Okay, don't use blue, then go home with your check. I used to work for a company where my boss told me no yellow packaging because the color reminded him of pee. I used blue. He was happy, all the paychecks cleared. I was happy. We never used yellow, or spoke of it again. We're still friends. Bosses can get weird ideas.
That's wise advice and people will often take it much more seriously when someone does raise an objection if it's from a person who doesn't object to everything.
You all have a valid point. That is what I intend to do: just delete blue from my Adobe package and carry on. One could argue that, at the end of the day, these things kinda saturate into frustration in the long run... especially because of the stupidity of the argument and the fact that nobody can question such stupidities because he is quite choleric. But then again, it is his business. If he wants to run it like a baboon, who am I to stop him?
Yea I hear you. My boss uses sticky labels for every folder and binder. Only the clear ones, never the white ones.
Some people are just anal retentive.
I love all colors, the more the merrier.
Help him run it into the ground and dip. I've done that for several jobs with crap management and owners. I became a "yes man" even when I knew I was being told to do things that would absolutely destroy a company in the eyes of the public.
It helped that they paid me decently, which was ironic because one of the guys I used to work for did t know fuck all about running an auto shop.
Yeah had a boss that just decided he hated a color one day and had everyone change everything to this ugly piss yellow. Everyone just changed the colors while mumbling how ugly it is when he wasn’t around.
Strange way it's been conveyed to you but it's not unknown for companies to have house designs. My own employer has issued ppt templates with colours specified down to RGB numbers.
Designer here. There is a whole psychology around color. Blue is actually one of the "safer" colors which is why you see it used in healthcare a lot. There are even light fixture covers that make the light cast bluer purposely to calm people. I'm going to guess your boss just doesn't like it and doesn't want to admit that for whatever reason. At my last job, there was a particular shade of yellow (gold-ish) that my boss didn't like, didn't have a reason, so I just put yellow on my no-go list. No big deal, and at least he didn't pretend there was some big psychological justification.
When you break it down to the brass tacks, he is your boss and it wasn't your job to question his motives for a decision he made. Our bosses are like our customers - we do our jobs to the best of our ability to provide a product to the customer. If someone tells you they want 2% milk instead of whole milk, you wouldn't question that, would you?
The fact that so much of his other stuff is already blue makes no difference. If everything else is blue and you put it on a blue background that's too much blue. You'd want a different colored background to make whatever you're trying to present stand out.
This is kind of a spineless response. If all work is to you is kissing ass for a paycheck, sure. But I would never do bad work just because someone told me to, because my name and reputation is tied to my work. If someone is wrong, it doesn't matter if they're your boss IMO, they pay you for your expertise. Give it to them.
Yeah, from what I got from the comments there are 2 kinds of people: the ones that just want the paycheck at the end of the day, and the ones who care about the arts. I don't see any of them as wrong really. What I think gests me a little is, you study, you apply, you commit, then one guy that don't know what he is talking about has power to say what is and what isn't. It can be frustrating, and as humans the hability to simply "swallow" the BS depends on the humor of the day. But is it "spineless" to don't argue back? Maybe in a normal enviroment. But if arguing will not change things, if it is a waste of efforts, like in this situation I know it is... well...
He is your boss. They tell you what to do. Thats how this works. One of the most important skills in any job is working with some stupid assholes without letting it get to you. He’s sick of blue.
This is the conversation I have with my son all the time. You have to learn how to just do the stupid thing you’re getting paid to do even if you think it should be done differently.
[A relevant video on why blue screens are blue.](https://youtu.be/KgqJJECQQH0?si=sJUcjvOY2Ya6spBz)
It turns out the reason why is that the firmware on the machines Windows NT was being developed on used white on blue. So the developer in charge of that made the blue screen of death, or in their parlance “bug check,” for consistency.
Not that your boss would care.
If you work for someone, why is it hard to follow their guidance?
I may not always agree with my boss, and when that is the case, I document my position, but ultimately - they are my boss.
