Marketing people V's Graphic designers

Figment

Following on from a thread on Creative Ireland i thought i would ask this question here to see what the marketing viewpoint is.
Although the original discussion goes off on a few tangents the crux of the topic is:

As Marketing and Design play such an important role in business, and the two roles are linked so closely and will end up working together a lot over the course of a career, should there not be more interaction between the two areas when learning and training in a college environment. Should there be at least a module in college where each learns more about the other, learn to collaborate and communicate ideas clearly, utilise each other better and learn the requirements of each area to more easily deliver to their requirements.

What do you think?

Of course the topic should really be "Marketing people & Graphic designers".

whiskeyman

I really do think there should be interlinking.
I've worked in the area and I've seen some graphic designers with no grasp of marketing communication, and (flip side) seen some marketing folk with little idea of the requirements for creating graphic design.

However, not all people who study marketing will come into contact with graphic designers, and not all graphic designers will work directly with marketers.

Overall, I think the link should be briefly covered through college education, but not in too much detail.
Perhaps the link could be a module later in the course, or best kept for training courses during time of employment.

gre_soul

It comes down to experience I think, they are both different fields of work and so it can be a challenge to communicate ideas between each other due to some what different mentalities.

EKRIUQ

Marketing is all about tailoring a product for a market, not just some flash packaging its all about knowing your market, who to aim for and what price to charge. Graphic design is a part of the marketing process but their both differant disiplines.

Figment

BingoBongo wrote:

Marketing is all about tailoring a product for a market, not just some flash packaging its all about knowing your market, who to aim for and what price to charge. Graphic design is a part of the marketing process but their both different disciplines.

I think that statement sums up why it is needed. They are not as different as you think. I could explain design as:

Design is all about tailoring a product for a market, not just how someone sells it but visual impact, its all about knowing your market, who to aim for and how to design its perceived value within the required price bracket. Graphic design and marketing is part of the same process and success is more likely when both are utilised well.

EKRIUQ

Figment wrote:

I think that statement sums up why it is needed. They are not as different as you think. I could explain design as:

Design is all about tailoring a product for a market, not just how someone sells it but visual impact,

I agree design is very important when coming up with the ideas for a product/market, ie when deigning a car or a household product but this argument is marketing V Graphic Designers the word graphic being the use of graphics (flash packaging.)

growler

as mentioned above, it depends on where your career goes, who you work with and what you're marketing, the end goal of both sides should be the same, if marketing really know who they are selling to, know their brand and know their media, then its easy to brief designers well enough to deliver quality work and expand on the concept they are given to work with, if marketing haven't a clue what they are doing then it doesn't work. Many younger designers ( in my experience anyway) have trouble underrtanding marketing speak and understanding the need ,sometimes , for "simple and sraightforward" rather than award winning, but you learn.

Not sure you need to bother teaching it, you learn to speak each others' language if you're good a either job I think and any real world experience is worth 100 times what you learn in a lecture.

Tazz T

Marketing people and designer are two completely different types of people in my experience. You'll rarely see a 'Creative' going out with a 'Suit' (other than at an office party). Designers (and Copywriters) think with the creative side of the their head while Marketing people (Account Managers) think with the business side. Where the two meet there is often friction, but they both play valuable roles within the work process.

I think it would be very difficult to integrate a course that applied to both fields. Practical experience is the only thing that really helps in this area, although perhaps the odd day getting a feel and an appreciation for what 'the other side' does would help.

Shad0r

yeah absolutely it would be of advantage to both people if they had a better understanding of where the other person was coming from...a module in college is probably a great idea...