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The idea of the critique (also known as a crit) is an important element in graphic design. It is
the process of judging your work against the brief and assessing whether you managed to
achieve what you wanted to. It is the point at which you reflect on what you have been
doing, evaluate and make decisions about the direction to take next. The critique is about
assessing whether your ideas are working and adjusting them accordingly.
The critique is a central part of an art college education. It is the point when you put your
work on show and your tutors and peers give you their opinion of it. Historically this very
public process of criticism was often seen as a rite of passage. If you could survive the
critique you could survive anything! In art colleges today the critique happens in a far more
supportive and less combative environment where constructive criticism can be taken on
board much more easily. It is still a public event because getting somebody else’s viewpoint
is an important part of evaluating your work.
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Preparing your work for critique
For a critique your work doesn’t necessarily need to be completely finished, but it does need
to communicate your intentions. You need to present your work in the most self-contained
way possible, so that other people are able to see your work and understand it without you
being there to explain it to them. For a distance learner like yourself this is very evident –
you need to show your work, explain what the brief was and why you choose your particular solution.
It is useful as part of the critique process to develop a rationale. A rationale is a short
statement that outlines what you are trying to achieve, how you are going about it and what
the results are likely to be. Having a rationale, like having a research question, is an easy way to focus the process. At this stage you may have more than one possible direction, so you will have more than one rationale. Rationales are not written in stone, they can change as the project progresses but they will help you clarify your direction.
The way you present your ideas might be a combination of thumbnails, mood boards and
mock-ups along with a summary of the brief and a rationale to explain your decision making process.
Most importantly review your work as you go along with a critical eye. It can be very scary
having other people scrutinise your designs – so be prepared. Make sure that your summary
of the brief is clear, your research and development of ideas is included, your design solutions are clearly communicated and attractively presented and that your rationale is easy to understand.
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Critiquing your own work
Being self-critical is always an important part of being a designer. You have to be able to
make your own decisions without relying on other people otherwise it would take an age to
design anything. Being self-critical is not about being negative, it is about evaluating what
you are trying to achieve against what you have produced so far.
Finding an existing group to have your work critiqued by other people is also an option.
Online there are loads of opportunities for this to happen from well established graphic
design networks, informal groups established on Facebook to the OCA’s own learning logs.
Undertaking the critique is a process of going back to the brief and comparing it against your visual ideas. What were you being asked to do? Look at your work and judge whether you are answering the brief successfully. How do you think the client would judge a successful outcome to the brief? Position yourself from the client’s perspective and assess your work. Ask yourself simple questions; is it working, do you like it, do you understand it, is it missing anything?
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Research point
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?
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Research Response
During this degree I have been working on ways to analyse my progress and criticise myself and work in a more constructive manner. I am my own worst enemy and are guilty of wanting to be the best at everything NOW, and subsequently set myself up for failure every time.
Learning how to see things from the perspective of others has been really beneficial for me too. Research is key to this. To asses whether or not you’re on the right or wrong tracks, you have to be open to others interpretation of all things to gauge a generalised opinion or expectation of a particular design. You have approach all subjects without bias or personal preference. It’s quite difficult to let go, but I think I’m getting there.
Taking criticism from others was my biggest fear. I gathered feedback on my last leaflet designs from various individuals, talented individuals at that, including Graphic Designers, retired Head of design at Newsquest, Head of design for HP, Tutors, other friends and family. I was sure to tell everyone to spare my feelings. There were complete strangers that had me at their mercy.
I was surprised to find that although some feedback was negative or sometimes unexpected, I saw this feedback as a way to build on my designs going forward and get a real feel for how they are truly perceived by others. Some of my least favourite attempts were others’ favourites. A real eye opener! To my shock, there was also more good than bad and it was uplifting to hear where I was going right.
