Dear Ueno: What’s the difference between a designer, a senior designer, a design lead and a creative director?
Dear Ueno is an advice column for people who for some weird reason think we know what we’re doing. Read more about all this, or check out our old advice.
Fabio Santos in London asks via Twitter:
Which metrics do you use at Ueno to distinguish a lead designer from a senior designer?
David Navarro, Executive Creative Director at Ueno NY, answers:
Hey Fabio,
Before I answer your question about how we define roles at Ueno, I’d like to put things in context and tell you a little bit about what I personally think about this titles thing.
Bear with me.
I have mixed feelings about labeling designers. On one hand, a clear framework is necessary for people to grow and see a clear path to progress in their careers. (I’ll get to that in a bit.) On the other hand, titles can constrain people.
Titles can make you focus on the wrong things, or create an egotistical halo of achievement that distracts you from what’s important. Also, people who have very high opinions of themselves sometimes give themselves titles that don’t reflect what they are.
I know what I’m talking about, because I’ve been there.
Let’s travel back in time to Valencia in the summer of 1998. I had just finished college, and I was wondering what to do next. I really should have started looking for a job or an internship. But instead I joined forces with two college friends and we started a digital design studio. And why not? In those days the internet was a wild place, and it seemed like anybody could do anything.
My background in design was limited, to say the least. A couple of bad Photoshop courses I had taken during the last two years at college where I learned how to use filters and create drop shadows by duplicating layers. (Yeah, we had to do that manually back then.) But we were starting a business, so I couldn’t go to a client and say “Hello, I’m a junior designer, give me your money.”, and I labeled myself a “Creative Director / Art Director.” (Why have only one title when you can have two?)
You can imagine the confidence boost. I was a creative director! A serious professional!
But in reality I had no idea what I was doing. I had no understanding of what those titles meant, or how to grow in my career. Everything I learned about being a designer, I had to learn by making mistakes, hitting my head against the wall in constant repeat mode. With no role models, no mentors, no guidance — nothing.
And I’ve got the scars to prove it.
I didn’t think about it much at the time, but after all these years I see it much more clearly. A framework to help me see my career in context and what was expected of me at each stage of my professional journey would have saved me a lot of unnecessary pain and confusion.
But enough about me.
What’s the career pathway for our team at Ueno?
Ueno used to be small. In a small team you don’t really care much about titles. Everybody has to wear multiple hats. You need to be a producer, a designer, a strategist, and all the other roles you can imagine.
But we’re no longer small. In fact, we’re growing very, very fast. In the last five years, I think we’ve doubled in size every year. When your team gets bigger, everything gets more complicated. Roles get blurry and overlap constantly. You need to add structure, and define who’s responsible for what.
To help everyone on our growing team understand what their titles mean and what is expected of them we decided to put together a career pathway framework. Not just for designers, but for everyone — development, production, strategy, partnerships, People Experience, and finance.
When you’re creating a pathway framework, it’s tempting to over-engineer and end up with something monstrous, like some places I’ve seen: Intern → Junior Designer → Designer → Sr. Designer → Art Director → Sr. Art Director → Associate Creative Director → Creative Director → Group Creative Director → Executive Creative Director → Group Executive Creative Director → Chief Creative Officer…
Argh. Just typing it is exhausting.
We decided to keep it very lean and clear, and have only four levels that work for every vertical: Entry Level, Senior, Lead, and Director.
In the case of design, since that’s what you asked about (life rewards those who have patience, Fabio) our levels are Designer, Senior Designer, Design Lead and Creative Director.
With each title comes a clear description of what is expected in terms of ownership and creative output, framed under three clear themes that all happen to start with the letter P. (Surely a coincidence.)
1. Projects
Under this falls everything related to project dynamics: How you approach project strategically and the quality of your ideas (what we call Creative Confidence). How you handle the unexpected challenges you face along the way (Adaptability). How you handle the final craft and execution (Details).
