ARTICLE SUMMARY: Design is a tough business, not for the thinned skinned.

You’re spending a boatload of time researching and designing a project and putting your heart and soul into it. You think you have a winning design and then you get feedback that is less than desirable.

Sound familiar? It’s very disheartening sometimes, but, that’s design.

How to deal with disappointing feedback on your creative projects” by Tom May delves into this and helps designers develop the right perspective on this issue and gives us tips for handling this kind of feedback. A couple of tips talked about are

  • Removing your ego from the situation
  • Assume criticism is well motivated
  • Avoid being defensive or making excuses

While there are some clients that understand the the amount of time and effort you put into their design, most don’t and fail to see why their negative feedback can bother you. Some clients are just downright rude in their feedback and fail to see how that can be devastating. But, it doesn’t have to be.

This article will give you the skill set you need to deal with this issue and not loose your perspective and realize it’s not personal.

Remember, as artist and illustrator Carina Lindmeier puts it: “You can’t control what other people say to you, but you can definitely control how you take it, how to react to it, and how to learn from it in order to grow. Everybody is not going to like everything that you do, but that’s okay and is what makes you unique.”

This is a great article, especially for the beginning designer who hasn’t had this experience yet.

Let us know what you think in the comments.