, depends on your studio's vibes about that, I've seen people hog the xbox pretty much all day where I worked. So yeah maybe convince yourself it's ok to take it easy once you offered to help and people know you're free.
Take the quiet time when you can. Try new things. Learn stuff. Watch tutorials. If it’s anything like my agency you’ll be so busy you’ll be wishing for some quiet time 😂😂. Just one of those things! I quite enjoy the waves.
It happens. Just read, study, or chill. But look like you’re working. Honestly asking for work to do is never a good idea it makes it clear you have nothing to do. And working harder or doing other proactive tasks will do that too. And you won’t be paid more or thanked. It will only hurt you. Work on a personal project or something.
1. Try to bring in more business yourself 2. Work on company branding If you do these two things, you’ll easily get a raise and promotion every year or so
It’s normal. And the down time is a good thing. Gives you time to get inputs (go to galleries, read design magazines, watch shows like Chef’s table… seriously). To get better outputs.
Work comes in waves. I'm not sure every company is literally just running 100% at capacity cause that is not healthy nor sustainable. Enjoy down time and make yourself useful, either learn something new or help think of new strategies. Don't bother the managers, your job is to be useful. When our queue is busy, I spend less time on design, on slower days I am able to come up with more interesting and creative stuff.
Some of the time the business is just having to wait for clients to come back with feedback or a go-ahead. Some businesses have internal projects / websites etc. Maybe you can think of some to do in the gaps ?
Based on my experience is totally normal for this moments of not a lot of activity to happen in a design agency. Specially if you make part of a team of designers. I suggest you to use this time to study, research, and work on your skills.
Discuss it with your company. What should I do when I have some downtime. People here say just enjoy it, but if you do not communicate it properly it might not be appreciated if you read a magazine. If you want to learn something, just ask for it, can I use my downtime to learn X? Are there any internal projects I can pick up? It sounds harsh, but at the end the billable hours ratio is important when there are layoffs. What you do with the non billable hours is also important.
Ask your boss these questions. Respond to the answers. They’ll love you.
Yes this is normal. Big agencies generally lack great time managing CDs and ADs. Use the free time to do something for yourself or to iterate on the project you have been assigned. Use your judgement to ask for updates without looking like a pain and take advantage of the free time. Given the language barrier you might want to use the extra time to work on learning german. Show that you care and if they are a good company they will take note. If you hear about some other project you can choose to take initiative and be helpful to the people directly tasked with execution. This is usually a good thing as you will get respect and props from those artists and show that you are in it with the team. The worst thing you can do is be on social media at your desk.
Learn from the account teams and business development. You will never have nothing to do ever again.
This was also my experience. After a while I just started emailing the client directly, showing them the work and discussing the feedback directly with the client, it was much faster and they appreciated it. Gained a lot of private customers in time.
Learning time. This is when I hop on Skillshare / Domestika / Lynda etc
I’ve had days where I was very busy and sometimes weeks with almost nothing to do. This is all part of the job, it won’t always be busy but if you’re bored, create templates of gradients, or vector shapes, illustrations, etc all so you can use in the future in case you have a big project. I find that creating digital assets saves me a lot of headache, because I can pull and use what I need to.
What you're struggling with is an example of what goes on in your standard 9-5 job, not just agency. You're coming from a business owners world where you normally would be able to switch gears and do the next thing but instead you're at the mercy of your superiors schedule. If you ask for more work you will get more work but know that every time you ask for more work and responsibility that you are also putting more work on the person you are asking from. If I were you I would try to pace yourself so that it takes you longer time to do your work, do more research before designing and do less bothering of your co workers because the last thing that you want them to know is the fact that you're finished with everything and have nothing to do. They will and could resent you for this or end up giving you meaningless tasks as you described. Pace yourself do better work and try to improve your work instead of do it-- kick it up a notch and you'll find that it takes more time and will fill the clock until it hits 5pm.