So you want an iconic logo like Apple or Nike?

Every project I’ve ever worked on started with a name and a logo.

The logo is what gives an idea an identity. It’s what makes it real. Or, at least closer to being real. Once there’s a logo, there’s something to talk about, something to show people.

As you start designing your logo, you begin to understand the character and personality of the brand. The logo is initial the shape that defines how it’s presented. It sets the tone for how you want people to react and interact with your company.

The logo is the most important element of any brand.

The challenge when starting a new company is thinking you need to have the perfect logo.

We think of iconic brands we know, like Apple and Nike, and want a logo like theirs. A simple logo that transcends cultures and is strong enough to carry the weight of an entire company. A logo people immediately recognize.

In need of a logo, Nike founder Phil Knight contracted a local student to design a logo for $2 an hour.

The problem is, when we think that way, we miss the fact that these companies have over 45 years of history that give meaning to their logo.

Started in 1976, Apple’s first logo was actually a drawing of Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree, it was changed a year later to the Apple icon.

Your logo doesn’t need to be perfect.

The apple logo is a flat apple icon with a bite taken out of it. The Nike logo is an abstract image of the corner of a running track. These shapes wouldn’t mean anything to you if the companies hadn’t spent years developing exceptional products and artfully marketing the company as a brand people like you should love.

So, yes, the logo is the most important element of a brand’s identity. But it’s not the brand. Brands are built over time and are the result of everything a company does and presents itself with.

Simply, a logo isn’t going to define your company. It’s just one of the ways for people to identify it.

This is why I’m saying your logo doesn’t need to be perfect. It doesn’t even need to be great. It just needs to be good.

Designing 100 logos.

To test this theory, I challenged myself to design 100 logos in 100 days.

These are some of my favorites. You can see the reset on instagram @wesjonesco.

The purpose was to develop a set of principles unique to designing logos for startups.

I did this because all logos begin as startup logos. A company’s first logo sets the foundation for what it can become. The only difference between a startup logo and an established brand is the history the company has. And while some logos have stood the test of time, most evolve as the brands mature.

This isn’t to say your first logo can’t be like Apple or Nike. Only you can’t expect people to recognize or care about your’s the same way. At least not in the beginning. In the beginning, all you need to do is give people something to identify your company with, and by implementing these five principles, you’re going to have the best chance at doing that.

Your first logo doesn’t have to be your forever logo.

You need something to get started. Something good enough to feel ligament. But, you don’t want to overcommit to something before you know more about where you’re headed.

You just don’t know enough when you’re starting out.

Design principles for startup logos.

While the principles are meant for designing startup logos, you’ll see how they are fairly universal and could also be used by established brands who want to completely redesign their logo or brands looking to refresh and update their existing one.

So, whether you’re designing the logo yourself or are having someone else do it, these principles are meant to help you develop a well-thought-out logo that’s appropriate for your business, sets the foundation for your identity, and is something you’re excited about.

And, most importantly, help you not get stuck overthinking it.

If this is what you need help with, these five logo design principles are what you’ll want to keep in mind.

1. Communicate the brand.

The only thing your logo needs to do is communicate your brand name.

Especially, if you’re a startup.

If you’re a startup, no one knows who you are. No one knows you exist. And, no one knows why they should care.

Your logo needs to introduce people to your brand.

To do this you’re going to want to design a wordmark. A wordmark is a stylized version of your brand name. This way you can communicate your brand name and have a unique design for people to remember.

Then, if there’s a time when you need something smaller, you can take the initials of the company to create a lettermark using the same design language.

The consistent design language between the wordmark and lettermark helps strengthen the brand and lets the “G” stand on its own.

Companies like Google and Tesla do this well. They have their stylized brand names as their primary logo and then have G and T lettermarks for times when the primary logo is too large or doesn’t fit the context. Since both have the same design language there’s no mistaking what brand they’re representing. This continuity builds up brand equity as people associate one with the other.

Now, there are other logo formats you could use like emblems, mascots, and pictorial or abstract marks.  But, at this early stage, it’s often too much to introduce people to both a brand name and another element unless it’s so literal there’s no mistaking what it’s for.

An example so obvious is YouTube and its Play Button icon.

Twitter, another brand that uses an icon, actually launched in 2006 with a wordmark and later added the bird icon in 2010. They then paired the wordmark and icon together until 2012 when afterward they’ve able to use the icon by itself.

Notice the subtle refinements between the wordmark as well as the bird icon as Twitter updated its identity as it became more established.

