Give and Take: A Guide to Design School Critiques

Be prepared

This first one might seem a little obvious, but preparing for crits is important! A large part of your design school career involves talking about your work. When it’s your turn to talk, be ready to explain what you did and why. 

Your teacher and fellow classmates are more prepared to help you grow if they know what your intentions are, how you did what you did, and what you want to do next. Preparing to talk about your work can make you feel less nervous, and it’s great practice! If you struggled with something, it can also help you ask your teacher questions. 

As you take feedback, it’s good practice to have a pen or pencil and some paper as to take notes. Critique can have an impact on how you tackle your next week of work and how you set personal goals to improve. Sometimes classmates have a resource that they recommend, and its super helpful to keep that in a place you’ll remember. 

Nothing personal, kid

Especially when you’re starting out at design school, it can be really difficult not to take comments on your work as personal attacks. 

For the most part, your classmates and professor have your best interests at heart. Becoming a better designer is what is most important in design school. Every year you work on things, you’ll see marked improvement in your color, typography, and elsewhere.  Its important to be able to take value out of what others tell you you can improve, and apply them to your work. 

Taking your work less personally makes it easier for you to improve it as well. 

Sometimes, unfortunately, critiques can get a little too heated. Classmates might say mean things, or a teacher might go a little overboard. Even though this can really really suck, it’s important to not take these remarks personally. In no way is your use of comic sans a mark on who you are as a person. 

Everyone is different

While a lot of the standards of good design are based on set principles, styles and choices are often subjective. Crits are very much the same way. Different professors tend to have different crit styles, and some might seem more abrasive than others. 

Additionally, everyone in design school comes from a different background, and brings their experience to the table. Where one person might be great at typography, another one might be a master illustrator. We’re not in direct competition with each other!

Be nice

When giving criticism to others, it’s important to be helpful and professional. Remember that other people put a lot of effort into their work. It’s good practice to begin a critique with a positive comment on the work of others, marking improvement or what you think is working well. When providing feedback about what can be improved, it’s good to not comment on the quality of the work in a negative way, or to use language that might be construed as insulting. Recommending trying something or working on a certain attribute can be very helpful. 

Sharing is caring

Its good to give critique! A lot of times you might be too tired or wrapped up in your own bubble, but critiques from fellow classmates can be just as or even more helpful than critiques from professors. The more perspectives and angles we get in design, the better it becomes. Thoughtful criticism, and positive feedback can really make someone else’s day and help them grow.

If you know of any resources or tools that might be helpful to another student, feel free to share! 

Critiques are a major part of every designer’s career, so it’s important to have a good process of taking and receiving feedback. Don’t sleep on critiques! 

Always remember it’s okay to seek out help and feedback from professors outside of critique as well. Send your professor an email or sign up for office hours, it can make a huge difference. Your professor and classmates want you to be the best designer you can. And so do I!