Notes, thoughts.

Opinion: No one ever built a statue to a critic.

Critique. It’s a critical aspect of our profession, and something easily misunderstood by a general audience. It’s something I was reminded of, quite viscerally, the other day when reading the comments feed on my review of Brand Sydney on Brand New. Much to my surprise, a representative of Brand Sydney waded into the comment stream, with this rather interesting comment (after the jump).

Hey all you ‘design gurus’. Get over yourselves. It’s just a working logo that forms a very small part of the Sydney story. I know it will come as a shock to creative types but logos, tag lines and fonts are a miniscule part of a Brand. Sydney will continue to tell it’s story well, using narrative, experience, example, ambassadors and yes, even logos.

What a surprise? Other agencies and designers don’t like the work of one of their own. The bitchiness of your industry is staggering. I don’t care much for the logo (and I was on the client side of it’s creation) but it is such an insignificant part of the Sydney story we have to tell. Instead of bagging the poor sod who slogged her heart out to provide GSP with a logo, how about offering the join the Sydney Conversation so we can address real issues in our city like productivity, social inclusion, investment, creative cities, sustainability, education, decentralisation and economic development?

As puerile as this comment is—”Hey all you design gurus, get over yourselves” is my absolute favourite client quote ever—the mistake Christopher Green is making is an understandable one.

From the outside, looking in, it must seem that the comment stream on Brand New is immature and bitchy. Sometimes, like many online forums that allow anonymity, the comments are exactly that, but the vast majority are just designers sharing opinions, honestly.

Of course, us in the know types understand that this is part and parcel of our industry. I often sum it up this way “Accountants add up the numbers and tell you the total - there’s no daily ‘catch ups’ to go round a circle of 6 people each giving their thoughts on the total, and how it could be better”. There’s a fundamental issue with all graphic design which other industries can’t relate to: it’s entirely, confusingly, irritatingly, subjective.

Don’t like blue? Me neither, but it’d right for your brand. But then so is green. I’m reminded of the quote I posted a couple days ago - when Rich Silverstein of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners was asked “is this the best possible work we can put forward” his reply was “I don’t know, is your wife the best woman you could have married?”.

The truth underneath this is the profession of graphic design is still a craft. There’s still a feel to it, that can’t be read from a book, put through a computer or even taught. It has to be learned, over years of experience, triumphs and tragedies, accidental mistakes that lead to great outcomes, and all the rest that get you in trouble (annoyingly, sometimes happy accidents can still get you in trouble).

So if it’s an instinctive, craft based, profession, with a myriad of subjective, right answers, how does it get better? The answer is critique, and lots of it. Intelligent, reasoned and considered critique that moves beyond “oh I don’t like blue” or “Akzidenz is much better than Helvetica”. It’s more important to ask questions about what is being said, and how is it being said. Has this solution resolved a problem in an uplifting and ambitious way, or rather cynically ticked the boxes on it’s way to being approved. Often I return to a simple question that I always ask in evaluating a piece of graphic design.

Does it add weight, and not just volume, to the history of graphic design, to the communication and to visual culture in general?