He steals my ideas. Can I call them my own?

August 11, 2006 11:20 AM

My boss is always stealing my ideas. On an interview, how do I handle it? There's

My job is to come up with ideas and make them real. This could be any job I suppose, but in this case I'm an senior-level Art Director and my boss is the company's Creative Director.

At least four times in the last year I have presented ideas to him and he has said no. Then he takes the very same idea and does it himself or assigns it to another designer. Sucks, but what can I do about it?

Well, what I can do about it is go on an interview on Monday. I'm wondering how to handle this. I don't want to bad mouth my boss and say he steals my ideas. Should I show the finished pieces as my own? Or just write them off as a complete loss?

If I just ignore the projects that were swiped, I'm left with slim pickings from my time here. He has taken all the good stuff - verbatim - and left me with three years worth of garbage that I don't think will represent well.

posted by ImJustRick to Work & Money (10 answers total)

Part of being an art director is being creative, I would show those pieces in an interview and say although you didnt do the final artwork you came up with the "creative vision" or some such thing, or that you were on the team that developed the pieces. I always tend to rate creativity, imagination and ingeniuity higher than production pieces when I look at a portfolio in an interview.
posted by skrike at 11:27 AM on August 11, 2006

It's such a common phenomena in the industry, that it should be easy to handle in an interview.

I'd be careful about being bitter or saying "This was *my* idea." Your job as an art director is to collaborate with the creative team and help execute it. No idea lives on its very own and if you sound like that in an interview, I'd worry about you as a candidate.

"I've done concepting on these campaigns. And here are some I've executed from others ideas."

That being said, if everything you've executed is based on empty, vapid ideas, you're in a tough situation. I'd make sure I'd have a least a few things that are smart and yours – even if they're spec work, student work or pro bono stuff you've done on the side.

At least your creative director is using your ideas to go to market. I've had my campaigns "left in the cab" while the CDs terrible ideas magically appear at the client meeting, despite the AEs nixing them.

As you probably know, you're not learning anything from him/her and you're not building a strong portfolio for the long term, so get yourself to a non-suck job as soon as possible.
posted by Gucky at 11:37 AM on August 11, 2006

I'd just present the pieces and say "my team did this." I agree with Gucky, if someone came in to interview and started claiming total independence I would think they were not a good candidate.
posted by miss tea at 11:44 AM on August 11, 2006

What you could do in the future is make a daily journal of your ideas, noting which ones you suggest to your boss. True, it could be faked, but with daily entries over a long period of time that's pretty unlikely. This could be helpful if you ever felt like the time was right to either confront your boss or speak to one of his or her superiors about it.

Also, if you're ever evaluated you can use it to show your ideas and contributions.
posted by jedicus at 11:52 AM on August 11, 2006

If the interview is in the same town/market, I'd bet that your interviewer already knows about your CD's shennanigans. It's a small world.

Your CD has probably chased a lot of good people from you firm over the years. to the benefit of competing firms (as they get a second crack at the good people)

Present the work you were a part of and when asked about your particular involvement in the project, just be honest.
posted by sandra_s at 12:04 PM on August 11, 2006

See if you can get your boss to pick up on an idea of yours that is truly terrible, but such that it's terribleness might not be immediately obvious to him. Won't help, but sure will be fun laughing behind his back.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 12:27 PM on August 11, 2006

Forget your job description. What is your job, really? You have vision and the ability to communicate your ideas. You come up with things. You boss decides which ones will be implemented, and by whom. Sometimes it's you, and sometimes it's other people.

Vision is extremely valuable. Your boss pretends it isn't; maybe that's why you'd like to present the finished pieces as your own. I agree with those who say, above, that you should talk about the finished work as a product of collaboration. But I see no problem with explaining that one of your strengths is generating and selling good ideas.
posted by wryly at 12:46 PM on August 11, 2006

I sort of expect that when people are showing me their book it's work that they weren't 100% responsible for.

Still, what you might do (and what might go a long way with me) is to bring in both version. Sort of a this is the idea that I developed, and this was the final execution. You're right to leave the negativity out of the interview, but you can show your contribution and the finished design without being negative about it.

One thing to consider is that the CD is not stealing your ideas but that you have good ideas that you don't yet have the ability to execute well. I haven't seen your work, and your explanation/interpretation is more than possible, but it's worth trying to see it from management's perspective if you haven't already considered that.
posted by willnot at 3:04 PM on August 11, 2006

Would it possibly help to delineate between "conception" and "implementation" or "design" and "implementation," as in "Here is another project that I conceived and that our team implemented, which resulted in the product you see before you."

Could that work, or would it just make things worse?

Perhaps you could freelance a little on the side while keeping you job (read: do some work your boss can't claim as his own). That way, you build up a better portfolio that can help you get a better job, which it seems like you are going to eventually have to do.

Of course, the other question I would have is, have you had a "What do you think you are doing?" conversation with your boss yet?

Just a brainstorm. Good luck.
posted by 4ster at 7:53 PM on August 11, 2006

It's fine to present work that was collaborative, just be clear about your role in any given project.

For example, if you came up with the concept, you certainly can not claim the finished design, only the actual designer can. But you can still present it as evidence of your creativity and teamwork, show your sketches, present your ideas for the given piece of work, and show the finished material - "This one was finished off by one of our designers from my concept," or whatever.

Bad-mouthing anyone makes you look bad. Just don' t do it.

4ster's suggestion of talking to the creative director is obviously difficult and uncomfortable, but if you're already looking at leaving, perhaps you can broach the subject. Just try not to be acrimonious, there's no need to fight about it, or give him any excuse to make your job unpleasant for however much longer you'll be there.

I hope you find somewhere that you can get credit for your work.
posted by The Monkey at 8:22 PM on August 11, 2006