The trick to this is showing both the wordmark and icon together until the association is strong enough that they’re interchangeable.

2. Design in one color.

Every logo has to work in black and white.

And, when you’re first designing your logo, you should only work in black and white.

Adding color can be exciting and make a logo seem more dynamic, but color is subjective and leaves things open to interpretation both individually and culturally. Because of this, you should only use color to embellish and only if it’s absolutely necessary.

The reason you don’t want to rely on color because there will be times it can’t be displayed in color. And, by working in black and white, you know you’re designing a logo that’s durable and can work anywhere.

If it can’t work in black and white, it’s not a good logo.

The YouTube logo works perfectly well in black and white, the use of red is simply a way to tie in the color of a record button on movie cameras.

3. Make it scalable.

Your logo has to work everywhere.

Big, small, digital, print. Everything. While you’ll have guidelines for how people should use it, you don’t know where it’ll need to be placed. To plan for this, you need to make sure it can adapt to whatever environment, material, and context it’s in.

What you don’t want is to have to force-fit your logo into a high-profile placement because you didn’t think beyond your website.

The Walt Disney logo is a responsive logo designed to work at many different sizes without losing any of its meaning.

A good logo will have visual weight and contrast to be recognizable from a browser tab all the way up to an airplane or the side of a building. This is why I think the right approach is to use a wordmark as the primary logo with a secondary lettermark for times when a smaller size is needed.

The point is you can’t overcomplicate it and have your logo try and do too much.

4. Timeless, not trendy.

Timeless design is sophisticated and elegant. It’s meant to be highly functional, adaptable, and subtle without being bland or boring. Rather than looking old or new, it’s intentional, appropriate, and durable.

These are the qualities you want.

If you chase trends, you’re going to be left with a logo that looks dated as soon as it passes. And instead of being a brand that conveys confidence and awareness, you’ll be seen as one who is out of touch and trying hard to stay relevant as you redesign your logo to keep up.

The Olympics logo is as timeless as it gets.

5. Your logo doesn’t have to work forever.

We place so much importance on the logo in the beginning because it’s often all we have. We don’t have a website, we don’t have a product, and we don’t have customers. All we have is an idea.

And having a logo is what starts to make an idea feel real.

So it’s understandable why we think our logo is so important. But we also have to remember that it’s not critical. All we need is something to get us started. Because at this point, no one knows who we are, no one knows what we do, and no one has a history with us as a brand.

Starbucks has consistently updated its logo to match contemporary design trends without losing the foundational elements of the brand.

A logo isn’t that important until we develop our idea into something people can interact with.

Then you can gauge what people are saying and whether or not the logo supports the company’s values, products, and direction. If it does, great. If not, no problem. Now you have a better idea of what your company stands for and can design a logo that better fits your brand.

Designing iconic logos.

That’s it. It’s really quite simple.

A good logo communicates the name of your company, works everywhere, and is easy to remember.

A bad logo is either too generic and doesn’t say anything at all or is overly complicated and falls apart as it tries to say too much.

In the end, it comes down to understanding your logo is not your brand. It’s just one way to identify it. These principles are meant to point that out. Not that your logo isn’t important. It’s just not as important as the other aspects of your business, like your products, values, and marketing strategy.

The Nike logo didn’t mean anything at first. Founder Phil Knight even said, “Well, I don’t love it, but maybe it’ll grow on me.” Obviously, the Nike logo has become one of the most iconic logos in the world. But it wasn’t the logo that did that. It was everything else the company did that gave the logo meaning.

So while we set out to talk about design principles, we ended up discovering what it really takes to have an iconic logo.

That is, if you want a logo people remember, build a company worth remembering.

How much does a logo cost?

Ok, an article about logo design for startups feels incomplete without a few notes on pricing.

If you’ve looked into it at all, I’m sure you’ve found the price range for logo design goes from $5 to hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.

Now, I know that range doesn’t really apply to startups.

Startup logos tend to be about 10 to $20,000 for Seed or Series A funded companies. Down to about $5,000 for a well-capitalized bootstrapped startup. Below that, you can find something at whatever budget you have to spend. The thing to know is, at these lower levels, there might not be much difference in the quality you get whether you’re spending a few thousand or a few hundred dollars. The real difference is that you will have to do a lot more vetting to get someone and something worthwhile.

And, you might actually end up spending more in the end if you only look for the cheapest price.

