I decided to start off this blog with a collaboration kit from several of the top names in the digital scrapbooking industry along with some fairly new names in the scene. Either way, I am going to show you close ups of at least one paper and element from each designer along with a summary of the overall quality of the items each designer provided to this mega kit of 85 papers and over 140 elements.Amy Sumrall
Most of this designer's elements are hand made, which is a desirable trade in this market. However she doesn't put quality first and foremost. She needs to clean up the jaggies on her images and be careful for stray pixels. Also, bevels and ridges on elements that could cause an undesirable effect on a customer's finished product are a big no-no.
Ellie Lash
Flergs
Megs, make sure when doing a large area with styles, that the pattern aligns up!
Franziska Altmann
The shadowing on the hearts and bubbles is too dark making them very hard to work with one plain colors. I had to use one of the patterned papers to showcase the lovebirds on. The lines on the papers are also very jaggy but I think this is the "grunge" feel the designer is going for.
Heather Manning
The bow is outlined by a highlight and/or shadow. The alphabet seems fine. It is an alphabet.
Kim B's Designs
This designer has very good quality elements in this collab kit. The only problem I found was with the above close up she did not extract the white background out from where the wire is looped in the "clip".
Krystal Hartley
This designer has pretty "newbie" basic designs and papers, but the quality is fine.
Lost Gurlz Venture Designs
This designer is really inexperienced. I am unsure how she fits into this "group" of designers. Her elements are basic and unrealistically textured. The shadows are very bright and some are even cut off. Her papers are not textured at all. The clip art she used on the paper above she did not take the time to color correctly.
mgl Scraps
This designer did an outstanding job extracting the string and mirrored tag ring. I find no flaws in her extractions. The textures on her papers are crisp.
Miss Crow
This glitter sputnik is a very cute addition to the kit but it is very blurry. I think this designer needs to replace their commercial use glitter style with a better version. Papers are the same way with the glitter on them.
Moon Scraps
Unique take on the papers for this kit. Elements are doodles and are nice crisp lines with the exception of the mouse with the jagged edges.
Polka Dot Plum (Amy Brever)
Another set of "newbie" designers. Basic designs, but when their papers and elements are placed in a mega kit like this they just fall into place. Nice crisp lines on the journaling paper. The only thing to point on on this half of the team is the brush used to make the paper holes was probably not the best brush for the job as it did not do a very neat job.
Polka Dot Plum (Lauren Faczan)
Sugarplum Paperie
Tracey Monette
Web Designz by Kristi
The designer has come in and extracted this monitor nicely after the critique and reuploaded the new on into the zip file. Here is a screen shot of the new one where the logo was removed. A corner of the blue monitor remains in the upper right corner and when I printed, it does show, but more as a shadow.
Wenchd Grafix
72 comments:
Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are so needed in the digi world.
I will second that!!! I think it's fantastic that you are taking the time to show us all the close ups! This is a real service for everyone, including the designers if they are willing to learn and accept honest critique!
I will triple that thank you! What a nice way for new designers to learn as well.
Thanks for taking the time to criticize in a professional manner. Keep it up!
I still think you're picking apart things that don't matter on a layout. Can you explain to me why this is so important?
thanks so much,
this is a very much needed service in the digi world and i may even send in some of my kits in the future. constructive criticism helps everyone and you cant just live in a fantasy land all the time. lol
I think it's pretty useful to see all the mistakes in the kits, especially for designers so they know what to watch out for. What I'd love is for a overall review of the kit as well, so we're not just left with the bad parts. Obviously you're pointing out the flaws you can find... are the other elements good? basically I'd love to know if you would buy the kit if you'd had the chance to see everything close up.
I still think you're picking apart things that don't matter on a layout. Can you explain to me why this is so important?
July 8, 2008 7:48 AM
I have to agree with 7:48. There isn't one thing you've pointed out here that I, as a scrapper and not a designer, would ever notice. I'm glad you've decided to be a lot more professional than you started out being, but I don't get it. If there's something really outrageous about a kit then fine, but why is it necessary to pick apart an entire kit and point out things that most scrappers would never notice? I certainly don't buy a kit and sit and go over it with a fine-toothed comb looking for jagged edges, and they certainly don't show up when I print them.