2. People
This business is people business, so we expect you to cultivate your ability to do that. How you communicate with others — clients, peers, and people in general (Communication). How you work with others and make it easy for them to work with you (Collaboration). And in some cases how you help others grow and progress in their careers (Mentorship and Management).
3. Profit
It’s not our main motivator, but yes, we’re here to make money. If we don’t make money we can’t afford to pay salaries or do any of the cool stuff we like to do. Everyone here should feel invested in playing an active role in the business, and that role grows as you progress in your career. This means how you help define project structures with the production team so you get a clear understanding of that part (Budgets & Timelines). How you grow the relationship with our clients so in addition to loving what we do for them, they’ll love being in business with us (Client Engagement). And finally, how you help our Partnerships team bring in new exciting projects, and help with case studies or being present during new business processes (Partnerships).
This, in a nutshell, is how we defined our framework.
So with this context in mind it’s time to answer your question, Fabio. You still there, right?
The four design roles at Ueno
One of the things I love about Ueno is how talented our people are. From designers who join us for an internship to the man who started this gang and everyone in between. So if you end up being a nueno, besides amazing design skills and infinite charm, here’s an overview of what we will expect from you.
You’re a designer at Ueno
This is our entry level in the design vertical. Depending on your experience you might join as anything from a design intern to a mid-level designer. Yes, it’s broad. There’s a lot of room to grow here, but as I said, I’m sure you’re great already when you join Ueno. And we’re here to help you in that career journey into awesomeness.
As a designer at Ueno, we expect you to come up with and execute good ideas. We expect you to be an excellent team player, willing to learn and absorb everything. We expect you to explore and start mastering a strong point of view in design. We expect you to be able to explain your designs to other people on your team and to the client. (Yeah, your team will protect you but we will expect you to quickly feel very comfortable being exposed to real life. Real life exposure will bring you to the next level.) We expect you to keep improving your design skills, but also to master other things, like presenting to clients, understanding strategy and the business side of things, and more.
We expect you to be humble. Being humble is your main skill, something you should carry with you forever. We expect you to not take feedback personally. It’s not about you. It’s about but the problem you’re solving. We expect you to be good at communication and collaboration. Both of those are core parts of your job.
Finally, we expect you to be exposed to that scary thing, the business part of design. Don’t be scared — we have great people at Ueno who take care of this. But we do expect you be aware of the constraints of a project, the role of producers, client dynamics and their business needs. It will give you the power to grow, not only as a great individual contributor who will make thoughtful yet beautiful work, but also as a strategic mind ready to face more serious challenges as you progress in your career.
You’re a senior designer
As a senior designer, we expect you to not only be great at execution but also show great creative confidence. We expect you to articulate your point of view on designs with perfection. We expect you to be a trusted partner for Design Leads and Creative Directors, knowing you will always be effective and hopefully always surprising.
We expect you to adapt to every situation and challenge. We expect you to get very comfortable with discomfort, because that is the nature our of projects.
We expect you to never be the silent person in the room. We expect you to bring your presence, to develop as a creative leader who’s starting to master great communication skills — skills that you’ll use with clients and with others, building off others’ ideas. We expect you to leave your ego in the door and collaborate with others (designers, strategists, copywriters, producers, devs, and so on) to make projects amazing.
We expect you to inspire respect in others. We expect you to be someone our younger people will look up to and learn from. We expect you to be generous, share and motivate them. We expect you to be a role model and help others grow.
We expect you to know that we are in business, and keeping our business in good shape is important. So we expect you to be comfortable with being the business side of things, from budgets to timelines, and helping Partnerships to bring more cool stuff to your plate.
But above all, as a senior designer who got that title because those things were already happening, we expect you to do one thing from day one: look to the next level.
You’re a design lead
This is a big milestone. Being Design Lead at Ueno is no easy task. We will be asking a lot from you. You probably demonstrated your skills and seniority with amazing work and incipient leadership, so welcome to the next level.