These price differences really come down to the value the logo will bring to your company, how much discovery and process work will go into developing your logo if there are any legal and compliance requirements to work through, and the reputation of the designer or firm you end up working with.

So while I say you don’t need a perfect or even great logo, there’s definitely a threshold for good, which I hope the principles above will help you recognize and be able to talk about better.

It’s worth noting too. You’re most likely going to be working with an individual for anything less than $5,000.

Want me to design your logo?

If you’re interested, I charge $425 for initial logo designs.

I charge this low rate because I’m not trying to make a living by designing logos. I just love doing it and want to help new projects get off the ground. If you want to work with me, you’ll have a logo within a week and you can learn more about the process and how to kick things off on this page.

And, for what it’s worth, Phil Knight paid $35 for the Nike logo. Twitter bought the first iteration of its bird icon from a stock photo site for $15. And the Coca-Cola and Google logos were both designed by one of their founders for $0 each. The secret then is, with a little bit of luck and if you’re able to commit to something, you might not have to spend much.

50 Lessons learned after 5 years in advertising.

I always wanted to work in advertising.

I figured it would be the best place to learn as much as I could, as fast as I could.

It would mean I’d get exposure to different businesses and industries quicker than if I worked in-house or at any one startup. I’d work with and learn from all kinds of people on new, challenging problems. And, I’d see first-hand what companies value, how they make decisions, and most importantly, how they make money.

That last part, how they make money, is what led me to become a project manager.

Being the connection between the agency and client teams meant I’d get to see both sides of the business. I’d learn how to scope projects and manage a budget. I’d build relationships with the agency and client teams. And, I’d be responsible for sticking to a timeline and producing the work we said we would.

I did this thinking I’d want to start an agency of my own one day.

Working at an agency first was my way of learning the business without any of the risks.

With this in mind, I showed up every day like I was going to business school. I never stopped learning. And in the last five years, I’ve learned a ton.

And while making money is what keeps an agency in business, I learned there’s a lot more to it than spreadsheets and numbers.

Whether you’re thinking about getting into advertising, just starting, or have been around for a while, these are all of those other things I’ve learned that might give you a bit of perspective on this wildly fun industry.

When I put the list together I realized there were five themes or categories these things could be grouped in like Advertising, Working with others, Working with Clients, Creativity, and How to act. So, that’s how the article is structured.

And, for those of you who make it to the end, there’s a bonus section, What no one will tell you, which is the one you don’t want to miss.

Some things are prescriptive, others are things to consider, and some are simply things to be aware of. You’ll be able to figure out which is which.

Ok, let’s get to it.

Advertising.

Good advertising looks easy. But don’t mistake looking easy for not a lot of work. It’s tough. And as soon as you think you’ve figured something out, be ready for it to change or something new to come along that you’ll have to learn. Until then, though, try not to forget some of these things that make advertising the best industry to work in. There’s truly nothing else like it.

1. No one knows what they’re doing.

At first, it will seem like everyone but you knows what’s going on and has all of the right answers. But, it gets a lot easier the moment you realize everyone is making it up as they go. This confidence comes with time, and the thing about advertising is you have to learn to be confident making decisions even when you’re not sure you’re right.

2. Everyone works in advertising.

You don’t need an advertising degree to work in advertising. Actually, it’s probably better if you don’t. The more diverse your background is, the better perspective and ideas you can bring. One of my favorite experiences was at an agency that hired standup comedians instead of everyday copywriters for the copy team. We were always laughing, and they always had a unique take on whatever we were trying to say.

3. Agencies are the best place to learn.

Agencies are great places for curious people. With an endless stream of opportunities, from new projects and problems to solve to various teams needing help, you can always find something or someone who will teach you. And, because the work happens so fast, you’ll likely have to dive in and figure it out as you go. Meaning you’ll get to learn how something actually works instead of just the theory of how it should be done.

4. You get a lot of responsibility.

Because there’s always too much work to do and everyone is making it up as they go, you’ll get a lot of responsibility early on. This makes agencies a great place for ambitious people because you won’t feel held back as new opportunities to prove yourself and take on more responsibilities are there if you want them. You just have to make sure you’re desire is known.

5. How to solve real problems.

Other companies hire agencies to solve their real business problems. This means you’ll be working on coming up with solutions that actually make a difference. You’ll learn how to work with real-world data, account for unknowns, and adapt to new information and changing requirements. It’s challenging having to figure things out for real, but it’s a lot better than working on things you can easily find the answer to.