So a few people are gushing and praising your efforts, that's all fine and good. And I can see some of this being helpful to newbies, but come on already. I'm not trying to being snarky here, I just really don't get it.
I personally, am glad to see this blog, I'm sick of designs with these types of errors - and yes, I can see them in my layouts!
to 12:56,
personally i see this blog as more of an asset to designers, to see what not to do, and personally, as a customer i want to know if a majority of a kit is gonna have strays or jaggies, i dont like them on my layouts.
In general your "critique" blogs are an interesting concept - however, I have to say that you've taken this to an arrogant busy body know-it-all bitch level. Those that can't, like yourself, hide in the shadows envying others that have more talent than you could possibly imagine. You must have a lot of extra time on your hands...
Someone must have been very mean to you once - which is very sad. I hope you get the help you need.
Several times in my years as a scrapper and as a designer I have looked to my fellow scrappers and designers and they have looked to me for advice (or critiquing) on things that could be done to improve the quality of my items. We all do it. We all get screen eyes. We all need an extra set of eyes.
This is NOT meant in any way to be a smack blog, it is to be used as building and learning tool for designer's to grow and meet the high design standards OUR customers are demanding. Whether our customers our designers or scrappers they have standards.
If a designer asks me to critique something they send me I will also critique that for them and email it to them privately, or post it publicly if they wish.
Hopefully this will clear up a few of the questions posted of late. This is not to bring any designers down. This is not to put any designers up on a pedestal.
Sincerely,
The Critique
I think the blog owner's time would be much more valuable if she offered a mentoring program for new designers or even consulting services with her critiques. Hey, there's an idea--she can hire herself out to be that extra pair of eyes! I'm assuming she likes doing it because she is already.
Companies in lots of industries hire outside consulting firms to come in and analyze parts of their business, and then give them detailed reports of areas that need improvement. And lots of companies have an entire quality assurance/control department. Writers have editors. I actually think that would be a very viable, marketable service.
July 8, 2008 1:24 PM
July 8, 2008 1:28 PM
AGREE TO THOSE
And dear blog owner, I think everyone would appreciate you more if the DESIGNER ACTUALLY hired you to do these critiques. Please don't try to fool anyone by saying you are doing anyone some kind of service here.
You are not ...
You publicly humiliate others, their business and set a foundation for other nastiness....
And I would like it much more if you called yourself a (I DONT LIKE IT ) blog instead of a critique blog, because to me you have 0 credentials 0 experience and well 0 talent, as you obviously are able to sit and inspect other peoples items and play god. Just say I dont like this kit and people will understand your opinion but making yourself the nominated expert is just a sick dream of yours.
There is issue with the aspect of anonymous review here. Because the blog owner isn't posting her reviews under her name or common internet identity, there's no accountablity for what's being said. Books and movies are reviewed constantly, but magazines/newspapers don't publish them without their byline. Reviewers might say something that is unpopular with the masses, but that's too bad. As I've seen said of designers being reviewed/critiqued before, "if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen." If you review something you should be prepared for the backlash that may happen, and if you can't take that you shouldn't be reviewing. Amazon doesn't let you rate or review anything on their site without signing into your user account. People putting names behind those reviews is part of what makes their whole system more credible. It leaves less room for the idea of someone just having an ax to grind when they post.
It is so funny- you can see who are the customers posting a comment here and who are the designers. If you produce a high quality product, you have nothing to fear designers. As a customer, I like seeing the detail of the kits before I purchase them. It's not like the blog owner is adding flaws- she is just looking at the products that you are selling us.
I still think you're picking apart things that don't matter on a layout. Can you explain to me why this is so important?
________________________
I think these little things make the difference between a ho-hum designer and a great one.
I think this is a great service to customers and also get the feeling that the negativity is from the designers.
As was said previously, if you have quality designs, you have nothing to worry about. If you are critiqued here and you decide what to listen to (and what not) then you just might become a better designer, which would increase sales.
