Research Point (Page 44, OCA Graphic Design): Critiquing my work
How do you approach being self-critical? What issues does it raise? Do you have friends, family, colleagues or a group who will critique your work for you?
Thinking about critiquing my own work is not as simple as it might appear. There is obviously a process of decision-making and editing that occurs without which I would never be able to select a final design, but surfacing what at first appears to be an intuitive and not necessarily conscious process is not easy. Inevitably it raises aesthetic concerns about beauty, ugliness, and so on, my first response to the question of how I critique my work is ‘I know it when I see it’ and ‘it’s the version I like’. A response that I accept may be less than helpful and doesn’t necessarily give me, let alone anyone else, an insight into my design process.
Design Council ‘Double Diamond’ model
In researching ways to describe the process I came across the Design Council’s “Double Diamond” four step model:
- Discover
- Define
- Develop
- Deliver
Although this seems to apply more to physical product design I thought the iterative process of diverging and converging seemed familiar, indeed it is very like a model I developed for my own research process in terms of my organisational studies. I find this awareness a useful part of my own reflective practice because it helps give me a sense of when I might be opening out (idea generating) and when I need to focus down (problem definition and solving). In getting to understand this process I can start to recognise times when I have moved through the process and narrowed things down too quickly or when I am spending too long idea generating. Sometimes this is when it is useful to bring in external feedback, as I may not always spot for myself how something might be developed further or focused down more.
After a bit of research there seems to be some common areas of advice around how to review your design work:
- Make sure you are answering and working to the brief: as a freelance consultant I am very familiar with working to a brief and also recognising that the contracting process can be iterative as a project develops
- Consider current trends: this to me needs to balance of what is ‘on trend’ and what is gimmicky or trying too hard. You don’t want a design that looks very dated or out of touch or lacking in ideas. Equally, it seems to me to reflect back to the brief – is the client looking for something timeless, fresh, traditional, contemporary and so on
- Try different perspectives: upside down, monochrome, stripped back to outline and so on
- Slow down and step back: this is something familiar to me from my work writing, I need to have time to review and edit (although this is not always within my control)
- Remember design theory: colour, composition, typography, balance and so on
- Make a storyboard: tell the story of the design. I have a preference to lay different ideas out on the floor or put them on the wall so I can physically see and live with them for a while
- Emotional attachment: there is another element that doesn’t seem to get mentioned very much, which for me is important and that is about emotional engagement with your ideas. I know there are ideas I become wedded to and all the rational analysis in the world makes it hard to shift from that idea
I think there are some basic questions that I follow that echo the process in the course workbook, they are not necessarily always in awareness and that is something to be developed further:
- Have I answered the brief?
- Is the design usable (I might add beautiful, funny, happy etc., if it’s appropriate to the brief)?
- Do I like the concept at a glance?
- Is the design trendy?
- What is the message or idea? Does it communicate what I am intending?
- Am I emotionally engaged (if so to what degree)?
I like the point made by Design Shack –
“Good design answers questions. It often answers them before users have a chance to even ask them.”
Interestingly, it is often the approach I take in my consultancy work too – my self-reflection stems from asking ‘what question am I trying to answer?’
In terms of wider feedback I have family and friends who are often willing to share their opinions. I also make use of two of the OCA Facebook fora (Photography Level 1 and Visual Communications). I haven’t shared anything through OCA Discuss yet, partly a usability issue because of accessing the site on occasion, and I think partly because of a need to build my confidence in a new field first.