6. How to think three steps ahead.

While advertising problems seem relatively simple, you have to think through several things to determine if an idea is any good or not. Meaning you can’t just think of what happens next. You have to be thinking three steps ahead. You have to think about what the client will think of the work, how the target audience will think of the work, and what you want the audience to do after engaging with the work.

7. How to be ok with the unknown.

You’re never going to have enough information. Either the client didn’t give it to you, there’s not enough time to gather it, or the data simply isn’t there. When this happens, you’ll have to be comfortable making decisions without knowing the complete picture. Over time this will get easier as you develop an intuition from seeing similar situations play out. But, naturally, there’s no question it will be unnerving at first.

8. Experience new technology first.

Clients are always looking for the next best thing and a way to separate themselves from their competitors. This means, as an agency, you’ll constantly be getting introduced to the latest technologies first. While the clients want what’s new, the companies developing these things also want them to be seen by the world and want the validation of a credible company showcasing them in their work.

9. Work with brands everyone knows.

I think this might be one of the main reasons anyone wants to get into advertising at first. Being able to tell people you know that you worked with a brand they know the name of. It’s great, and it’s even better when you can tell them you were on the team who came up with and executed the idea they’re all talking about.

10. There’s magic in advertising.

Sometimes there will be things you can’t explain. It happens when you have the right group of people working on the right idea; that is going to mean something for the right group of people you’re trying to connect with. When it happens, and everything connects perfectly, it’s magical and makes all of the other times it didn’t work out the way you thought it would worth it.

Working with others.

Without the people who do the work, an agency isn’t much more than a bunch of desks and a stack of computers. That’s it. And as cliche as it is, it really is all about the people.

11. You’ll meet some of your best friends.

Advertising attracts a similar type of person. Not that everyone has the same background or comes from the same place. Rather, the personalities are the same. Everyone is curious, willing to try new things, and always looking to be better than they were before. Because of this, you’re going to meet a lot of people with the same interests, values, and ideals that you have. And, since you’ll be spending a lot of time with them, inevitably some of them will become friends you’ll have forever, no matter where you end up later on.

12. You don’t have to be friends with everyone.

That said, just because some of the people you work with end up becoming some of your best friends doesn’t mean you have to be friends with everyone. Naturally, there will always be someone with who you don’t have anything in common or simply don’t get along. That’s fine. No need to force anything that isn’t there. But, even if you don’t like someone and can’t imagine ever being friends with them, you still have to be friendly. You are at work after all and therefore need to be professional.

13. Your team makes it worth it.

While the work is sometimes fun and exciting, it’s pretty routine more often than not. Combine mundane work with a difficult client and it’s easy to wonder why you’re doing any of this at all. The simple answer is it’s the team you’re working with. They’re the ones who make it worth it. You don’t want to be the one who doesn’t deliver or lets the team down. Your commitment to them is why you push through the challenges and create the best work you can. And, since you know you’re all going through the same thing, there’s no need to make it any worse than it already is.

14. Understand other people’s perspectives.

Even if you don’t agree with someone, you still have to be self-aware enough to consider things from their point of view. As I said, everyone comes to advertising from a different background and set of experiences, so it’s quite possible they might know something you don’t. At the very least, you have to take the time to consider they have a different perspective and see what they have to say because there’s no point in blindly taking a stance when you don’t have all of the information. Once you’ve done that, you can have a conversation about what to do next.

15. Everyone works differently.

This one is easy to understand in theory but hard to recognize when you’re on a deadline and things just need to get done. While you might be super organized and have a detailed process for everything, someone else might be much looser and approach their work organically. This isn’t to say one is better than the other. Rather, if you’re working with someone who has a different working style than you, you’ll both have to figure out how to work together and make sure neither of you is holding the other up. In the end, what matters is that the work is done well and on time.

16. How to effectively communicate your ideas.

No matter how good your idea is, it won’t mean anything if you can’t explain it in a way your team will understand. Often it seems the best way to make an idea sound worthwhile is to make it elaborate and complicated. But, thinking of how everyone has a different background and way of working, you’re better off making your idea sound incredibly simple so everyone can understand it. Use simple language and diagrams instead of lengthy write-ups and complex pictures. The fewer things people have to think about, the better.

17. The art of giving feedback.

At some point, you’re going to have to give feedback on something, and the way you do it will say a lot about you and whether or not the feedback will be received. Whether it’s to make the work better or help the team work better together, you need to have a reason for your feedback. You can’t give feedback just because. Recognize you’re criticizing someone’s work and they might take it personally, so the way you say it matters. And, it’s going to be better if you provide some alternative solutions or outcomes instead of only pointing out problems. This way, you’re not giving feedback and expecting people to just figure it out. 