DDC, my only comment to you is that I think you should balance the criticisms with some positive comments of why something works. I think that would help people as well. :) As for who you are? I could care less. I'm sure I buy from you with the attention you spend on quality.
If I were still dabbling with the design gig, I would send you my stuff in a heartbeat. But I realized my stuff was shit and got out of the game.
I personally don't see a big problem with this bag, except for that overlap on the paper. Some of that stuff is hand drawn, it's not going to be smooth! As a consumer I would still buy this bag, as a blog owner you have the responsibility to do this critique thing right if you're going to do it. I agree with some of the other posters, this blog doesn't mean a thing without someone signing a name, take some responsibility. I could open up anything I have and find a "flaw".
by the way, the silver beads in the Ellie Lash stuff seem to have some sort of window reflection in them, while the color ones do not.
I think the drop shadow on the wordart is subjective - in paper scrapping if you put the words on glue dots, they would appear to be floating off the label a bit.
"by the way, the silver beads in the Ellie Lash stuff seem to have some sort of window reflection in them, while the color ones do not."
Most chrome styles or actions use a reflection map to provide the shininess, so that would an expected 'flaw' The glass beads were obviously made from a different resource.
This designer did an outstanding job extracting the string and mirrored tag ring. I find no flaws in her extractions.
Wait a minute. Are you even sure she is the one who extracted the rope or it's a CU item? If she did, good for her, if it's a CU item, you should be please at the CU designer not her.
I still think you're picking apart things that don't matter on a layout. Can you explain to me why this is so important?
July 8, 2008 7:48 AM
I have to agree with 7:48. There isn't one thing you've pointed out here that I, as a scrapper and not a designer, would ever notice. I'm glad you've decided to be a lot more professional than you started out being, but I don't get it. If there's something really outrageous about a kit then fine, but why is it necessary to pick apart an entire kit and point out things that most scrappers would never notice? I certainly don't buy a kit and sit and go over it with a fine-toothed comb looking for jagged edges, and they certainly don't show up when I print them.
So a few people are gushing and praising your efforts, that's all fine and good. And I can see some of this being helpful to newbies, but come on already. I'm not trying to being snarky here, I just really don't get it.
July 8, 2008 12:56 PM
________________________
ITA.
I personally, am glad to see this blog, I'm sick of designs with these types of errors - and yes, I can see them in my layouts!
July 8, 2008 1:21 PM
_____
DUH! If you look at your LO only on your computer, you will see these ''flaws'' but who scraps only for their computer? Don't you print your LOs? If so, no you won't see the so-called flaws because these tiny stray pixels and jagged edges won't show.
I did an experiment today which had interesting results.
I placed a pretty much perfect element against various colored backgrounds, and certain colors shows up way more faults than others.
Black was perfect, white showed up a couple of blurry edges, and green showed up a couple of jagged edges. Red on the other hand showed up a small shadow which didn't show up in any other color.
Are designers supposed to check their products against every color of the rainbow before people are happy?
Just wondering...
I am not sure why there is such a backlash against the blog owner. Designers are seriously in a panic about being featured here. As a scrapper she has pointed out stuff that would not matter to me, and I like having the extra information about a kit. As for the kit featured, not my thing, but if it was, the things she pointed out would not stop me from buying the kit, it only makes me more informed. I also wouldn't consider this a kit by "top names". The blog owner is making changes as they are requested, toning down her critique, adding criteria, etc. Give it a chance, what are you scared of?
I just found out about this blog last night. I'm not offended or upset at all. Actually, there are some really good points that were brought to my attention. I can't speak for the others but I felt the blog owner was fair in pointing out my "oppsies". I don't feel like it was too nit picky. As a fairly new designer I actually kind of appreciate being made aware of what I need to do to improve my designs.
Ok, to clear a little something up for the little minds out there that can't think past their computer screens. And YES now I am being sarcastic.
I just spent literally HUNDREDS of dollars making "Through the years" keepsake hardbound books to give to my nephew and his graduating class.
Whilst the kits I used were from top named designers, so I was certain the designs were flawless, I couldn't have been further from wrong. No offense to ANY designer out there. We all make mistakes. We all rush to meet deadlines. I know the life.
