Too often within the design community, I’ve come across vile and harsh words said towards another designer’s work. Myself included. It has always been something that has bothered me over the years because that is not how we were taught to examine design in school—it just became the way interacted with something not our own, or from our own [immediate group of colleagues].
And it becomes this question of, “why?” How have we shifted from a small tight-knit community of designers working together to better our output to just spreading hate?
After reading “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed” by Jon Ronson and having a very pleasant conversation with a theatrical clown (yes, a clown)—I realize that this might be due to two reasons. One is our own insecurities—wanting to find other bad work out there to make ourselves feel better. To let everyone else know that our work is worthwhile. Self-validation.
The other, I think is an idea a little harder to grasp, but something that Jon Ronson touched upon in his book that I think applies here. It’s this idea that, with the onset of social media and the ease of which we can share ideas in this new age, that we have taken it upon ourselves as accomplished, professional designers, to out those that we think have wronged our community by putting out what we would consider, “subpar” work. So we shame and let everyone else know that this is an affront to what we have worked so hard to create.
But the truth of the matter is, we don’t know shit about the other person’s work. We as designers have a whole process of the design launch, market research, concept research, sketching, exploration, self-editing, presenting, generating feedback from the client, generating feedback from the audience, and editing again. It’s a long and convoluted process. And from the outside, we don’t know what the story was behind the launch, the research, presentation, client and audience feedback. We don’t know the decisions and asks that were generated to create the final piece.
We could be skeptical of the designer’s technical capabilities, but again—how do we know what their story is? They could still be in school and learning, they could just be right out of school and learning what it’s really like to work for a client instead of a professor, they could be self-taught, trying to find their voice and their style, and their process.
Designs are living. Their meanings and people’s perceptions of every design changes every day because it’s all based on experience. Someone could have experienced a really good event while being around a specific brand, and they forever associate the two together. The same could be said for a really bad experience. It doesn’t have to be with the design itself, perse, but it could be collateral damage from something bigger.
It should be our job as a community to elevate people, to help, and encourage. Not to tear down. Otherwise, growth within will be stunted. And we’ll be left in our own feedback loops, patting each other on the back or shunning others.
Because it was created with a purpose, we can decipher to an extent if it is successful or not. And if it isn’t, we shouldn’t ridicule or just say “I don’t like it” or “It sucks”. There should be more to the statement. Ask yourself “why” and explain. Sometimes you might find that the disagreement comes from a place of jealousy, rather than a place of thoughtfulness.
Design should always be met with constructive criticism and mindful observance if we want it to grow and keep reaching new potentials.
So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson was a recommended read from the twitter account @forexposure_txt where the account holder refuses to release the names of people who ask creatives to do work for exposure. His reasons are sound, and after reading the book myself, feel like this is something we should carry with us throughout all aspects of our lives.