18. Everyone has a life outside of work.

This is important because it can feel like work is everything and nothing else could possibly matter. But, work is work and people are expected to bring themselves to work 40 hours a week, and that’s it. They have lives outside of work too. And, just as what happens at work can affect your time outside of work. What happens in people’s lives outside of work can affect their time at work. This is to say, if someone is having a bad day or isn’t their usual selves, there might be something else going on they don’t want to talk about. If they were short with you, know it might have absolutely nothing to do with what you said, did, or were talking about. 

19. How to work with a team.

Nothing in advertising comes from one person alone. Nothing good anyway. Good work comes from collaborating with others and bringing different ideas together. Every team you’re on will be different, and you’ll have to figure out how to be a part of it. One time, you might have to be more of a leader while you’ll be more of an individual contributor on another team. It all depends on what’s needed at the time. You’ll have to learn how to work with different people and personalities, working styles, and ways of thinking as you navigate various projects.

20. It’s a masterclass in psychology.

Ultimately, you’re going to know more about the way people think and what motivates them than you ever thought. You’ll learn how to communicate and negotiate with people you don’t get along with or understand. And how to influence them to get what you need. It’s a people business, and your emotional intelligence will be more useful than any of the technical skills you have.

Working with clients.

Like the people you work with, an agency wouldn’t exist without its clients. The agency needs clients to pay them, and clients need agencies to do work for them. It’s a simple relationship that can end up pretty complicated if some of these nuances aren’t understood.

21. Clients are people too.

It kills me when people try to abstract the client relationship by referring to anything anyone says from the client team as “client said this…” instead of saying, “Lisa didn’t like the way the hero looked on the home page”. Clients are people too. They have names and other than being the ones who hired the agency, they shouldn’t be treated any differently. It can create a weird dynamic if you start grouping them into some singular entity as you don’t know who said what or what to pay attention to.

22. They have an agenda.

While you and the client team are all working together toward the same goal, know each of them has their own agenda too. Maybe they’re hoping to get a promotion if the project is successful, maybe they are worried the work you’re doing will end up putting them out of a job, or maybe they’re trying to make a land grab internally. They’ll never tell you these things, of course, but if you have an idea of what’s motivating them, you can use it to your advantage and make things that will work for the both of you.

23. They can act in weird ways.

Clients are going to do things you simply won’t understand. There won’t be any explanation for it other than “they’re being weird.” And, it could be anything. It could be their agenda you haven’t quite figured out yet, company politics they’re navigating, or something they think is on a need-to-know basis, and you’re not someone who needs to know. When this happens, don’t worry about it, it’s just what they do.

24. They don’t know what they want.

The funny thing about working with clients is the principal reason they’re hiring an agency is that they need help doing something they can’t do themselves. And even though everyone knows that’s the arrangement, they’ll never admit they don’t know something. They’ll take hard stances and dictate what they want with total conviction, only to say it’s not right when they see the work. It doesn’t make any sense, but it’s the charade you have to play.

25. Listen!

If you have something to say, say it! But if you don’t have anything valuable to add, you’ll be better off listening. People don’t like silence, and someone always ends up filling it if given a chance. So let the client speak more than you and listen for the subtext. There’s often more there than in whatever they’re saying.

26. They want the bad news first.

It’s great if everything is going well, but if something isn’t, you’re going to be better off telling them what’s not working. It means they have to do something, and the more time they have to process and figure out what needs to happen. If you’re trying to hide bad news from them, they somehow always find out and all it does is degrade the relationship you’ve been building with them.

27. Problems come from misaligned expectations.

When a client has a problem with the work you’re doing, it’s often because they expected one thing but think they are getting something else. This can happen for a number of reasons. Maybe they haven’t been able to articulate the problem they’re trying to solve or the solution they want to see, or perhaps you see a different way of achieving the desired outcome but haven’t explained why it makes more sense for them. Work happens fast, and it’s easy to think things are easy to understand or will get communicated later. But, inevitably, if people feel left in the dark or expectations aren’t being met, the work will slow as you backtrack and get everyone on the same page again.

28. Over Communicate.

Especially in a new relationship, over-communicating everything is your best approach. If it’s too much, they’ll tell you and will let you know what’s important to them. What clients don’t want is to feel out of the loop or that they don’t have the answers if they need to give an update.