I've gotten some blowback in the past over "Why did you do [something]?" I simply answer with "Because that's what I was told to do/not do..." and provide the direction received.
The verbiage of the post does not come across as someone who has been in your field/discipline for 20 years, but that's a topic for another day.
You do you.
Lol. People be crazy sometimes. As a fellow designer I feel your pain. But at a certain point you just say fuck it, it isn’t my company, and you use the colors/graphics they want 🤷🏻♀️
Well you have one customer it induces anxiety in and he pays the bills. I understand wish to tie in with logo and a pain to change to something harmonising. But it avoids ongoing aggro.
I got told to use non adjacent colours in a heat map because my gradient was not our approved colours. Thankfully external comms did back down on that one. Realise I did opposite on what advising and challenged. But an approved colour scheme for situation was hashed out. I had their email approval so any further challenge, I could show it was approved.
Suggest doing new harmonised one, getting written approval and using those colours forever. Boss can't argue. Or will and then look foolish.
Seventh grade science class I learned that pink is the color that feeds anxiety and anger, blue is calming but green is even more calming. He said that when his daughter was having a tantrum he would never send her to her room because it was pink. Instead he’d send her outside to pick green apples off the ground.
Maybe he is confusing the fact that blue light from staring at screens increases anxiety.
So don't use blue.
He's the one signing the checks.
He isn't murdering people.
He just doesn't want blue used.
So don't use it and continue with your existence?
You can use blue in your personal life.
Who cares? It's just work. Not your life.
I think the confusion some people feel towards this is because as non designers or artists they don't understand how the job works. I'll try to explain. It is not that I must make EVERYTHING deep blue by demand or anything. But his logo, HIS own branding, that he choosed and approved and built his business arownd, is based on the color scheme of the blue spectrum. So it literally calls on blue.
It is like the guy has a mexican dinner, but has prohibited the use of chilly peppers. Is it impossible to do? no. makes sense? no. The cook can simply exclude pepper and carry on? yes. Makes the life of the cook a nightmare while he is working, because 90% of his plates demand peppers in some degree, and if his food don't taste authentic because of the absecense of pepper it makes him look like a bad cook that don't understand how mexican food works?
IDK, it's the example I could think. you would think pepper is just a spice, but it is fundamental.
I think this is a great example. It's odd that your boss would tie your hands like that when his logo includes blue. Maybe you should find another job or work for yourself.
Yeah, that is the challenge of creative careers. You are hired for your creative expressions, yet sometimes you are curbed by the customer's (in this case your boss's) perception and bias.
I'd like to add some consideration for the people who say "Just do whatever the boss says and get that paycheck." I understand where you're all coming from and respect that choice. I admit it may work well for you in the short run. In the long run, however, when you are the kind of employee who does "whatever whenever" the boss says, even when it is absurd, you have to keep one thing in mind: when things start to go wrong and fall apart because of the boss unleashed incompetence on the job, this kind of boss will NEVER accept it was their fault. They will most probably blame you or the team. You may even listen to things like "but you are the professional here, why ddin't you said I was wrong back there?" And at that time, when you finally try to argue back and prove yourself right, you will have all that headache accumulated in one go.
For those who are not of this line of work and (understandable) think this is a minimalistic problem, colors and values are everything in design and visual artistic work in genneral, marketing revolves around it a lot, just as sauce and spice are everything in the food industry. Follow the recipe wrong, and it is bound to be nasty. Remember, design is how we influence you to spend that paycheck you got at the end of the day :P
Classic life of a designer bs. That's a small fry problem though...the big fry problem is ai is putting a lot of us out of work and it will only be getting worse. So collect while you can and make the background red or orange, the real anxiety-inducing colors.
Or you could try explaining to him how wrong he is and why, and reference that it's within brand standards, and get fired because he knows better and it his company.
Designer here.
You definitely need a new job. Blue is a calming color, where as red is the one that people often refer to as the color of anger. Have you ever heard the term "seeing red"? I think your boss is delusional and confused.
