Secretaries Use Illustrator...

First of all... 

HAPPY RECEPTIONIST'S DAY!

Yep... it's a legit holiday. I heard it on the radio as I was driving to work this morning. But, I didn't get flowers, lunch, recognition... nothing.

ANYWAY... I thought it would be the perfect day to confess some of my recent thoughts and observations.

I keep hearing these phrases...

"Your secretary can use Photoshop..."

 "Your secretary uses Illustrator..."

Actually, I'm not even sure of the exact phrase my instructor uses, but it's something like that. Everyone chuckles when they hear him say it. At first I thought he was poking fun at me because he knows I work as a secretary (and he is), but it started to make sense after a few times. You aren't a designer just because you know how to use Illustrator. In other words, the dumbest people alive (ie. secretaries) can use Illustrator. Thus making the point that simply knowing how to use the program isn't enough... blah blah blah.

It's funny, actually. I tried to Google the phrase to see if it was common enough of a phrase to show up in a search (I didn't find anything) but I did come across a forum of all of these Adobe employees listing the words/phrases that throw up red flags and basically annoy the shit out of them. I was scrolling through and one comment made me bust out laughing...

Similar, and usually uttered to some poor secretary, who probably has zero graphics arts background. "We want you to start doing all of our ads, so we don't have to pay the agency. You have a Word on your computer don't you?" Gawd, I feel sorry for those poor folk thrown to the lions.

One person replied to that saying that his boss gets secretaries that make "crap" in Publisher and he "refuses to work with those files."

Oh, P.S.... before this blog was born,

I WAS THE SECRETARY USING PUBLISHER! 

My boss at my previous job actually convinced someone to come over and teach me how to run the website so they didn't have to pay anyone else to do it. I used Publisher to design all of their advertisements and print material. I remember sending my files to printing companies and they hated my files and graphics and always had someone redesign the whole thing. I would get pissed because it never looked the same. I was probably one of the most difficult clients to deal with! Now I work at a printing company... go figure!!!

Now that I'm a little more educated in the graphic design field I bet these professional designers get so annoyed with secretaries. After all, they are kind of stealing their jobs in a way. It's really the company that is cheap and doesn't want to hire a professional, but that just goes to show how many people don't care about the details and will settle for generic and cheap. Which probably makes the designer even more pissed...

I have to admit though, most graphic designers are kind of snobby. No offense, but if I can speak stereotypically for a minute, they kinda are. They are picky people, almost OCD, and have a level of knowledge and sophistication that keeps them feeling intellectually ahead of everyone else. They are the kind of people that prance around with their iPhones, iPods and iPads screaming, "YEAH! I'M F***ING AWESOME!" I mean God forbid they aren't using an Apple product...

I guess this makes me an amateur at the moment, but I'm on my way to being a snobby graphic designer! :D

Just watch... a couple years from now I'll get sent a Publisher file and have to send it back, and I will probably chuckle and whisper to my co-worker, "Ugh... can you BELIEVE how freaking AMATEUR some people are??? Gawd..."