Throughout the past five years I’ve sat in on countless critique sessions. As any current or past art student knows, these can be some of the most uncomfortable and daunting situations as they pull our judgments into question. What has made these experiences unpleasant for me in the past is plain and simply the fact that so many people do not know how to give good critique. By good critique I don’t mean that they sit there and say “That is pretty.” I mean that as adults we should know how to defend our opinions and state them in a way that does not belittle the person who’s work is on display.
The other day in my senior level design class it was time for a critique. A good amount of our class was not in attendance and about 40% of the ones who did come did not have any work to show. So the four of us who were ready went, and since no one wanted to go first, I figured I’d take the first line of bullets. As confident as I was about my designs before I went into class I definitely left feeling depressed. It took me a couple of days to realize that only a couple of people gave me real criticisms, and most of those came from my professor. I had to sift through all the comments to find the ones that were worthy of keeping.
What really upset me was not my critique though, at the end of the class another girl in my class went. Quite possibly in one of the rudest gestures ever, one of our classmates looked at her spacing, pushed the girls hand off of her mouse on her own laptop, clicked on it and then exclaimed “EW spaces, you know you can do tabs right? You do know that right?” The look on the girls’ face was really just upsetting, it looked like she was going to explode from humiliation.
The point of this blog is to give some tips as to how to properly critique something, I say something because most jobs use critiques in one way or another, whether it’s art related or not. This is also something that you will (hopefully) find useful whether you’re in school or in the professional world.
I’ll use a book cover for this example, the book is “The DaVinci Code” by Dan Brown.
1.) Unsubstantiated opinions do not matter.
An opinion is something we truly can’t change since they involve a persons’ unique experiences and taste levels.
Examples of this are:
“I don’t like it”
“It’s ugly”
“I love it”
These phrases are usually not welcomed in critiques because they’re very elementary, however if you must use one of these phrases, do not leave them hanging out there. First off it’s rude, but more importantly these kind of phrases take away from what we’re supposed to get out of critiques, which is valuable input. How do you avoid leaving them hanging? You..
2.) Back it up.
What is it about the piece that you like or dislike? In any piece of work there’s a million things that we can dissect. To list just a few:
Color
Balance
Symmetry / Asymmetry
Contrast
Typography
Hierarchy
Treatments
Artwork
Juxtapositioning
Size
Type of paper
Type of binding
Etc…etc…
Therefore “I love it” can turn into the following:
The chosen shades of red and yellow work well together to create a sense of urgency.
The hierarchy between the title, author’s name and other lines of text in the cover work well, the most prominent things in yellow and the backup text in white.
The typeface chosen, while simple, works because of its weight. It makes it stand out more than a lighter font face would.
It then becomes a substantiated opinion, that being that it is supported by concrete items. We can like or dislike something, but we cannot just say so. What is it that works and doesn’t work? When we commit to backing up what we say, we help the person with the current project, as well as with any future projects.
3.) Learn the jargon.
If you’re a design student, you should know better than to say that the font is “cute” or “spaced out.” Like every other specialization in the world, there is vocabulary that goes along with the design field. So in a critique, it is important to use the right terminology. (i.e: kerning, leading, serifs, etc..)
Not only does it help you not look foolish, but it encourages the correct type of dialogs. I will post a list of vocabulary in my next blog because that deserves a section all of its own.
4.) Come prepared.
It is difficult to critique something when it’s not in front of you as it would be in its final format. This means that if it’s going to be printed double sided on letter sized paper with bleeds, then your rough draft that comes to the critique needs to be printed double sided on letter sized paper with bleeds. It’s hard to critique design work on a computer screen because the colors don’t come out the same. Also in order to gauge how the typography is working, we need to see it as it is, not blown up to whatever the computer says.
If you don’t come prepared to show work, at least be prepared to actively engage in critiques. People go through arduous amounts of work in order to present something on critique days. Who knows, you may be surprised at how some of the comments for other people could affect you and your project as well.
5.) Show respect.
Not everybody likes critiques, I think we all know that. However, there are people that genuinely benefit from it. Some of the things to not do:
Roll your eyes
Sleep
Make jokes at someone’s expense
Talk during a critique to a friend
Consistently look at the time
Look completely uninterested
I’ve noticed that these kinds of behaviors make the people presenting more nervous and pressured for time which is unfair, they are entitled to your time, thoughts and comments just as you are entitled to theirs.