29. Give & Take.

Sometimes you’ll have to give a little more or overdeliver, while other times, the client team will have to realize what’s possible and make some concessions. You don’t want to find yourself in a situation where one team is always being deferred to, or the expectations are unrealistic. There has to be a balance and understanding between the agency and client teams that it has to be a partnership if they want the work and relationship to be successful.

30. Trust takes time.

All relationships take time to develop, especially between an agency and a new client, as there are so many people involved. The key thing to remember is that missteps will happen as you get to know each other and learn how to work together. It’s how you communicate and work through those miscommunications and mistakes that will make the relationship stronger.

Creativity.

Everyone is creative. No matter who had the idea or where it came from, every idea has merit at an agency. What’s hard, though, is you never know when the right idea will appear or if you’re making the right decision about what idea to pursue.

31. The simple solution is often the best.

It’s expensive to hire an agency, and I think because of that, agencies feel they need to come up with complicated solutions to make it seem like people are getting what they’re paying for. The trouble though, with this approach is that complicated solutions are often hard to execute and maintain. If the work can’t be created with the original vision in mind or the client team can’t support it, then objectively, it wasn’t a good idea. Simple ideas are easy to understand, easy to create, and easy to maintain. Don’t feel like you’re not doing your job if your idea seems too simple.

32. Every problem is the same.

After a while, you’ll realize every business has the same problems. They’re a bit different, of course, but fundamentally all of the elements are the same. Having the same problems is good and bad. Good because you’ll kind of know where to start and what obstacles to look out for. And bad because the work ends up being pretty familiar and boring. Knowing this, it’s then up to you to decide if you need to develop something new or if what you’ve done before would solve this similar problem.

33. There’s no one way of doing things.

Don’t get caught thinking there’s only one way to do something just because that’s the way it’s been done before. Even though you might see the same problems over and over again, it doesn’t matter what solution you come up with as long as it solves the problem. Of course, don’t recreate everything, but by taking a new approach, you might find there’s something you weren’t thinking of before.

34. Think big.

Everything is an opportunity. Don’t think small problems need small solutions. Sometimes the smallest problems can have the most creative solutions because you can keep things simple.

35. Start small.

Start small when you have a big idea. Build up some momentum first. If you try and take on too much too soon, you’ll lose focus as you have too much to figure out. Sequence things out, so they build on one another. 

36. Limits increase creativity.

Creative work doesn’t come from no constraints and endless possibilities. No. Creative work happens when you have to figure out how to overcome things like a small budget or little time while still meeting all of the requirements. The worst brief a client can give an agency is “no brief.”

37. Creativity happens whenever.

Your best ideas are going to come in undefined moments after you’ve been given the details and have had time to process them. Often when you’re doing something completely unrelated, not during a one-hour “creative” meeting on Thursday afternoon. The hard part is knowing you’re working against a deadline and eventually will have to come up with something. And, that being said, sometimes the best way to get a good idea is to know time is running out.

38. Invert the solution.

When you think you have the perfect way to solve a problem, stop and think about why it wouldn’t work. Think about all of the things that would make it a bad idea. By doing this, you’ll find out if you were missing something, if there’s anything you might need to change, or what might stop the idea from happening. This way, if something does come up, you’ll likely have thought about what you need to do.

39. Feedback is tough.

By the time you’re ready to show your work, you think it’s perfect. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be ready to share. And even though you know feedback is coming, it’s still tough to hear. What’s important to remember, though, is the feedback is meant to make the work better. To give you another perspective and see how others react to your work. That said, not all feedback needs to be addressed. Sometimes you get people sharing their initial reaction without really thinking it through or saying things just because they think they need to.

40. Work isn’t precious.

No matter how much time you’ve put into it or how good you think the work is, sometimes you’ll have to start over. Maybe the client changed the brief, maybe you thought about why an idea wouldn’t work and realized you wouldn’t be able to pull it off, or maybe someone else came up with a better idea. Whatever it is, sometimes you have to kill your best ideas.

How to act.

Working in advertising is all about your reputation. It’s everything and can help you get onto the projects you want to work on, recognition and promotions, and the ability to change jobs on your terms. But, it can very easily work against you if you don’t manage it. Luckily enough, though, it’s not that hard to stand out in a good way.

