Critique Vocab

Objective content is often easily agreed upon by both the creator of the work being considered and the person delivering the critique. This makes objective content easier to critique without feeling personal - "This work is supposed to be 10" wide and yours is only 9" wide." For critiques between people who don't already have a relationship this is a good, "safe" place to start.

Subjective content is less concrete and more open for personal interpretation - there's often no "right" answer. This can be more difficult to critique for people new to the process or without a relationship with others involved in the critique, but critiquing subjective content is often the majority of what needs to be critiqued. Rather than measuring the work against clearly defined objective expectations the person delivering the critique must use existing elements in the work and their own reaction to the work to give helpful feedback to improve the work.

Recognizing that both objective and subjective content exists and needs to be considered can help a person delivering a critique to cover everything that needs to be considered in a crit. It can also inform how the reviewer talks about the work - more direct about objective and possibly more "gentle" about the subjective.

You bring your opinion to a critique - the person receiving the critique gets to decide if they are going to view you as someone who has some amount of authority behind that opinion.

The person delivering feedback in a critique should consider for themselves whether they are bringing opinion, authority or some combination of both to the interaction This self awareness should inform how they communicate their critique of the work - tone, confidence, giving feedback vs asking questions, use of humor, explanation of their thinking, etc...

Remember that it's easy to form opinions - it's hard to earn authority. That being said, don't miss out on good feedback just because someone doesn't have the authority you think necessary. Often times, the best advice comes from someone new to a specific area or project.

These two words are important to define clearly before bringing critique into a group. While someone being critical of you can be a negative experience there are also many times in which critical feedback is not only "not negative" but a positive and even enjoyable experience. In a healthy studio participants are often excited about and look forward to participating in critiques.

On the other hand, a cynical attitude toward critiquing (whether that comes from the presenter or reviewer of the work) brings nothing of value to the interaction and, if anything, stalls the creative process.

When you critique a piece of work you are sharing either your own experience of the work or sometimes how you imagine others might experience that work. This feedback is useful to a designer as it reveals to them how their work is actually affecting you as a viewer (rather than how they thought it would affect you). If the work isn't doing what they thought or hoped it would this gives them an opportunity to adjust the work in order to produce a reaction more in line with their intentions. Many critiques stop here and let the designer make their own decisions about how to alter the work to improve it. This is often the extent of critique that is expected.

Direction is taking the next step of suggesting or telling the designer what specific actions to take in order to improve their work based on the critique given. Depending on the expectation of the person receiving the critique this type of input can be seen as very helpful or very intrusive. As a person delivering a critique it's important that you enter into the critique with a clear understanding of what the person receiving the critique is expecting to get out of the interaction, and to operate within that expectation.