Critique Th!s

I have been looking around lately and I cannot believe what I am reading about the world of online art in the way of web design. I am seeing the angry critics grow from within each professional artist. Not only am I seeing these critics emerge from mediocre designers, I am seeing that these artists have little or no compassion for those artists that are just beginning in their career.

I come from a traditional arts background – paint and pencils. A background that was established way before the internet and computer graphic design. I am accustomed to teachers tossing artwork around like Frisbees and trash if it didn’t meet the requirements of the assignment. That was college. I thought that would have subsided after the emergence of computer graphic design. The web is still fairly new in innovative design techniques and there are so many barriers to push through. If anything, there should be a greater union amongst the world of web design. Yet with the growth of designer’s forums, it only made more mean critics and reduced the amount of knowlegeable teachers. Everyday on the web I see that my views about art should be the same as everyone else. NOT!

What is the purpose of becoming an artist if you can’t create what you want? Standards?..OK. Cross browser compatiblity?..OK. But what about those first few designs for the new career artist? Yes, I know, if you are paid to be a professional, then you work should be of a certain caliber. I get that. But when I see so many blatant attacks on people asking for help in the form of critiquing, it becomes a slaughter house. One drop of fresh blood in the water and here come the sharks ripping a designer and their work to shreds.

We have Macromedia Studio vs Adobe, PC vs Mac, and tables vs complete CSS layouts. And still web and graphic designers get online in forums and comment boxes forgetting that there is so much to learn, so much to know. The best of the web designers have to begin each of their days with RSS feeds and articles on web advancements and browser wars. Others have to stay in the books to familiarize themselves s with the basic rules of layout design until it becomes habit. But then I see so many times, the harsh words of “That is not good design” or “That is horrible.” – really without many intelligent words to back it up. Do words like this show you’re a good designer? Or is the big bad critic afraid say more than the “easy” words?

So ok, Mr./Ms. critic you say his/her/my design, layout, or navigation buttons are bad. Why? And how do I fix the design disaster? Do you have visual proof that can help those that are asking for help? Are you willing to show your stuff or list the books you've written on design? That shows me how good of a designer one can be. Be a leader – not a screamer. Even football coaches compliment before criticizing. Help a designer become better. That is the best art any creative person can produce. It not only helps a new career artist asking for help, it also helps the critic focus on more promoting good design and less on doing nothing for the world of art.


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