good, bad and evil critiques

Designer's block is no laughing matter.  Knowing you have the capability of producing creative solutions for communication but not being able to access that skill is a confidence killer.  I find that I get into these situations of not being able to design when all I can think about is the criticism I will get.  Ideas don't flow, thoughts are second guessed and the design process grinds to a halt.  Critiques are vital in helping designers hone their skills and maintain quality.  I know that if I am going to stay in this industry my skin needs to get a lot tougher.

On this note, I have a thing or two to say about critiques.  Critiques are often unbalanced.  I have observed cases in which bad pieces get better critiques and vice-versa.  This can be explained by human nature.  When you see a good piece that you need to critique, you immediately try to find the faults in it.  Of course it is amazing, but where could the designer make improvements?  When presented with a piece that is not great, but obviously was given time and consideration, your first instinct is to try very hard to find anything good about it.  There is also the situation of when a critique becomes a venue for the bully.  Once the bullying starts the less bold join in and the constructive part of the critique is gone.  If the critique does not leave the designer with any direction where to go next then the critique has failed.  I will grant that sometimes the direction the designer needs to go is back to the beginning.  But for the most part, if you are critiquing work and you have nothing constructive to add, perhaps it is your own analytical skills that require honing.

Clients and industry peers are not going to always be constructive.  This is a reality that one needs to be prepared for.  On the side of the client, well, clients are clients and that pretty much gives them license for all kinds of inappropriate behavior.  (especially if the designer allows it to occur by continuing a business relationship with them.) On the side of industry peers, my thoughts are they should know better.  But the worst kind of "critique gone bad" situation is in the school environment; where teachers and peers alike create an almost firing squad atmosphere when it comes to analyzing a student's work.  The argument that it is something you should get used to doesn't hold water with me.  In an education environment, the focus should be about helping the student become skilled and confident.  There is absolutely no reason to put a student on the spot and use critique as an excuse to cut confidence and to bully just to see if the student can handle it.  Harsh criticism, tough criticism, honest criticism all can be delivered in a way to guide and help a student and, pardon me if I sound repetitive, if it does not help then the critique has failed.  Thinking otherwise is like believing that training a dog to be a guard dog requires beating and starving it.  You may end up with a mean dog, but more likely you will get a timid dog that is scared of everything and utterly confused.

I don't want to be identified as one of those people who believe that we should only say nice things and try not to hurt peoples’ feelings.  You will get nowhere if you cannot handle suggestions of change.  However, I think if I were a parent I would object to a teacher calling my child a failure and never giving my child instruction on how to improve.   As a returning college student, I highly object to instructors giving critiques that focus solely on the negative and do not help me learn where I went wrong and how I can improve.  In that case, what the hell am I paying for?  I will get all the harsh and unhelpful criticism I could ever hope for once I am in the workplace.  I am paying for constructive and instructional criticism while I am learning.  Anything less than that and I am going to want my money back.