I grew up as a huge part of my nephew's life and was with him for his first tee ball game, his first jump off the diving board, of course along with the rest of his class! I used those times to capture fun memories of the kids "hanging out" at birthday parties, at the pool, and even in some quite embarrassing situations. Of course I also received a little help from all of the parents in receiving extra photographs as to not overwhelm the book with photos of my nephew as it was to be his "class" memories.
Once I received these professionally printed books at $82 a piece (hey, I got free shipping) it was a very expensive project. But worth it in the end when I seen each of them all together at the end of the night looking through their books together and signing them, one last time as a "class".
Of course I noticed several flaws in the pages as soon as I opened the books and looked page by page. I opened the scrap supply off my hard drive and sure enough, it was right there, why didn't I see it? I was in tears, devastated. Of course it was not the print companies fault. My husband took a book, and after asking him to critique my work for years of course noticed what I was talking about immediately, then went into "recovery" mode. No one will even notice, etc, etc, etc.
Well moral of the story, no one did say anything. I received nothing but praise for a book I almost threw away in tears. But my fellow scrappers and designers helped pull me through, one more time. Yes, they may be errors that the scrappers who do this as a hobby and save a nothing but 72dpi for web posting need concern themselves with. But, if you are going to print, and spend possibly a lot of money, you need to drag out that fine toothed comb. It is the first thing I do before I use any kit to scrap a project that is going to be printed.
Please don't be put off by a simple minded few who cant take criticism - I LOVE what you are doing and I am so glad that someone in this kiss ass community has the guts to tell it like it is - THANK YOU again - I will be check back here regularly to see if a kit is really worth buying -
Designers - you want to raise the prices of the kits we buy - then up the quality too -
So I guess digital has well and truly diverged from paper scrapping, in that now everything needs to be perfect... still not sure I buy it. These aren't magazine layouts. And if they were, you'd be spending a lot more than five bucks on the art. Mind you, my panties aren't in a wad, it is very interesting and I'm learning a lot from both scrapper and designer standpoints, but I still think it's kind of a storm in a teacup.
The albums I make cost over $500 to print. If there are pixels and jagged crap in commercial use stuff, it is no good.
I hear you DDC and I still stand by my original comment to you to keep on keeping on.
Alright...i took the plunge and emailed her for specifics about a service like this with a critique for a few products coming out soon.
Why not...i'm always after extra sets of eyes to look things over. You just never know, ya know?
QUOTE "Anonymous said...
The albums I make cost over $500 to print. If there are pixels and jagged crap in commercial use stuff, it is no good.
I hear you DDC and I still stand by my original comment to you to keep on keeping on.
July 9, 2008 8:08 AM"
I am not understanding what your are wanting me to say? That it is ok in personal use for strays and jaggies? Because you will NEVER hear that from my lips! It is NOT ok in commercial use and it is NOT ok in personal use! Yes, sometimes a very small stray may not show on a "grunged" background. But why risk it? Sometimes I find the most beautiful item that I have to have to include in a kit, and I can't! You know why? I can't make it perfect? Why? I'm not perfect! And I refuse to offer anything that does not meet suboptimal standards! And yes, I do shudder when I open some of my first trials at digital scrapbook items. But I have learned a lot over the years and have been brought to tears (literally) by being critiqued and some nasty customer letters before. But I no longer receive any negative feedback from my customers and I have my peers to thank for that.
Just heads up the "blog owner" Mgl Scraps used CU string for her tag and the "silver" outline is alien skin :)
I love the idea of this blog. It has been needed FAR too long in this industry. Esp. when names are getting by with thier items due to their "name" and who they know. There are many that are VERY detail oriented that get overlooked far to often.
I appreciate and I know alot of others do, what you are doing and the time you are taking to show the customers and designers the things that need attention!
Kuddos to you for doing this!
I actually don't mind the constructive criticism either. And I want to know when I make a mistake so I can fix it. And I now have a new color to check against. I usually check against red and teal, but I think I'm going to add green now to my color checking arsenal. LOL The bows have been fixed and for those of you who bought the kit - you can grab the revised version on my creative team blog.
