we spend a lot of time and energy creating our designs making things that almost feel like
extensions of ourself and then somebody slams a design into the ground in a burst of negativity
this might be from a fellow designer a random person on the internet or even our clients
but how should we deal with these situations so that we can grow stronger and better
as graphic designers i feel one of the most important things to do is first to consider
who or where the criticism is coming from what is your relationship with this person
if it's somebody you know and you're close to then the criticism may very well be valid
then again people can sometimes do things in reaction to strong emotions such as jealousy
or envy this will be rare and more often than not if somebody you are close to is dishing out
some criticism then it's likely valid but if a random person on the internet has given you
some criticism it is still important to remain open about what they're saying as designers we
shouldn't build walls and deflect every single bit of criticism that comes our way if a designer acts
this way that designer will not grow in terms of their skills and the body of the work they produce
if it is in fact a random person giving us some criticism listen to what they're saying and try to
be objective about it furthermore ask somebody whose opinion you value about that criticism
see if you can get another point of view on the situation but if you do end up getting multiple
criticisms from random people on a similar kind of point then it's a very strong indicator there's
something wrong with part of your work sometimes criticism will be vague and in fact this is often
the case an example could be where you post a logo design online and you get a comment
along the lines of that logo design does look so bad initially this can hurt or can cause some
kind of concern within the designer with vague criticism it's important to probe deeper for more
information this is a good way to determine if that person has any validity with their comments
if they cannot provide a good reason for the logo being quote unquote bad then it's a good
sign that person is merely being negative for the sake of being negative if they do have some solid
reasoning behind the comments you then have information to use for improving your designs
having constructive criticism is so powerful because you then see
errors or points of improvement on your designs that you didn't see before
that's why it's important to be open to criticism and comments on your work so
one crucially important thing to realize is that often criticism of a design is entirely subjective
on my before and after style videos i do get a lot of criticism and comments on the designs
i make over there and if i look deeper a lot of these comments are just entirely subjective maybe
somebody thinks that i've created a bad typography layout when in fact what i've designed actually
looks just fine their suggestion might also look fine as well but their criticism has come from an
entirely subjective standpoint basically sometimes it's just a matter of taste and opinion that's not
to say that i don't design bad things from time to time you want to try and decipher if the criticism
is based on the technical fault of yours a lack of skill and knowledge or if it's purely subjective
one thing that is hugely prevalent online is where somebody will argue with you
while dishing out some criticism if somebody is just straight up arguing
then it's usually due to imposter syndrome or some kind of underlying insecurity that they have
either way you still want to be open and listen to what people are saying
if someone is being really harsh and confrontational it's best to just step
away and let them do their thing there's nothing constructive to your work about an all-out brawl
so here's a good tip about taking criticism from people online if you have somebody who has come
out strongly with criticism of your work take a deeper look into that person if you can check
out their social media accounts and also their portfolio of work see if they have skills or
experience to back up their criticism is their social media full of negative comments and hate
knowing who this person is can give rise to the reason behind their criticism
you wouldn't want to take harsh criticism so seriously if it comes from someone who cannot
even design to save their life but still be open about what they say and just be objective
here's something that can help you shake off false criticism remind yourself of the goal or
the function of your design what is its purpose so keeping on a theme of logo designs maybe the
mission in the brief was to design a logo that was outdated for an existing brand who needed a new
identity does your design actively achieve that brand mission if the answer is yes then you can
take strong criticism of that design as being more subjective or even false there is something that
many designers do regarding criticism and it's really really wrong it's about how they react
what is your first reaction when you read or hear some negative comments on your work
do you get hurt maybe you even lash out and get angry the right thing to do is to take a few
breaths and compose yourself and then evaluate the criticism with everything mentioned in the video
today so is it valid who has criticized you is it just one person or multiple people can the
negative feedback be down to subjectivity or is it maybe something technically wrong with your work
and then maybe get an opinion from someone who you respect and who knows you and your
work being a graphic designer and furthermore being someone who's on social media and with
a big audience like myself it is good to have a thick skin and to grow a thick skin
this doesn't happen automatically it does take time and experience to be able to shake
off bad or negative comments but like i said before the main thing is to keep an open mind
and listen to what people are actually saying if you want to see more videos about graphic
design do click one on screen and until next time guys design your future today peace