{"id":42785,"date":"2017-01-24T05:00:18","date_gmt":"2017-01-24T13:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/?p=42785"},"modified":"2024-04-15T01:35:02","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T08:35:02","slug":"designers-face-critique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/designers-face-critique","title":{"rendered":"How Successful Designers Face Critique"},"content":{"rendered":"

Critique. To some designers, it’s the literal equivalent to doom because some just can’t take it. Okay, at the very least, it’s really hard to take for some designers, but receiving critique<\/a> is part and parcel of being a designer. If you want to become a really successful designer, it’s all the more vital that you learn to cope with it because, frankly, critique isn’t really a negative.
\nSure, not all critique will be helpful or useful, so feel free to ignore some of it. However, every now and again, some form of critique will be offered to you that is very worthwhile because it touches on something about your work or approach that you can’t see or won’t admit yourself. Sometimes, it’s great to hear that from a third party (as long as they’re impartial, qualified and offering it in good faith).
\nTo inspire you to learn how to roll with critique<\/a>, I’ve dug deep to find impactful examples of how successful designers deal with this sometimes-dreaded reality in their industry. Here are seven examples and approaches of how successful designers tackle critique.<\/p>\n

<\/span>William Merritt Chase<\/span><\/h2>\n

\nWilliam Merritt Chase was a famous American painter who was active in the 19th<\/sup> and early-20th<\/sup> centuries. He’s also directly responsible for founding the prestigious and famous Parsons School of Design by first establishing the Chase School, its predecessor. William was associated with the Impressionist movement. Suffice it to say, he was constantly in the line of fire, as far as critique was concerned.
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\nWhen he worked as a teacher, he had a unique approach to the concept of critique. He would apply it to his students as a way of staying grounded in his own point of view<\/a> as an artist\/designer. In this way, William didn’t resist or ignore criticism; he incorporated its very reality into how he taught his students.
\nUnafraid to offer critique when he thought students needed it, he also realized how useful critiquing other’s works was to keeping himself true to his own point of view as a creative.\n<\/p>\n

<\/span>Paula Scher<\/span><\/h2>\n

\nAs the first female principal at noted design firm Pentagram, Paula has been around design for a long time. She has been involved in designing for the Museum of Modern Art<\/a>, and she even designed Microsoft’s Windows 8 and Office 2010 logos.
\nAs a woman with copious experience in the design world, Paula seems to take the more direct and no-frills approach to criticism, saying that designers can only grow by making mistakes<\/a> and first being bad at what they do…to become good at what they do.
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\nThis mentality shows an open-mindedness that’s refreshing among designers, as one of the premier ways of being made aware of mistakes is not to self-correct or notice mistakes on one’s own, but instead to listen to critique from third parties, who oftentimes are able to spot mistakes that designers by themselves can’t spot on the first attempt.\n<\/p>\n

<\/span>Paul Arden<\/span><\/h2>\n

\nThis legendary creative director had a great, long-lasting career with ad agency Saatchi and Saatchi. Perhaps his most famous contribution to design was how he masterminded British Airways’ ads that single-handedly helped to transform that airline’s fortunes.
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\nAs far as being afraid of criticism, Paul simply didn’t know what it was to know fear from critiques. His most on-point quote about how to handle critique is the following:
\n“Do not seek praise. Seek criticism.â€<\/a>
\nWhile this may be a bit too hardcore for all designers to approach in this way, it nonetheless teaches us a winning attitude to handling critique. Paul was clearly of the belief that criticism is good and extremely helpful to the designer, as it arms one with more useful information than praise can ever hope to achieve. In this way, his approach to critique was viewing it as positive feedback instead of a negative.\n<\/p>\n

<\/span>David Airey<\/span><\/h2>\n

\nA graphic designer who hails from Northern Ireland, David has done brand-identity design for various businesses and, as a bonus, is also the published author of a couple of books. Safe to say, David’s been exposed to a fair share of critique, just because his work has been out there in the public eye where it’s noticeable.
\nCuriously, David has explored the reality of critiquing and being critiqued in design with a short piece questioning the concept of constructive criticism<\/a>. While he doesn’t reach a surefire conclusion, he does put out an interesting thought: What if critiquing turned into a discipline where all of the critique was in fact positive, thereby lessening the anxiety a designer would feel about getting something wrong?
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\nPotentially, this option could make a designer more open to exploring new ideas. Then again, such an approach may not really prep designers all too well for their clients who will have negative things to say at some point in time!\n<\/p>\n

<\/span>Cassie McDaniel<\/span><\/h2>\n

\nThe design director of the Mozilla Foundation, Cassie’s an accomplished designer who’s been published in different design magazines, spoken at conferences, and worked with big brands and nonprofits. Being critiqued is something that she’s utterly familiar with, which is why it’s no surprise that her take on design criticism is so tolerant and wise.
\nFor Cassie, critiques are simply a natural part of the design and creative process<\/a> that:\n<\/p>\n