I'm sorry for the mistake - and thank you for your patience.
Go here to get them - http://digiscrapping.net/news/?p=50
I am not understanding what your are wanting me to say? That it is ok in personal use for strays and jaggies? Because you will NEVER hear that from my lips! It is NOT ok in commercial use and it is NOT ok in personal use! Yes, sometimes a very small stray may not show on a "grunged" background. But why risk it? Sometimes I find the most beautiful item that I have to have to include in a kit, and I can't! You know why? I can't make it perfect? Why? I'm not perfect! And I refuse to offer anything that does not meet suboptimal standards! And yes, I do shudder when I open some of my first trials at digital scrapbook items. But I have learned a lot over the years and have been brought to tears (literally) by being critiqued and some nasty customer letters before. But I no longer receive any negative feedback from my customers and I have my peers to thank for that.
________________
uh...I was saying that I'm on your side and believe whole heartedly in what you are doing. I said that using a poorly extracted item on a $500 item is not acceptable.
I'm sorry I wasn't clear. I'm tired of buying stuff, blowing it up to see if it is usable and seeing that it isn't.
Don't give in to the whiners who think that just because you are anonymous, you aren't entitled to give advice. Didn't Ann Landers/Abby use a pen name? And millions listen to them.
I meant a $500 album, not item.
To anonymous July 9, 2008 10:10 AM
I wasn't sure if you were upset with me or them so I just wanted to clarify where I stood with my critiquing.
Thank you for for encouragement.
On screen it is 300PPI which roughly translates to 150DPI. Pixels per inch versus dots per inch. Actually dots and spaces for a printer, hence 150 dpi (150 * 2). Also at best you may be able to "see" on your LCD monitor 100ppi.
http://www.castleink.com/_a-dpi-printing-guide.html
http://www.tildefrugal.net/photo/dpi.php
This isn't a grab bag. I don't get why you are critiquing it?
And I have to say that mglscraps always has great quality stuff. I'm a big fan.
Don't give in to the whiners who think that just because you are anonymous, you aren't entitled to give advice. Didn't Ann Landers/Abby use a pen name? And millions listen to them.
July 9, 2008 10:10 AM
*sigh* First off, let's address the Ann/Abby Landers thing. Yes those were pen names, most likely taken because the women had hard to spell/remember names that weren't very catchy. Writers find it crucial to have a name that sticks in their readers' brains, so often they create pen names. BUT despite the fact that Ann & Abby (or Landers for that matter) weren't their real names, SOMEONE other than themselves (most notably their publishers) knew who they really were. That automatically gave them a level of accountability AND credibility. And many, many people had no IDEA that those were pen names, and maybe, just maybe, they would have felt differently about their advice if they'd known that.
Accountability is important. Important enough for Amazon.com to change their whole way of accepting reviews from customers, which you can post with a pen name to the general public, but are tied to your real name via credit card validation. If you don't have a CC on file with Amazon, you can't review. Amazon wants to know who you REALLY are. This is because they were sued for libel a couple of years ago over an anon book review. That was also coupled with the revealation that there were the existance of several negative book reviews by people listing themselves as "a reader" or "anon" that were posted by competing authors in order to deter sales.
The idea of product reviews is not bad. I just don't consider anon reviews to be 100% reliable. That's not whining, that's fair and logical. Of course, my husband always says only rarely do the words woman and logical belong in the same sentence...
Good point 2:42.
In a real world, we would all have screen names and be able to speak honestly without getting the smack down from over-zealous CTs.
As for Amazon, it isn't always the review itself I look at, I also look to see how many people found the review helpful.
For all we know, the people who review items at say... Circuit City are employees who are told to do so.
I hope I am smart enough to decide what I choose to agree with or not. I think DDC has done a pretty good job so far of accurately describing the faults of these items. She isn't just saying it, she is backing her statement with evidence. I don't think she is editing these items to look as though they have mistakes to make a designer look bad.
As for this not being a grab bag, I think it is her sister site that critiques the grab bags. Some of us want digital kits reviewed.
:)
I just wanted to say that I took the plunge today and asked the author of this blog to do a critique of some of my items...
