Criticism is a form of collaboration.

At least, if you want to be a successful creative, this is an important way to think about your work and the way other people will respond to it.

I’m an unusual creative. After I graduated from college, I worked in publishing for many years. Not designing. I was an editor, and then, I worked in marketing and sales. When I realized where book publishing was headed, I made a difficult decision. I abandoned a lucrative job, left the world of publishing, and went to design school. I was 32.

From the beginning, I was older than my classmates and soon after, my colleagues. But, I had something that many of them did not. I had been a professional. I’d been hired, reviewed, and promoted. So, the differences between my professional experience and the world of design were stark and at first, startling.

When you are a designer, your work is constantly critiqued. You critique it. Your colleagues critique it. Your creative director critiques it. The clients critique it. And unlike my previous experience with reviews or feedback sessions, critiques can be fierce. I’ve literally seen people cry. Not in private. No… They were crying in front of a room of their peers and clients.

In publishing, I worked with some very smart people,
but none of them made me cry.

In critiques, you often hear things like, “It’s just totally wrong.” “Oh no, we would never do that.” “Ooooh, I don’t like that.” “I wish it was better.” “I hate that.” Yeah, the “H” word.

The comments are visceral. Everyone is looking at your work. And often, it feels like everyone is looking at you. At first, it stung. Who are you?

What gives you the right to sit over there
and berate my work?

In some cases, I was obstinate. In others, immovable. And, instead of getting ahead, I started taking steps backwards. People don’t want to work with someone who is inflexible, particularly an inflexible creative. (I think people expect their accountant to be inflexible.) So, I paused, reconsidered, and ultimately, became a different type of designer. This is what I did.

1. Become your critics collaborator. I started to approach my work on the behalf of my clients. They became my collaborators, along with my colleagues. When they critiqued my work, I took every word seriously, and I started to really listen. I took their desires for the work to heart, and when I critiqued the work, I tried to think about it from their perspective. Did it really solve their problem, or was I fooling myself?
2. Make critiques active exchanges. I made critiques active exchanges. “You don’t think that it works? OK. Can you tell me more about your perspective?” I proactively worked to get to the bottom of each comment. What was driving the comment, and what could I do to address it? Criticism makes your work better. Use it. And, if a comment is baseless, you’ll soon find out.
3. Take the long view. I started to look beyond single projects and think about the trajectory of my career as a designer. Projects are trees, not forests. There are many trees in a forest. There will be thousands of critiques. Keep them in perspective.
4. Know your worth. Finally, I separated my personal worth from the value of my work. This was the most difficult thing, and frankly, it’s still a struggle. Let me put it in perspective. Your value as a human being can’t be measured against the value of some logo directions.

And, I did the former while maintaining a passion for design. I am still willing to put myself into the work, but now, I think of each contribution like a small deposit, which gains value slowly, over time. I still give more than I get, and I still push for big ideas, even if I know the client would prefer a small idea. But now, I’ll make sure that I have a few small ideas in my back pocket.