Q&A Video – Dealing with Criticism

Today’s Talking Shop question comes from @iKitty. Here question is:

“What to do with criticism? Not everyone takes it the same and sometimes it can be too harsh. Can’t wait for the new episode!”

That is a great question! We as designers tend to put our heart and soul into our work. This is especially true if its a personal project of ours or for a project we feel strongly about. After working so hard on a design, we can get emotionally attached to the design. As a result, we can sometimes take critiques and criticism personally.

Dealing with Criticism from Danny Outlaw on Vimeo.

Being able to take criticism is an important skill to acquire if you want to be a better designer. If you constantly have a know it all attitude, you are likely to stay stuck in your own personal design rut and never really get any better. Your skills will improve, but at a much slower pace than those who are open to criticism.

My best piece of advice as far as taking taking criticism is to take it with a grain of salt. You have to keep in mind that 90% of the people that offer up criticism are going to be people that have no real education or experience in the field you are asking criticism in. I tend to almost never listen to what clients say when they criticize my work. I’ll make their changes as requested without a big argument, but I don’t let their comments affect me at all.

Now if someone like Elliot Jay Stocks had something to say about my work, that would be a whole other story. Pick and choose whos comments you let effect you and take to heart. I have a core set of people that I share my work with and ask for criticism. It is these peoples opinions and thoughts that I value the most. I make listen to comments made by others, but their impact won’t be nearly as strong as those that come from my friends and colleges.