He/she looked at the stuff and gave a very detailed analysis complete with a written critique and images of everything they found.
It was professional, non-biased, and also gave credit where credit was due.
I'm thrilled with it. Sometimes we need a little kick in the backside, creative pride can make us look at our stuff a little differently.
I for one wish I could hire this person to check all my stuff.
so i got my critique back for 1 of the 2 products I sent DDC and i'm happy with what she sent back to me.
So far what I've gotten from this is a kit with small things pointed out and those things I WANT to fix can a 2nd, 3rd and 4th pair of eyes really help in that. In giving my customers my absolute best.
Yes there were definitely some bad areas shown but there also were areas which I would call questionable and just plain picky. I am a designer who does a lot of quality control. I think some of this is getting way out of hand. Pick up items around your house and tell me if all the edges are perfectly smooth. I mean what's with the glitter? Ever see a piece of real glitter and you have an arrow by it. Is your mouse cord perfectly smooth? Most cords around my house have been wrapped around things and they definitely aren't smooth any longer and things done with styles - well a lot of styles aren't necessarily baby butt smooth either. Some of the styles I use are made by Photoshop professionals, the guys making the big money, the ones who write the how to books. Do you ever look at some of their stuff?
I personally think that doing a critique on a kit isn't all bad and definitely things with hanging pixels or edges that still should be extracted further should be fixed but come on people if you were paper scrapping there would be visiable things that aren't necessarily baby butt smooth and I don't know about you but things hand drawn don't necessarily have to look like they were totally done in Illustrator. If I doodle on paper then doodles should look like doodles not works of art.
If you want your scrapbooking LOs to look realistic then quit thinking every piece of every kit has to be flat out perfect because real isn't perfect. I would guarantee you that most scrappers who aren't designers really don't care. They don't view at 100% and if they don't have a big dark blob on their paper due to a really bad hanging pixel they don't even know the difference.
I personally think doing a critique should remain in house meaning those doing quality control at their stores should continue or if someone asks for an honest critique then do it but to pick out designer's products and start showing every little bit of what you the person doing the critique thinks is bad with the product is just pretty lame. I don't think it's necessarily as honest as you want people to think.
There are a lot of shall we designers who are considered the best of the best and even their stuff isn't perfect 100% of the time - no one seems to really care-they keep selling and making big bucks. So I don't see this as a service to the digital community at all but just another way to slam someone's products.
There are a lot of shall we designers who are considered the best of the best and even their stuff isn't perfect 100% of the time - no one seems to really care
________________
I care. It seems to me as a designer you would want to be the best you can possibly be. The beauty of constructive criticism is that you can take the information you want to use and decide what to discard. It's not about being picky.
Go Sharia on submitting your stuff and wanting to make it better. That's the attitude of a designer i would much rather buy from, not, "Well, the top names aren't perfect, so why should I be?"
I didn't say I didn't care. I said even the Best of the Best don't seem to care because I always find mistakes on their freebies and in some of their kits and I'm not so sure ALL scrapbookers really care or they would be contacting designers and telling them. If they really cared the Best of the Best still wouldn't be the Best of the Best making the kind of money they are making now would they!!
and....what I tried to point out is that not everything she is calling bad is really bad. It's only bad in HER opinion. I think she is nit picking and when some one nit picks I don't think it's necessarily a good critique especially if there isn't any one on one between the one giving the critique and the one recieving the critique.
I don't feel this serves the designer unless the designer has asked for the critique. So putting up kits on a blog and showing everything in them that one person feels is wrong is rediculous but obviously you don't so good for you. I hope you will be one of the Best of the Best with never any mistakes ever in your kits.
A new designer can learn how to be a better designer by those who help her improve and not by someone throwing a kit on a blog. Do you really think that this designer has come here to see what was wrong with her kit in the opinion of one person. I only came here because I just heard about this blog and wanted to see what was going on. I probably will not return because I don't believe the person giving the critique is doing anyone any favors to include new designers in learning how to improve.
I probably will not return because I don't believe the person giving the critique is doing anyone any favors to include new designers in learning how to improve.