41. If you’re upset, mad, or angry; Wait.

Don’t send the email, don’t make an off-hand comment, don’t do anything. Just wait. Nothing good is going to come from reacting emotionally. If you need to, write the email but don’t send it. Come back in an hour and re-read it. Then, if you still think you want to send it, go ahead. But most likely, things will have already worked themselves out, or you’ll realize there’s a better way to say what you wanted to.

42. How to write.

Writing things down is the most effective way to communicate. It helps you clarify what you’re thinking and controls how people interact with your ideas. At the very least, it means they have to actively engage and are less likely to be distracted as they read what you have to say. So, be clear, concise, and well reasoned.

43. Managing your time.

Don’t wait until the last minute. The earlier you can get your work done, the better. It’ll give you time to review what you’ve done, see if there’s anything that makes it a bad idea, and think three steps ahead. You don’t want to be the one holding everyone else up.

44. Be proactive.

Don’t wait to be told what to do if you want to get ahead. Observe and seek out problems. Identify what’s wrong or could be better. Don’t wait for someone else to pick up the slack if you think something isn’t getting done.

45. Come with solutions.

If you see a problem, come with a solution. Or, if you’re not sure what solution is best, at least bring a few ideas of what you think could be done differently. Pointing out a problem without proposing a solution helps no one. It just makes more work for people and is likely something they already knew about but haven’t had the time to fix yet. Be the person to fix it.

46. Have an opinion.

Speak up when you have an idea. No one will assume you have an opinion on something or hear your point of view if you don’t share it. And, while you might think your idea isn’t good enough or won’t be helpful, know that it is as it gives people something to react to and talk about. Be able to explain why you think the way you do and not “just because.” Even better if you have research to back it up.

47. Push back on things you believe in.

If you think people are making a questionable decision, it’s up to you to say something. No matter how long they’ve been in the industry, maybe they don’t have the same experience as you to know something won’t be received the way they think it will. Also, don’t work on a project if you don’t believe in the company’s mission or values. Ask to be put on a different project because you won’t be able to produce good work for them.

48. Dress appropriately.

It might seem like agencies don’t have a dress code, but they do. It’s not suit and tie as that’s almost worse than looking sloppy. But, you need to dress sharp. It helps you look like you know what you’re doing even if you don’t. And, when your team needs someone to look good in front of a client, you’ll be who comes to mind.

49. Details matter.

The smallest things matter in advertising. Like how you write an email, making sure you show up on time, your grammar and punctuation, speaking loud enough so everyone in the room can hear you, naming your files so everyone knows what’s in them without having to open them. How you do these small things determines how you will do the big things.

50. Be excited.

In advertising, you’re going to get out of it what you put into it. So, take every opportunity that interests you, speak up, ask questions, have an opinion, and focus on the details. And most of all, have fun. The second this is no longer fun, it’s time to start looking for something else to do.

What no one will tell you.

Ok, I’m serious when I say this is the most important section of this article. These are 10 extra things about working at an advertising agency no one will talk about, and you’ll get in trouble if you bring them up. I’m bringing them up to save you some time realizing them on your own and to let you know you’re not alone in thinking things might not always be as great as they’re made to seem.

Your time is more valuable than you think.

I was making $48,000 a year as a Project Manager at my first job in New York City with a billable rate of $225 an hour. Let’s break that down. $48,000 divided by 50 weeks (2 weeks of company holidays), divided by 45 hours a week (the office was open 9a-6p), means I was making $21.33 per hour. Now, let’s double that and add a little extra and make it $50 per hour as my cost rate to cover the agency’s overhead of my salary, the office space, insurance, taxes, etc. Taking my billable rate of $225 minus my cost rate of $50 per hour means the agency was making a profit of $175 per hour on my time while I was making $21.33. All of this is to say that any agency will try and pay you as little as possible while maximizing what they can charge for your time. The only way to make more is to have some tough conversations around your salary, and if you can figure out what your billable and cost rates are, you can negotiate from a better position. Or, you can take this information and realize you can make a lot more working for yourself.

You have to set your own boundaries.

Unfortunately, you don’t get paid more if you work more. You also probably won’t get paid more if you win new business or make the agency more money. That’s just the job, really. Your salary and the contract you signed is for 40 hours a week. Working any more than that and you’re giving the agency free work and devaluing your time. Remember, agencies want you to work as much as possible, so they’re not going to be the one who sets boundaries and protects your time. That’s on you.

Working at an agency is its own skill.

