33
That time a senior designer named Carol told me my work was 'too clean'
I was about 3 years into working at a small studio in Portland, and Carol was a freelance illustrator we'd bring in for projects. She looked at my layout one day and said, 'you've got no texture, no human touch - it looks like a robot made it.' It stung at first, but she was right. I started adding rough sketches and scanner noise into my digital work after that, and my stuff finally started feeling like someone actually made it. Anyone else had a critique that totally flipped your process around?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
tara34511h ago
Read an interview with Stefan Sagmeister where he said perfection steals personality, and that stuck with me ever since. He talked about how leaving in a little mess or imperfection makes the work feel alive, like a person made it, not a machine. Now I purposefully keep some rough edges in my drafts, even if I have to fight my own instincts to clean everything up. Did you end up keeping that scanner noise as a permanent part of your workflow?
6