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Once your work has been critiqued
The process of critique might indicate that you need to make amendments to your design
work or that your whole direction needs to change, in which case you may need to start the
design process again. The critique is an opportunity to fully test your ideas as a working
communication and the more feedback you get the better in ensuring your designs actually
work. Try not to see going back to the drawing board a failure in anyway, this is part of the
process, trying things out and getting things wrong. It is a bit like gardening, the harder you
prune or cut back a plant the healthier the plant will return. Going back a stage will help you develop much stronger ideas in the long run.
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Occam’s Razor
Occam’s Razor is a principle set out by William of Ockham, a 14th-century English Franciscan friar, that states that any elements not really needed should be paired back to its simplest form possible; in other words, why use two things when one will do? One of the objectives of critique is working out what works and what doesn’t work, it is a process of working out what is essential and what is surplus to requirements in your design work. Pairing down your designs to the essentials by getting rid of unnecessary ornamentation and additional elements will help clarify what you are trying to communicate. This process is not about trying to get all your work to become minimal in style, but about asking yourself what each individual element of your designs is doing; keep anything that has a job to do, be it communicate a piece of information or create an overall mood, and get rid of anything that is additional dressing.
Exercise: Too much or not enough information
Posters generally, have an image and one main line of text, most often the title, followed
by additional essential information. Look around locally and identify a coming event – it could be a jumble sale, a local gig, concert or play, an exhibition or sporting fixture – and design two posters to promote it.
Make the first poster full of details and descriptions about the event, when and where it’s
taking place, what’s going on, how long it lasts, how much it costs and what to expect.
Include all the details that you think your audience might need.
For the second poster apply Occam’s Razor to pare back the information to a bare minimum – be extreme: how little information can you get away with and how few words can you use? Challenge yourself to be as simple as possible, but don’t forget the essentials or the poster won’t do the job it is intended for. Now ask yourself and other people if you can, which of the designs works best. What is the key information you need to include?
How did the feedback help you with your final design?
Make notes in your learning log. Redesign your poster using the feedback to guide you, creating a new poster that utilises the best points of both designs.
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Exercise Response
After speaking with my tutor about potential options for the poster subject, I decided to focus on more of an awareness piece, rather than an event that would only be displayed for a short period of time.
After much debate I opted for an anti-knife crime poster, something that does seem to be a growing issue in the UK over the last decade.
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Target Audience
I thought about the message and who I’d like to promote it to. The answer to that is ‘everyone’ really, but I feel the people that would benefit from this message would be teens and young adults, mostly (but not limited to) young men.
I considered the mentality of impressionable young adults, what inspires them and how I could gain their attention. Young people are mostly interested in social and mainstream media these days. The celebrities and their lifestyles, Music, Music Videos, TV shows, Fashion, Image, Money, Games etc. Young adults aspire to become the people they see. Some role models can be positively influential, others are not as positive.
Teens have an urge to be adults before their time and unfortunately media only encourages this behaviour. Young adults feel this pressure and are sometimes led to engage in activities (sometimes illegal activities) that they see in Music Videos, Films, Games etc as a means to gain respect from their peers. These activities include alcohol and drug abuse, violence, crimes such as theft, drug dealing, gang activity and so on. All these activities are closely related to knife crime and any involvement in such crimes makes an individual more likely to carry a knife or come in to contact with someone that does, putting their lives and others at risk.
A sad reality is that most young people carry a knife without the expectation of using it, but to look cool, or to put fear in others, or sometimes just to protect themselves, without any idea of the consequences.
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Distribution
Knife crime tends to more prominent in big cities and deprived local areas. I imagined the poster would be best displayed in busy cities, public places, bus stops, other transportation links, places of education such as colleges and universities, maybe in the toilets of bars/pubs/clubs and in Community centres.
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The Message
A hard-hitting factual message about the devastating effects of knife crime, and a look at the consequences to those choosing to carry a knife either to inflict harm, or for protection.
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Inspiration
I researched other anti-knife crime posters and campaigns and found the below inspiration. As expected, the mood in most designs is dark and moody. Using colours such as black and red with flashes of whites and greys to instil a sense of danger.
Designers use strong, realistic and sometimes uncomfortable photography and illustrations, as well as minimal but impactful typefaces to convey hard-hitting messages.
