What does it mean when you take a step of faith to create the most awesome piece of artistic expression you have ever done before, complete it after weeks of procrastination, make it visible for the world to see, and have others tell you that it’s “clean,” “sexy,” and “professional-looking”? That means you may have become too comfortable in your ability. What you really need is for someone to tell you “you’re doing it wrong.” I have known this for a good portion of my life, but never heard it so clearly until now.
Months back, I had mentioned that I was working on a “design project”. I don’t remember if I had explicitly said what it was for, but it was for CC Corp. Why do I mention it now? Because my project is now live as of yesterday. Every bit of that was designed and coded by me. For my very first site design that was based off of CC2’s site, I didn’t think it was horrible. I learned a lot from my full-time job in regards to CSS and design in general, but was not able to implement it, due to me waiting until the deadline to complete the HTML/CSS markup. But that was fine, because I really went all out with pre-planning this site from the ground up…and for free.
A day later, I am approached by Dark, a polished graphic designer whom I have had the pleasure of befriending for over a year now even though we only recently got back in touch via Twitter. Immediately, he tells me that the new CC site “burns his eyes” and that it fails in various ways. Needless to say, I was infuriated, and immediately told him I designed it. His words were, “I have seen your work in the past…I know you could do so much better than that.” He then proceeded to offer me a collaboration to truly align the feel of the site with what CC Corp. aims to do with their development titles.
The truth was, after starting and stopping my development for this site so many times, I had learned there were things wrong with the design and my code, but I believed the design was reasonably sound given the source inspiration. The hard truth was that Dark, though he had no intention of offending me, was right — his experience, skill, and accessible connections in the field of Graphic Design are not something I can ignore. I had settled into the idea that if CC’s leader and the community found my design favorable, then it didn’t matter what I could see what wrong with it. I could potentially fix it later, regardless of the eye-sours. Dark’s words were like a wave of blasphemy towards my isshoukenmei towards this project.
I should be thankful that he said this now and saved me an even greater hurt later. If one is to live according to isshoukenmei — the burning desire to impact lives in any way possible through hard work — then it should never be considered blasphemy when the opportunity to be “schooled” by someone greater than yourself is presented to you. Your efforts and abilities need to be scrutinized to the point where you know you are doing something right, rather than just boosting your ego. A great feeling gained from others is temporary. A great feeling gained from someone beyond you is long-lasting, no matter how much it hurts you.
As for me, I have a Photoshop mock-up rough draft to finish by tonight…
Currently Listening To: I’VE – HARD STUFF – “enslave”
3 comments
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2008-03-20 at 00:07:05
Kou
Dude…I can honestly say that what you say is wise and very mature of you. Although, I would have to disagree with his methods ’schooling’ you. While you must learn to take hits from criticism sparingly and learn from them, I don’t appreciate that kind of tone.
I’ve also learned to be humble in the presence of someone far more experienced or well learned in a field I wish to excel in, but in terms of art, I’m never quick to assume their word is absolute. Art is expression of what the artist perceives within themselves or of the world around them. One can only be a better artist if they can express themselves more true to what they are feeling. Whether someone appreciates your work or not is a matter of opinion that anyone can feel free to appreciate so long as they do not loose sight of the true purpose of art in the first place-self expression.
Then again, I suppose you and I perceive art with a different ultimate purpose all together so it is not my place no more than Dark’s to tell you how things should be done and why. I hope you can take what you can learn from Dark and others like him with a grain of salt only to further hone your skills instead of loosing yourself to it and becoming what they believe a good graphic designer is. I’ve always liked your work and what you feel through it and told you what I think should be done, but I never would expect you to change anything because I say so, regardless of how experienced I am or not.
2008-03-20 at 01:27:42
storymode
Thanks for your encouragement. What you say about art is true, and I would like to retain the emotions and style that I have regardless. Your commentary for my work has helped me also, and I only change because I see something more for the piece.
I think the other big lesson here is this: Not everyone is going to like what I put out. That’s why it’s called art — it’s open for interpretation as one perceives it. I forgot that and took the negative way too hard and no longer looked for any good in my design. Reason being: I respect Dark’s work as a professional graphic designer. I should at least take note, you know?
Yes, Dark did make legitimate designer points about what is needed as a standard in a tone that was hurtful in order to teach me. What redeems him is his mentoring attitude that comes wrapped up with the harsh criticism. That’s something we all need in life and something I have not had much of — someone who knew what they were talking about helping to better me.
2008-03-20 at 01:34:34
Kou
Fair enough. I can understand how you feel about his opinion, certainly worth listening to. I’m just happy to see you come to such a realization on your own then. I hope this and any other challenges you face will continue only serve to better you in one form or another.
Keep it up, can’t wait to see what you come up with next ^_^