Have you ever sat on a design call and thought, "there's a lot of voices here but how big is the actual team of designers on this project?" Sadly, as small efficient indie studios were consumed by holding companies and global consultants trying to in-house great design, design projects became a hotbed for middle managers and actually fairly hostile to the best talent agencies claim to attract.

The problem, like a lot of things, is infinite scale. At some point you run out of LeBron and Giannis but all the rookies need a heavy hand. Sadly, all that middle management adds up and it doesn't improve the work. Have you ever project-managed or had an account manager talk their way into a Cannes Lion? Us neither.

THE BIG NAMES

Global agencies rely on super senior designers' work to impress clients and close deals, only to swap them out for far less senior staff who require (at least in Management's mind) heavy oversight and layers of middle managers.