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Reflection
I thought it would help to create a spider-diagram consisting of any keywords relevant to the subject and target audience, and all elements I’d expect to see in my own poster design.
Sketching
For the ‘Too much’ poster I needed to establish ways to have enough relevant information so that it met the brief, but not SO much that it was an intentionally bad design with unnecessary information / elements, just for the sake of it.
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Too Much – In the first mock-up I sketched a fairly obvious design with a knife in hand. The knife relevant to the subject, and the hand holding it representing the responsibility we take when we carry knives. I was keen to stick to colours like black, white, reds and grey’s. I was looking to incorporate blood in to the design but without making it too busy. I imagined a pool of blood could be used to divide some of the stats and other information with blood dropping from the tip of the knife, with the title ‘Don’t have blood on your hands’.
Not Enough – To strip this back, I took away what I felt was unnecessary in the ‘Too much’ version. I didn’t feel the contact information was required, although I have seen it in other designs where emergency services are the main contact (999 and 101). However, it didn’t feel balanced with the overall design. Perhaps it would be better placed at the bottom of the poster, but then that would disturb the idea of blood on the ground.
After that I wondered if the pool of blood was necessary, as in this version of the design my intention was to have less information about statistics etc, requiring less elements to divide type. I tried to rely more on the use of a powerful image and/or typeface to convey the message. ‘Don’t have blood on your hands’ becoming a more prominent feature, and the enlargement of a more condensed statistical figure, and no hashtags. Swapping the positioning of knife and typeface looked more balanced overall too. The lines over the stats are blood drips, in case you were wondering.
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Too Much – Moving forward the next concept I began with info and logo at the bottom as you’ll find in most of the inspiration posters sourced in my research above. I looked into what the correct layout for contact details and logos is, and judging from my observations of a few sources on Google, this looks to be the best method.
A knife, like in the first sketch, seemed a key element that I didn’t want to get rid of just yet, but I considered how else I might incorporate it in to a design. I felt the statistics were another key element and wondered how I could combine the 2 key elements.
Going back to the message I was trying to convey to young adults – The affects and consequences of carrying a knife. Other than statistical facts that might not initially ‘grab’ some of the target audiences attention, I felt there was a need more more visual elements, be that either illustrations or photographs.
Unfortunately young adults considering carrying a knife, or already carrying one, are likely to be involved in other illegal activities. A criminal record and time in prison is an inevitable consequence of that behaviour should it continue through life, but the younger generation can be naive, highly influenced by peers and forget consequences such as doing time in prison. Prison bars / Prisoner / Handcuffs etc were things springing to mind, so I got looking for some inspiration.
Not Enough – Once again I stripped back the sketch this time, and instead of adding contact details as before, moving the logo in it’s place – I preferred the balance with the logo in the centre bottom. The knife was another easy object to cancel out this time. I felt some of the prison images I had found would be more impactful alone, with a minimal typeface to support it, but punchy enough to grab someone’s attention.
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Too Much – For the final mock-up I played with an idea I had thought of earlier that never came to fruition – Lyrics from famous Hip Hop music. Something a lot of the audience would listen to, relate to, and aspire to. I found various lyrics that worked but couldn’t work out a balanced concept that showed the anti-crime side of it, without creating a ‘tribute’ to the artists, which I felt could give off the wrong message.
Then Doris Day popped in to my head… ‘When I was just a little girl, I asked my Mother “what will I be?”….’ I thought of ways I could change the lyrics to make them more dark and fitting. It seemed to work.
Rather than opting for knives and prison objects / images, some other hard-hitting concepts I saw in the inspiration above used references to death / funerals / graves etc. As controversial as it is, it’s another potential consequence of carrying a knife which often goes ignored until it’s too late.
I felt maybe a message on a gravestone…. Son, Grandson etc “Carried a knife for protection” RIP… On a sad, gloomy photograph or textured background. Contact details and logo to the bottom as before, with stats below the lyrics to summarise the message.
