“Crits” – critical discussion or review of work

parees — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 18:48:03 +0000

Jason Santa Maria has written an excellent article on critiquing that I thought would be useful for the first critique in my ART 198 Design for the Internet course at Pasadena City College. I liked the gist of Jason’s article that emphasized the usefulness of a critique and making sure that the reviewer was not just expressing an opinion, likes or dislikes. Rather the reviewer should think how the design makes an impression, causes the reviewer to respond to it. I also liked the idea that the student would present the design work before anyone had a chance to give their feedback. This is a much more real world experience for emerging designers. Learning how to present and make a case for your design to a client is very important to working happily with clients while trying to maintain integrity in good design and web usability.

The assignment was to create a web resume using basic html structures and css design for typography, margins, backgrounds and borders. Layout or positioning css has not been introduced yet.

The critique process in class tonight will go like this:

The reviewer will take on the persona of a busy Art Director looking for a junior or associate designer for expanding agency work. You are meticulous in your work and design, always aware of details, clean work, no spelling or grammar errors. You are looking for a responsible, hard working individual that can grow into a significant contributor to the agencies’ product. You’ve set aside about an hour to look at couple dozen resumes. (Assume all are qualified, but feel free to note if experience or strengths are not obvious).

Students will pair up and have 15 minutes to present and review each other’s work at their computer.
The projects will be shown one by one to the entire class on the projection screen.
The designer will present, using what they learned from sharing with their partner to give a case for the design. (30 seconds)
The class will have 15 seconds to jot down their impressions and reactions.
The reviewer will give input on design, what caught the eye, what got lost, why this resume might stand out or not and ask questions of designer if needed. (1 minute)
Anyone in the class can add their impressions, comments (15 seconds)
The class will post to this blog about the process.

parees — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 23:33:21 +0000

Here you will find my very occasional thoughts on web related technology and content. Mostly I will be using this as a testing ground for the Word Press blog. Feel free to participate in any lively discussions that may arise.

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. ~ Albert Einstein

pat's blog

“Crits” – critical discussion or review of work