Though these are only a few tips written in the most vague of ways, I hope that they serve in at least making you aware of how you could better critique something. The worst feeling is leaving a critique feeling like you were attacked since the point is to help before the final phase of the project.
the xtrovert
)
The Art of Critiques
21 11 2007Throughout the past five years I’ve sat in on countless critique sessions. As any current or past art student knows, these can be some of the most uncomfortable and daunting situations as they pull our judgments into question. What has made these experiences unpleasant for me in the past is plain and simply the fact that so many people do not know how to give good critique. By good critique I don’t mean that they sit there and say “That is pretty.” I mean that as adults we should know how to defend our opinions and state them in a way that does not belittle the person who’s work is on display.
The other day in my senior level design class it was time for a critique. A good amount of our class was not in attendance and about 40% of the ones who did come did not have any work to show. So the four of us who were ready went, and since no one wanted to go first, I figured I’d take the first line of bullets. As confident as I was about my designs before I went into class I definitely left feeling depressed. It took me a couple of days to realize that only a couple of people gave me real criticisms, and most of those came from my professor. I had to sift through all the comments to find the ones that were worthy of keeping.
What really upset me was not my critique though, at the end of the class another girl in my class went. Quite possibly in one of the rudest gestures ever, one of our classmates looked at her spacing, pushed the girls hand off of her mouse on her own laptop, clicked on it and then exclaimed “EW spaces, you know you can do tabs right? You do know that right?” The look on the girls’ face was really just upsetting, it looked like she was going to explode from humiliation.
The point of this blog is to give some tips as to how to properly critique something, I say something because most jobs use critiques in one way or another, whether it’s art related or not. This is also something that you will (hopefully) find useful whether you’re in school or in the professional world.
I’ll use a book cover for this example, the book is “The DaVinci Code” by Dan Brown.
1.) Unsubstantiated opinions do not matter.
An opinion is something we truly can’t change since they involve a persons’ unique experiences and taste levels.
Examples of this are:
These phrases are usually not welcomed in critiques because they’re very elementary, however if you must use one of these phrases, do not leave them hanging out there. First off it’s rude, but more importantly these kind of phrases take away from what we’re supposed to get out of critiques, which is valuable input. How do you avoid leaving them hanging? You..
2.) Back it up.
What is it about the piece that you like or dislike? In any piece of work there’s a million things that we can dissect. To list just a few:
Therefore “I love it” can turn into the following:
It then becomes a substantiated opinion, that being that it is supported by concrete items. We can like or dislike something, but we cannot just say so. What is it that works and doesn’t work? When we commit to backing up what we say, we help the person with the current project, as well as with any future projects.
3.) Learn the jargon.
If you’re a design student, you should know better than to say that the font is “cute” or “spaced out.” Like every other specialization in the world, there is vocabulary that goes along with the design field. So in a critique, it is important to use the right terminology. (i.e: kerning, leading, serifs, etc..)
Not only does it help you not look foolish, but it encourages the correct type of dialogs. I will post a list of vocabulary in my next blog because that deserves a section all of its own.
4.) Come prepared.
It is difficult to critique something when it’s not in front of you as it would be in its final format. This means that if it’s going to be printed double sided on letter sized paper with bleeds, then your rough draft that comes to the critique needs to be printed double sided on letter sized paper with bleeds. It’s hard to critique design work on a computer screen because the colors don’t come out the same. Also in order to gauge how the typography is working, we need to see it as it is, not blown up to whatever the computer says.
If you don’t come prepared to show work, at least be prepared to actively engage in critiques. People go through arduous amounts of work in order to present something on critique days. Who knows, you may be surprised at how some of the comments for other people could affect you and your project as well.
5.) Show respect.
Not everybody likes critiques, I think we all know that. However, there are people that genuinely benefit from it. Some of the things to not do:
I’ve noticed that these kinds of behaviors make the people presenting more nervous and pressured for time which is unfair, they are entitled to your time, thoughts and comments just as you are entitled to theirs.
Though these are only a few tips written in the most vague of ways, I hope that they serve in at least making you aware of how you could better critique something. The worst feeling is leaving a critique feeling like you were attacked since the point is to help before the final phase of the project.
the xtrovert
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Tags: art, book covers, commentary, graphic design, school, Tips
Categories : Critiques, Design, Tips