Not Enough – Again, ‘not enough’ was just a case of stripping back the original sketch. I began with contact details, keeping the logo in the same position. The stats didn’t seem as necessary at this point. Provided the lyrics and headstone gave enough away, they could be strong enough on their own.
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Conclusion
- The first concepts were a bit boring and wasn’t sure they would have enough impact. I also didn’t like the layout of too much.
2. This concept was my favourite. I felt it said what it needed to say and was keen to use bold stats and some of the photographs I had sourced in my research as the focal point.
3. While I liked the idea, I preferred the initial concept of Hip Hop lyrics more, and couldn’t get it out of my head. A Hip Hop artist / group like Biggie Smalls or Wu Tang Clan would have made much more impact on the target audience than Doris Day. Would youngsters even know who Doris Day was, or what that song is?
….Did I just say youngsters?
Poster Designs
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Too much:
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Not Enough:
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Conclusion
Too much – Actually, the design turned out better than I had expected. After lots of trial and error with various photo’s I decided on this. It had the ‘moodiness’ I was looking for and I think it contrasts well with other colours in the design. I played around with the top background section to make it more bloody, as with my first sketch I had been quite keen to use blood as a shock factor and this gave off that impression without being too much of a distraction. I used more than one statistic for that ‘extra’ element, because one didn’t seem enough to warrant being ‘too much’. I feel the message is easy to understand and would appeal to the intended audience. It would also sit well in the environments I had imagined it would be distributed.
Not enough – After stripping the design back to basics, I actually think I prefer this version. It’s even darker in mood, and although there is no blood I think that allows you to focus more on the message. The target audience wouldn’t necessarily want to read both stats and passers by don’t always have time to stop and read, so enlarging the one stat gave it more of an instant impact in my opinion.
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Feedback
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Paul Naylor – Head of Design – Support Warehouse / Owner – The Documentalist
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Marilyn Chatburn – Retired Regional Advertisement Sales Rep – Newsquest
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Suzanne – Retired Sales Manager – Keighley News (Newsquest)
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Tim Longthorn – Senior Graphic Designer – Visuality Group Ltd
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Wesley Alcorn – Graphic Designer – Digbeth Dining Club / Owner – Dead Pixels / Wezism Designs
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Alex Bamford (Dad) – Senior Graphic Designer – Freelance
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Revised Designs
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Conclusion
Overall I found the feedback really helpful. Although it was conflicting in some areas, it helped me to reach a general consensus so that I was able to move forward with the designs.
This exercise taught me that sometimes there may need to be a discussion around meeting everyone’s needs and in some cases compromises on all parts may need to be made.
Appreciate that the message and image perhaps didn’t marry up, given that I was trying to appeal to a younger audience. So after searching for other images that I could use instead, I found what you’ll see above and edited them to contrast with the designs as the original black and white image had.
I tried changing the font of header as Paul had mentioned, to a military style I had used in my leaflets, and others similar styles. In the end I wasn’t happy with the results so stuck with the original.
I agree that the stats conflicted with the message. What is more important – The crime stats or the idea of ending up in jail? Well in my mind – all of it, but for this to work it needed more focus on one specific topic, and so I changed the stats to something more relevant to knife crime associated with children.
Increasing the size of the header and changing the colour of the stat seemed like a positive move.
I’m not sure how I feel about the typeface now on the right hand side in the ‘too much’ posters. However, this advice was taken from someone much more experienced than myself and so I have faith that it was the correct decision.
Overall I feel ‘less comfortable’ with the designs now than before. I think this is simply due to my familiarity with the original design. It will always be difficult to alter something to some else’s tastes, but in reality it is unlikely that you would ever create a design for a client and it be right for them the first time. Another lesson learnt.
Would I have done anything different? Totally… I would have questioned myself a lot more during the process. I would have been more daring and taken a more creative approach to what was a ‘fairly open brief’ as Tim mentions above. That said, I do feel they serve their purpose. It has given me more experience using the software I’m using too, so all great experience I can move forward with.
Graphic Design - Core Concepts: A log by Jade Wylie 