Michael Ulrich (bio)

EVERYBODY WANTS MY JOB
I once gave a presentation on magazine art direction and design. My first bullet point was that everyone wants to be the art director. When I asked how many people in the audience were editors—more than half the room raised their hands. They laughed, and I proved my point.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
First off, I combat this penchant by telling my editors if they were going to art direct me, I’m going to edit them. Now once or twice a year I write a headline—and once or twice a day they art direct me. Problem solved.

Second I never let ANYBODY get away with “I just don’t like it”. I tell the less experienced “I just don’t like it isn’t a reason because I DO like it and I’m the art director so when it comes to like/don’t like my opinion ALWAYS wins.” With peers and supervisors I’m far more diplomatic—I pepper them with questions to get them to articulate their concerns, it’s real hard to fix “I just don’t like it”. [In all fairness to the group I currently work with this never happens, and that’s because they ALWAYS articulate EXACTLY what they don’t like EVERY SINGLE TIME.]

I also rarely let anyone “art direct” over my shoulder. “Move the headline up, a little more, a little more, yes. Now make it plum, a little more plum, no that’s too plum, just forget plum and make it the color of the vein bulging out of your neck. Yes…that’s perfect!”

LIVE AND LEARN
An editor once told me I needed to pick my battles. I was fighting every design battle to the death. It was impossible for anyone to take me seriously. When designers are young we tend to be thin-skinned and a bit myopic. As we get older our work gets better, we become more discerning and we grow a hide. So now when some one wants me to change a color to a “little more plum” I do it. I do it because most of the time it’s not THAT important, plus if you let other people fuss over the small stuff it can have the added benefit of moving you above the fray—“act presidential” as they say.

The other thing to remember is that these projects are rarely ours and ours alone. Other people have a stake in them too, so their opinions do matter. If you have to, smile and ask if you can get back to them, give your blood pressure time to drop. Make sure you’re there mentally and emotionally because you need to listen, understand, ask questions and sometimes “read between the lines”—in the end there’s a good chance they’re right. I find it makes for a better piece, besides I’d rather build the house, and let someone else pick out the curtains.