It’s nice to think that good work is all you need to be recognized and respected in advertising. But it’s not. Getting ahead in advertising is a lot more about who you know and who likes you than making things that matter. Advertising is a game, and some are good at it, others get by, and a handful is bad at it. Take the time to learn how to be good at it if you want to stick around and move up.

Don’t worry about titles.

Anyone who cares about titles and dismisses people lower than them isn’t anyone you want to be involved with. They’re insecure and unable to recognize that good ideas come from anywhere. These are the same people who use jargon to intimidate as they try to convince people into thinking they know more than they do.

Bad people tend to select themselves out.

Every now and again, someone will make it through the interviewing process who doesn’t work well with others. They’ll make communicating and working together hard. They’ll only point out problems instead of coming with solutions. And, their feedback will be combative rather than collaborative. Often, these things are subtle, but everyone knows something is off. Know though that these types of people don’t last forever. Either they’ll realize it’s not a good fit and leave, or they get fired. Just be patient.

Make sure people know you did the work.

Of course, the end result is a collaboration and due to many people’s work coming together and no one can claim ownership of the whole. But, there will be certain people who have a proclivity to say the work you did is theirs. It’ll be your research, but they’ll say they discovered it. It’ll be your strategy, but they’ll say they developed it. It’ll be your idea, but they’ll say they had it first. Without drawing too much attention, make sure people know it was you who did the work. Inevitably, when the people claiming your work as theirs start getting questions, they won’t know the answer and they’ll revert to saying it wasn’t their work and put you on the spot.

Clients won’t take risks.

Even if a client says they want a big idea that challenges their industry and are willing to go for it, they never will. What they want is not to get fired or be responsible for something that didn’t go well. So, they’ll always go with the safest option, no matter how bland or uninspiring it may be.

Agencies are really working for themselves.

In the end, most agencies are trying to create work to impress themselves and their peers rather than help their client’s businesses. It’s why there are so many agency awards “competitions” where the only way to win is to pay the entry fee and submit your own work to be judged by other agency leaders. Of course, flashy work has the potential to get awards, and awards get press, and press brings attention and potential new business much more than incremental improvements to a company’s bottom line. So, don’t be surprised when the simple idea that would actually help the client’s business gets shot down because it doesn’t give the agency something to talk about.

Incentives are misaligned.

Misaligned expectations come from misaligned incentives, and there’s a fundamental misalignment in advertising no one talks about. The problem is, agencies sell outcomes but bill by the hour. When agencies are pitching to win new business, they tell a potential client about a future outcome they could have if they were to select them as their agency. But, when contracts are signed, the fee isn’t based on the outcome. Instead, it’s based on hours. So, while clients think they are buying the outcome pitched to them, they’re actually buying a defined amount of hours the agency will work. While that works out sometimes, more often than not it takes more time and resources to achieve the promised outcome than what the client paid for. So, to make up the difference, either the client will have to pay more, or the agency will have to finish the work for free. You could say this is a case of over-promising and under-delivering, but without changing how agencies are paid, and educating clients on what they’re actually buying, there will always be this misunderstanding of what the relationship is built on.

Cool brands aren’t as cool as they seem.

We all get into advertising because we want to work with the cool brands everyone knows. The ones taking risks and challenging the way we think and what we do. We want to be able to tell people we worked on the campaign they saw or, better yet, that the campaign was our idea. We want to impress people with the work we’ve done, and we think working on cool brands will help us do that. And that’s why this one might be the toughest to accept. That the cool brands aren’t ever really that cool. Once you see how they work internally or interact with the people who manage them, they lose their luster. It’s no longer exciting or fun, really. Cool brands are a lot more work. They are high maintenance and demanding and see you as a resource rather than a partner. So while the first one, two, maybe even three cool brands you work with are “cool,” you quickly realize working with cool brands isn’t worth it and you’d rather work on fun brands with nice clients with a team of people you love being with. And, that’s what makes working in advertising cool.

Alright, that’s it. Five years seemed like a long time, but looking back it wasn’t much at all. It was just enough to get started and learn a few things. If you liked this and know someone else who would too, please share it with them. And, I’d love it if you found me on Twitter, @wesjonesco, and let me know what you liked best.

Want more?

The Producer Playbook builds on all of the lessons above and tells you exactly what to do if you want to stand out at an agency. It’s tips, tricks, best practices, shortcuts, and strategies that will help you navigate company politics, work with any team, and get what you want. Everything from contracts and emails to folder structures and finances, I didn’t leave anything out. And, if you don’t like it, there’s a 30-day refund policy, no questions asked.