Meschler Journal--Value of Critique
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Southern New Hampshire University *
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200
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English
Date
Apr 3, 2024
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docx
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3
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Becka Meschler Lisa Birman GRA 200: Digital Design Tools Journal: Value of Critique
Part 1:
Throughout this course, we studied several Adobe programs and their uses. We created and changed several projects and started to learn how to look at someone’s work as well as our own with a critical eye to notice thing that worked well and things that may not work so well. This can be especially difficult when looking at your own work. When I look at my own work, I tend to get overly critical of what I create, and it often works against me. For example, when doing the Module 6 activity, Communicating Visually, I started over at least three times. When Module
7 came around and I had to critique my own work, I initially felt lost what needed to change since I restarted so many times. One thing that is easy with self-critiques was that I had saved previous versions of the Communicating Visually project and could see what worked in those versions and compare them
to what I had ended up producing. I was able to notice little elements like the negative spaces around certain areas and the poor spacing of images on the final product. I was able to correct the
negative space by correcting the poor spacing and adjusting the placement of images, text, and even shift the background waves to make them larger.
Part 2:
When looking at work done by others, critiquing it can be difficult as the way someone says
something can really come across as very harsh and borderline mean. You need to take the noticeable issues you see in the work and explain them while adding suggestions on how to fix them. The issue I have with this is I often feel bad and don’t explain things as well as I should trying to be overly nice to the creator. When I do that, my points and suggestions aren’t taken
seriously, and no changes are made. Finding a way to get my point across while not sounding too
aggressive is a difficult thing to do during peer critiques. The easy part of peer critiques is analyzing the work and noticing the effective elements and
the ineffective ones. Having someone look at work with fresh eyes can always be beneficial. When working on certain project for extended amounts of time, we don’t always notice little details and they can slip through the cracks. Like with the Zumiez newsletter, the first ineffective thing that I noticed was the compact spacing in the giveaway portion. Part 3:
Self-evaluation is extremely vital when it comes to designing as it helps you to be more flexible when creating and working with prompts or other people. We learn how to change things that we think aren’t working well and look at the bigger picture instead of only the one element. Critiquing ourselves can also be very difficult. As I previously mentioned, I tend to be overly critical of myself and my work which is a great pitfall for me. Another is also not being able to notice everything that isn’t working in a piece after staring at it for long. Critiques from other people are extremely valuable when creating high-quality work. Depending on the project, its possible that countless people are going to be able to view the design. Having someone else that isn’t also working on it view it and tell you what they think is effective and what isn’t so effective can be extremely beneficial, especially if multiple people give
their opinions.
Having a fellow designer give their critique of your work can be the best thing as their skill level might differ from your own. They would be able to give you tips on how to ensure that your final product will look its best, which would help you grow your skill set. Fellow designers would also be able to give multiple suggestions on how to resolve issues and which programs would work best to do so.
Prompt:
1. Refer to your project work on the visual presentation that summarized information about Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign and their associated file formats, and your work on the Module Seven Practice Activity, two instances where you
evaluated your own work
using commonly accepted standards for design elements and principles.
a.
What were some of the challenges you encountered in trying to identify needed improvements in your own work?
b.
What aspects of doing a self-critique were easy and why?
2. Consider your critique of the newsletter, an artifact for which you did a
peer critique
as part of the project.
a.
What were some of the challenges you encountered in trying to identify needed improvements in someone else’s work?
b.
What aspects of doing this peer critique were easy and why?
3. Based on your experience with critique and what you’ve learned about critique through the course resources,
reflect on the role and value of self- and peer-critique
:
a.
Why is self-evaluation a vital component in ensuring quality artifacts?
b.
What pitfalls are inherent in self-critique?
c.
Why is critique from others also necessary to ensure high-quality design?
d.
How do you think receiving feedback from others will help you grow as a graphic designer?
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