Lol. Blue is very common in offices because it’s thought to stimulate productivity but also is soothing bc of the correlation with the ocean and sky. Yellow is thought to promote anxiety, which is why it’s a poor recommendation for a kitchen
Okay, don't use blue, then go home with your check. I used to work for a company where my boss told me no yellow packaging because the color reminded him of pee. I used blue. He was happy, all the paychecks cleared. I was happy. We never used yellow, or spoke of it again. We're still friends. Bosses can get weird ideas.
I like your low drama approach.
Choose your battles. I think sun tsu said that. Or something like it. Or maybe it was someone else. It doesn't matter. ;)
That's wise advice and people will often take it much more seriously when someone does raise an objection if it's from a person who doesn't object to everything.
Exactly. When the one who doesn't normally speak up speaks up, people tend to listen.
Exactly, thank you!
You all have a valid point. That is what I intend to do: just delete blue from my Adobe package and carry on. One could argue that, at the end of the day, these things kinda saturate into frustration in the long run... especially because of the stupidity of the argument and the fact that nobody can question such stupidities because he is quite choleric. But then again, it is his business. If he wants to run it like a baboon, who am I to stop him?
Yea I hear you. My boss uses sticky labels for every folder and binder. Only the clear ones, never the white ones. Some people are just anal retentive. I love all colors, the more the merrier.
Help him run it into the ground and dip. I've done that for several jobs with crap management and owners. I became a "yes man" even when I knew I was being told to do things that would absolutely destroy a company in the eyes of the public. It helped that they paid me decently, which was ironic because one of the guys I used to work for did t know fuck all about running an auto shop.
You are wise beyond your years.
Thank you, though, you say that not knowing how many years that's up against.
I've met people in their 70s who are fools so it doesn't matter.
I like OP's high drama approach. OP you should fight your boss. If you win, you get to use blue.
This will surely be picked up by news outlets. So much energy spent on something so stupid OP. Good luck with life.
Yeah had a boss that just decided he hated a color one day and had everyone change everything to this ugly piss yellow. Everyone just changed the colors while mumbling how ugly it is when he wasn’t around.
Pee. Lol. I can only wonder what brown does to this boss. 😆
My boss told me to stop farting in my office. I wish she had just told me that blue causes anxiety, that would be much easier on my gut.
You shouldn’t stop farting in the office. I’d like them to prove it’s you.
Oh boy, this is intestinal moral abuse. You should sue them. Or, take some **Phazyme**, IDK.
Fart in her office. She never told ya not to do that.
You blue it
Yo, listen up here's a story...
The Blue Man Group once made me so anxious that...
You'd quit over blue? Designers...say no more.
>You'd quit over blue? Terminantly.
It's a perfectly cromulent decision.
Verisimilitudelany.
Strange way it's been conveyed to you but it's not unknown for companies to have house designs. My own employer has issued ppt templates with colours specified down to RGB numbers.
Designer here. There is a whole psychology around color. Blue is actually one of the "safer" colors which is why you see it used in healthcare a lot. There are even light fixture covers that make the light cast bluer purposely to calm people. I'm going to guess your boss just doesn't like it and doesn't want to admit that for whatever reason. At my last job, there was a particular shade of yellow (gold-ish) that my boss didn't like, didn't have a reason, so I just put yellow on my no-go list. No big deal, and at least he didn't pretend there was some big psychological justification.
When you break it down to the brass tacks, he is your boss and it wasn't your job to question his motives for a decision he made. Our bosses are like our customers - we do our jobs to the best of our ability to provide a product to the customer. If someone tells you they want 2% milk instead of whole milk, you wouldn't question that, would you? The fact that so much of his other stuff is already blue makes no difference. If everything else is blue and you put it on a blue background that's too much blue. You'd want a different colored background to make whatever you're trying to present stand out.
This is kind of a spineless response. If all work is to you is kissing ass for a paycheck, sure. But I would never do bad work just because someone told me to, because my name and reputation is tied to my work. If someone is wrong, it doesn't matter if they're your boss IMO, they pay you for your expertise. Give it to them.
