Just Get Over It

Expert Voices Interviews

Each month a member of the disabled/neurodivergent community shares their story! Check out the latest interviews

Show Notes/Transcript

Host: Tas The Artist

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;36;21
*intro music* Welcome to Tas talks. Today's episode. Here we are going to talk about the art world in the graphic design world, and all of the unpleasant social things that happen in these fields. No particular trigger warnings for this episode. Let's dive in.

00;00;36;24 - 00;01;12;25
The art world can be extremely gatekeepy and bluntly to say full of snobs. The piece of there's only one way to do it. And if you do it any other way, it's wrong. Right. I grew up with a parent who was an artist and went to school. College degree in art. So it was definitely something I am used to.

00;01;12;25 - 00;01;42;26
That mentality of the unwelcomed critique of your work, where no matter how hard you work on something, it's still going to suck. So I learned very early on how to not care what other people think about what I do in the design world. One of the things that is such an issue is the lack of desire for inclusion and accessibility.

00;01;42;28 - 00;02;13;08
Instead trading for some strange aesthetic, modernist aesthetic, abstract aesthetic. That is what the focus is on. I posted a new logo that I created for a client in a Reddit community. And yes, I know Reddit is Reddit. It's the wild wild West. You never know what you're going to get in Reddit. However, I posted it perfectly good logo client was happy.

00;02;13;10 - 00;02;43;03
I did what the client requested specifically for certain things. I posted I wasn't looking for feedback in particular. I had it flaired which for those that are not on Reddit, flairs are like tags categories within communities. So I had the correct flair and I was just showing client work. Here's some work I did and immediately. Just such unhelpful comments like that sucks.

00;02;43;06 - 00;03;07;08
Yeah, you know, the way people have no concept of let's just give something useful to say right? And there was a couple of people that like, had questions about some of the design choices which the design choices people asked about. That was because it was with the client wanted and it's like, there's nothing I can do about that.

00;03;07;08 - 00;03;34;24
And the things with people are like, oh, the curve here and this here. It's, to plain And I'm like, no, you're missing the point. It's legible and it's what the client wanted. I what else can you do? Right? What more can you do other than make the client happy and make the whatever you're creating accessible? So whatever it literally got downvote for that.

00;03;34;24 - 00;04;01;23
Again, it's Reddit. What are you going to do? Then I look at a post someone makes the next day a completely decorative, illegible logo. You can't even tell what it is. It's not supposed to be a symbol of any kind. It's not supposed to be abstract. It's supposed to be a word. It's a word mark logo, and you can't even read it.

00;04;01;25 - 00;04;34;05
It had nice colors. The color palette was nice, but other than that, in that 170 something upvotes on a logo that aesthetically may be pleasing to look at, but it's not identifiable, it's not legible. You don't know what it is. So my point is, everything is subjective and just if you are in the design space, here's what I suggest.

00;04;34;07 - 00;05;16;11
Number one, focus on accessibility and make your design legible. Legibility has nothing to do necessarily with accessibility. They just complement each other. But that's the problem. Don't go for pretty. I had a circumstance happen where someone created a design and it was absolutely atrocious in the concept not just of accessibility, but just no design concepts included whatsoever. It was just extremely badly done.

00;05;16;13 - 00;05;47;10
But this person held on to this design like a child, like it was their child. Oh, I can't change it. Oh, you. You hurt my feelings because you don't like it. Oh my gosh. Please get over yourself. Like it's not legible. It's not well done. So the thing is, there's a difference between something being subjectively good or bad, and then something just flat out being not well done.

00;05;47;12 - 00;06;08;14
How do you know if it's not well done? How do you know if you're being objective? Number one is it legible? Do you know what it is? Can you identify it? Branding matters. If you look at something, let's say it's a lawn mower company and their logo is a flower. Does that tell you that's a lawn mower company?

00;06;08;16 - 00;06;37;25
Absolutely not. That doesn't communicate anything. So does it communicate the branding of the company that you're designing? It for? Number one, is it legible? Can you tell what it is? Is it identifiable? Do you know what you're looking at? The other piece of it as well is emotions don't matter when it comes to creating branding. Now hear me out.

00;06;37;27 - 00;07;05;18
There's a difference between an art piece you create that you have taken your emotions and put it into it, versus a objective steps you have to take to creatively create a design for a company, a person, a brand, right? Those are not the same thing. Your emotions don't matter. Like sorry honey, it doesn't matter if you like it.

00;07;05;19 - 00;07;34;10
It matters if the client likes it. The client, chances are, doesn't care whatsoever about your emotions. They hired you to do a job, so do it right. That is how that works. That is how that works. So stop putting your emotions into something that you'll never get a return on. You'll always have your feelings hurt every single time.

00;07;34;10 - 00;08;00;15
If you are emotionally attached to your designs in any way. I think back until like my writing career, so to say, and how people were so emotionally attached to their books and their characters. And if anyone said anything bad about their book, they just died. Get over yourself. I don't care. Read my stuff and hate it. So what?

00;08;00;17 - 00;08;26;29
It's subjective. Some people like it. Some people don't. Who cares? Someone didn't like your character. Big whoop. And people be like, oh, but I spent so much time so you don't become a writer and you don't get into creative fields to get validation from others. That is the wrong reason to get into creative fields, because you will not get it.

00;08;27;01 - 00;08;44;08
You will get your feelings hurt. Period. End of story. You just will. So if you're going to get into art writing anything that involves creativity and you're creating something for someone else.

00;08;44;10 - 00;09;12;06
Just let it go. Quit attaching your emotions to things that you always get hurt by. And it's business. It's supposed to be professional. Professionalism in itself is a social construct. However, what would you rather do? Design something. Be paid for it. Be proud that you made it because the company's happy They're happy with it. Or cry because they don't like it.

00;09;12;08 - 00;09;41;19
And I don't mean literally cry. I mean just being upset about it. And this sounds harsh. I know it sounds harsh. Trust me, I'm well aware it sounds harsh, but it's just get over yourself. It in the professional world, you're a blip. You're a blip. People don't need to emotionally take care of you. And in a job, it's a job.

00;09;41;19 - 00;09;58;09
Just do your job. And if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. If someone doesn't like it, they don't like it. But don't make that your whole identity, because all you'll do is be disappointed.

00;09;58;12 - 00;10;22;27
Well, that's the episode for this month and a bit of a rant. I'm well aware, but it was something I wanted to talk about just because I've been seeing and experiencing a lot lately. So thank you for joining me in this episode of Task Talks. I'll catch you next month with some special content. Because of the time of year.

00;10;22;29 - 00;10;32;25
And yeah, see you on the flip side. Leave a like or leave a comment. Thumbs up. Always helps.

*outro music*