We expect you to be very comfortable leading projects as the most senior person on the team from start to finish. We expect you to be fully capable of stepping in for your creative director when they’re not in the room. We expect you to be a clear delegator, feeling proud when your team delivers great work, but also being able to join the action, hands on, showing amazing crafting skills. We expect you to start becoming a coach more than a player, but still have the responsibility of being very close to the work.
We expect you to lead by example. Great ideas, great output and an understanding of the strategy, creative and business processes that will be a constant when it gets to the next level: Creative Director.
We expect you to be able to zoom out and back in again, being very focused when it comes to ideas and execution, but also when looking at the big picture from a strategic level.
We expect you to have a very strong point of view, but also open to other people’s ideas. Yes, you made it to this level, but you’re not an asshole about it. We expect you to leave your ego at the door. It’s not only about you anymore. You’re leading now, and a good collaborative attitude is everything.
In meetings, with your team and clients, we expect you to be inspiring, solid, clear and precise. In this role you are aspiring to become a creative director, so you better act like one.
As a creative leader, we expect your team to look to you for leadership and inspiration. You need to lead by example and make them feel safe. There are no bad designers, only bad leaders.
As a design lead, you’ll be invited to quite a few new business discussions. There we expect you to apply your vision of what a project could be, working with creative directors and producers to define timelines and budgets. During a project we expect you to have a full perspective, remain accountable, connected with your team and with the client, who both have to feel as comfortable with you as they might be with the creative director.
You’re a creative director
And you got to the last level at Ueno. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing left to do. Don’t be naive, please. You will probably need to make a bigger effort.
Creative directors are still designers who like to get their hands dirty, but this is a level where we will probably expect you to be more brains-on than hands-on.
We expect you to lead by example. Yes, you are probably are more a coach than a player, but if you need to jump into the pitch, we expect you to play beautifully and be an excellent team player, always willing to collaborate and keep learning from others.
We expect you to own projects of any size, from initial strategy all the way to the end. And sometimes will be a few at the same time. We expect you to be ready to bring your strong point of view and humbly infect others with your passion. We expect you not only to leave your ego at the door, but to be sure you make others embrace it with your great attitude.
This might sound obvious, but as a creative director we expect you to be an excellent communicator, able to provide clear and actionable feedback and decode any feedback clients may give. But we also expect you to do it in a way that doesn’t sound prescriptive. You’re here to make your team better, not to micromanage. We expect you to be comfortable with letting your team take the credit. They will probably be more skilled and better than you at a lot of things — your job is to make them even better.
We expect business to be your second language. When you zoom out you will see the big picture and will understand all aspects of a project. The production and partnerships teams will be your best friends and together you’ll help defining and winning new business opportunities for your team to shine.
We expect everybody to look to you. That includes the client. Ueno is about relationships, and we expect you to be the trusted partner our clients need. That doesn’t mean you have to say yes to everything they ask for. In fact we expect you to tell our clients no when they need to hear it. But we expect you to build the relationship with them so that you can gently push back when needed or even anticipate their needs before they think about it. Adaptability is something you need to master, my friend.
And like in any of these four roles at Ueno, we expect you to have serious fun. Because as we like to say “life is short, enjoy it”.
I hope, Fabio, this more than answers your question.
But I want to leave you with this final thought:
Forget about frameworks, titles and the idea of climbing up the ladder. None of it matters. Yes, they’re important, but a title doesn’t give you any superpowers. Everything is about attitude — the no-ego, no-asshole attitude: hungry, collaborative, empathetic, humble and above all passionate.That’s what I look at first. Titles and all that shit comes later.
I’ve seen junior designers have the attitude of experienced creative directors. The title is not what lives on your LinkedIn or your email signature it’s what you bring to work everyday.
Your pal,
— David
David Navarro is Executive Creative Director (yeah, titles!) at Ueno NYC, and a full-time Supervillain.
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