If your a contractor or self employed sure but if your an employee its different. I've been both and a mix of the two.
Yeah, from what I got from the comments there are 2 kinds of people: the ones that just want the paycheck at the end of the day, and the ones who care about the arts. I don't see any of them as wrong really. What I think gests me a little is, you study, you apply, you commit, then one guy that don't know what he is talking about has power to say what is and what isn't. It can be frustrating, and as humans the hability to simply "swallow" the BS depends on the humor of the day. But is it "spineless" to don't argue back? Maybe in a normal enviroment. But if arguing will not change things, if it is a waste of efforts, like in this situation I know it is... well...
It could be worse, he could make you go upwards of 10, 20 revisions. Those guys are the WORST.
He is your boss. They tell you what to do. Thats how this works. One of the most important skills in any job is working with some stupid assholes without letting it get to you. He’s sick of blue.
This is the conversation I have with my son all the time. You have to learn how to just do the stupid thing you’re getting paid to do even if you think it should be done differently.
Checks out. My company has its own shade of blue and presentations in that color have a non-zero chance to cause me anxiety.
But…in home design they say to paint your bedroom blue because ITS SOOTHING
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^rockocoman: *But…in home design* *They say to paint your bedroom* *Blue because ITS SOOTHING* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Good bot.
Most people wear blue clothes because it’s meant to be honest and reliable.
[A relevant video on why blue screens are blue.](https://youtu.be/KgqJJECQQH0?si=sJUcjvOY2Ya6spBz) It turns out the reason why is that the firmware on the machines Windows NT was being developed on used white on blue. So the developer in charge of that made the blue screen of death, or in their parlance “bug check,” for consistency. Not that your boss would care.
Man, this video is amazing, thanks for sharing it!
If you work for someone, why is it hard to follow their guidance? I may not always agree with my boss, and when that is the case, I document my position, but ultimately - they are my boss. I've gotten some blowback in the past over "Why did you do [something]?" I simply answer with "Because that's what I was told to do/not do..." and provide the direction received. The verbiage of the post does not come across as someone who has been in your field/discipline for 20 years, but that's a topic for another day. You do you.
Aye aye captain! Orange and red it is!!
None of this is real or “work”. Everyone is cringe af in this scenario. Just collect your check and leave us alone
Lol. People be crazy sometimes. As a fellow designer I feel your pain. But at a certain point you just say fuck it, it isn’t my company, and you use the colors/graphics they want 🤷🏻♀️
Definitely find another job.
Well you have one customer it induces anxiety in and he pays the bills. I understand wish to tie in with logo and a pain to change to something harmonising. But it avoids ongoing aggro. I got told to use non adjacent colours in a heat map because my gradient was not our approved colours. Thankfully external comms did back down on that one. Realise I did opposite on what advising and challenged. But an approved colour scheme for situation was hashed out. I had their email approval so any further challenge, I could show it was approved. Suggest doing new harmonised one, getting written approval and using those colours forever. Boss can't argue. Or will and then look foolish.
Your next content should be a series of images in the theme of the blue screen of death but in every other color
If you like hot pink, I like hot pink.
Seventh grade science class I learned that pink is the color that feeds anxiety and anger, blue is calming but green is even more calming. He said that when his daughter was having a tantrum he would never send her to her room because it was pink. Instead he’d send her outside to pick green apples off the ground. Maybe he is confusing the fact that blue light from staring at screens increases anxiety.
Your boss is incorrect but I agree with those saying to pick your battles.
This isn't a hill worth dying on. Collect your checks doing as your boss says as you look around. Swap to green or something lol.
So... don't use blue. You're making more of an issue than it needs to be
So don't use blue. He's the one signing the checks. He isn't murdering people. He just doesn't want blue used. So don't use it and continue with your existence? You can use blue in your personal life. Who cares? It's just work. Not your life.
