What if I told you I have a secret formula that gives you the power to judge any design and tell whether it’s a fabulous work of art or a common design with no artistic qualities. Would you dare to know?
Art critique has always been a tough subject throughout history and judging a design is not an easy job, it takes years of education, experience, and a good eye for seeing art to be able to tell a good piece of work from a bad one, but I am about to give you a “formula”, “framework” or … checklist, if you may, that if used properly can help you judge any design more efficiently.
The difficulty in judging a design, professionally, is in knowing what are the good qualities in design to search for in the first place. Another challenge, even for the professional artists and art critiques is being able to judge without involving your personal taste!
This is the first part of The Critique checklist!
1 Ask yourself, Is my opinion on this design visually relevant or am I judging based on my own personal taste? Before giving an opinion on design make sure you can back up your opinion with facts! for example, instead of saying “I don’t like the pink background color” you can say something like “I don’t think the background matches the color of the Logo”. By backing up your statement you can help the designer understand the reason for your critique better and make changes accordingly.
Design by Lisa Jacobs
2 Function! Does the design do what it was created to do? is it sending the right message? make sure all the required information is present in the design. By just looking at the logo can you tell me that it is for a photography studio? If yes then this is a functional design! Functionality is not just for logo designs but is a factor to be considered in all fields of design, If you are looking at a design of a poster for an upcoming event, make sure all the important information such as Title, place date and time, location and the event producers are all mentioned and easily readable. This makes a poster functional.
3 Audience! Make sure the design is appropriate for the audience it is intended for. Is the design made for a specific age range like children, teenagers, or adults? or maybe a specific group of people like musicians, teachers, students, dancers, etc… Based on the audience, make sure the design is appropriate and relevant. Maybe a classic black and white cake wouldn’t be the perfect design for a children’s birthday party.
This is a logo for a barbershop with mostly young men as clients, do you think the design is appropriate for its intended audience?
4 Meaning. Most of the great works of art from paintings to sculptures to illustrations, often come with a meaning them, a concept or thought. A design with a concept or meaning is more often than not a stronger piece of art because it is deeper and can connect to a broader range of people. When judging a design try to search for a concept in the piece you’re looking at and make sure that although the design has a concept, the idea isn’t too vague and hard to understand.
Design by Pawel Kuczynski
Did you get the concept behind these illustrations? Maybe these made you think a little, Maybe if you show these to your friends they will each have a different take on the idea behind these illustrations. This is the power of art, it can make you think and give you ideas about the world, It’s a different experience for every individual, and it brings us closer to the people around us by showing us that our ideas and emotions, no matter how strong and deep, can be felt and understood by others, can be shared, and can be accepted.
By using this small checklist, of keeping away our personal taste, checking for functionality, appropriation according to the audience, and understanding the concept, we can be better critiques of art and design. Of course, it is worth mentioning that these aren’t the only factors that determine a good piece of art from a bad piece of art and that it might not apply to each and every design we see, but it is merely a simple guide to help us judge art more professionally.