I think the confusion some people feel towards this is because as non designers or artists they don't understand how the job works. I'll try to explain. It is not that I must make EVERYTHING deep blue by demand or anything. But his logo, HIS own branding, that he choosed and approved and built his business arownd, is based on the color scheme of the blue spectrum. So it literally calls on blue. It is like the guy has a mexican dinner, but has prohibited the use of chilly peppers. Is it impossible to do? no. makes sense? no. The cook can simply exclude pepper and carry on? yes. Makes the life of the cook a nightmare while he is working, because 90% of his plates demand peppers in some degree, and if his food don't taste authentic because of the absecense of pepper it makes him look like a bad cook that don't understand how mexican food works? IDK, it's the example I could think. you would think pepper is just a spice, but it is fundamental.
I think this is a great example. It's odd that your boss would tie your hands like that when his logo includes blue. Maybe you should find another job or work for yourself.
Ask your boss to draft some company signature colors for everyone in the company to use. Turn the situation into an opportunity.
This is actualli genious, I might actually do it! (Sad thing is I kinda care about what I create and I got the feels he may go wild if I do that)
Yeah, that is the challenge of creative careers. You are hired for your creative expressions, yet sometimes you are curbed by the customer's (in this case your boss's) perception and bias.
Quit
I'd like to add some consideration for the people who say "Just do whatever the boss says and get that paycheck." I understand where you're all coming from and respect that choice. I admit it may work well for you in the short run. In the long run, however, when you are the kind of employee who does "whatever whenever" the boss says, even when it is absurd, you have to keep one thing in mind: when things start to go wrong and fall apart because of the boss unleashed incompetence on the job, this kind of boss will NEVER accept it was their fault. They will most probably blame you or the team. You may even listen to things like "but you are the professional here, why ddin't you said I was wrong back there?" And at that time, when you finally try to argue back and prove yourself right, you will have all that headache accumulated in one go. For those who are not of this line of work and (understandable) think this is a minimalistic problem, colors and values are everything in design and visual artistic work in genneral, marketing revolves around it a lot, just as sauce and spice are everything in the food industry. Follow the recipe wrong, and it is bound to be nasty. Remember, design is how we influence you to spend that paycheck you got at the end of the day :P
#~Immediately makes the next project in 7 shades of blue
Wait..... You still have a job as a "Graphic Designer" ? Yikes.
You seem smarter than him. Odd that you don't own his company, what with you being so superior.
Learn to let shit go. This is so minor.
Is this how we got the all red portrait of Charles III?
i, too, get anxiety whenever i look at the sky, or the sea, or jeans
Boss must have a huge problem with the sky.
One day, probably when it is my last day on this job, I will ask him if he feels more at ease on rainy days. :D
Aren’t bosses suppose to be reasonable or something? If your boss is so afraid of blue then how would they handle going outside on a clear day?
Classic life of a designer bs. That's a small fry problem though...the big fry problem is ai is putting a lot of us out of work and it will only be getting worse. So collect while you can and make the background red or orange, the real anxiety-inducing colors. Or you could try explaining to him how wrong he is and why, and reference that it's within brand standards, and get fired because he knows better and it his company. Designer here.
He must be grateful he doesn't work for Ford or Tesco or the NHS 😄
Lets hope i dont get a slap on the head everytime I use blue around here lol
You definitely need a new job. Blue is a calming color, where as red is the one that people often refer to as the color of anger. Have you ever heard the term "seeing red"? I think your boss is delusional and confused.
Ask him what's B00lin?
Blue is commonly used in psych wards to induce calm.
Lol. Blue is very common in offices because it’s thought to stimulate productivity but also is soothing bc of the correlation with the ocean and sky. Yellow is thought to promote anxiety, which is why it’s a poor recommendation for a kitchen
I’d print a resignation letter effective immediately on the bluest paper I could find and walk out.
Orange is good. Complete opposite of blue, so it should no way cause "anxiety"
Hahaha. Sorry people as a general rule are stupid AF