----------------------
Or, are you just afraid that you won't make the grade? I applaud those designers who are taking the CC they have received here and are either fixing the issues or learning from it. I would think that new designer would look upon this blog and realize that customers do expect the very best, not just "okay."
I'm a designer and I have 3 other people (2 of which are also designers) check my work after I've check my work. Guess what? Sometimes it's the 3rd person who finds the flaw. Okay, so maybe it's not a big flaw, but it's there and I'd rather know about it and fix it so that I can give my customers the very best work possible. I'm not afraid of critique and know that it's the best learning tool there is. So many people just become "designers" overnight thinking it's an easy gig and this type of blog will educate those with that idea.
I think it's crazy that anyone would think that your "average" scrapper wouldn't care about quality issues. When you go shopping and you find something you wish to purchase, are you going to accept something flawed? Very doubtful.
To all of Royanna's friends - it's very nice that you want to defend her, but she's a not only a designer but a store owner and should know how to conduct herself in a balanced, professional way. It really just makes her look worse to have all of you running in here and crying about how mean everyone is being towards her. She's a big girl and should know how to take care of business herself.
Well I didn't even read who's kit this was until the last post so I'm not defending Royanna one way or the other. Whose kit it is really isn't important.
Also my customers, my CT and my paychecks speak for me. Any of the designers in my stores or store owners can double check my work and do from time to time. My CT checks my work. I don't need some nameless individual I don't know giving me a critique.
So why did Royanna's kit get picked? If you want to teach new designers what they shouldn't do, why aren't you chosing their kits to critique and then critique them with positive reinforcement of how and why an element should look a certain way. Again picking a seasoned designer and then nit picking really doesn't do it. Not everything that was shown needs fixing. It's only one person who is making the judgement call and that person is anon.
If this is something that is so important to you at least have the guts to say who you are.
I don't feel this serves the designer unless the designer has asked for the critique. So putting up kits on a blog and showing everything in them that one person feels is wrong is rediculous but obviously you don't so good for you. I hope you will be one of the Best of the Best with never any mistakes ever in your kits.
___________________________________
The Best of the best are just better at marketing, not designing! And Pamela, would you please learn how to spell ridiculous!
I AM a new designer, and this has really been a revelation to me. Some of these things I didn't even know to check for, so it's immensely helpful to me. I just wish I had known before I bought some commercial use stuff that is disappointing, to say the least.
I thought I'd say this...my first reactions to this blog and the grab bag critique one was "damn, who does she think she is?" then I thoutht about it for a while. Currently I have a lady on my CT that is strictly for feedback and to check for things. I gave her this kit. After here I had Another wellknown designer check it for me. This was all 2 weeks ago. In the meantime I find this blog and am thinking just what I mentioned above.
But then I realized...this person - while I might not have liked her sarcastic and (seemingly) snarky tone, her red arrows, were to me, the sorts of things I wanted both the aforementioned people to find. Neither did. One pointed out stray pixels that were not, they were loose glitters placed on purpose.
I decided to send this person my kit - and 2 of them - that are yet to be released because in her blogs I've found EXACTLY the sort of quality control for which I've been looking...and I'll tell you what...
If anyone's ever seen my viewpoint on Product Reviews over at DST where that issue crops up from time to time, THIS is exactly what I'm talking about when I mention reviews of quality.
Personally I don't care who DDC is, she could be a member of my CT designing right under my nose or a Designer who's personality rubs me the wrong way - and there are some that do - but in THIS...all that goes to the wayside for me, because the nitpickiness of these reviews are exactly what I want.
"There is issue with the aspect of anonymous review here. Because the blog owner isn't posting her reviews under her name or common internet identity, there's no accountability for what's being said."
That's the crux of the credibility issue for those of out here who do value accountability for one's own words.
As soon as you can stand behind your own words, without the shield of anonymity, you will have come a long way towards credibility, indeed.
Until then? Oh well.-- A Customer.
Is it fair to call for revelation of ones' self when you yourself are posting anon?
My feelings are:
1) Yes the blog owner is super nitpicky
2) Hallelujia that there is someone with that good of an eye to point out how I can improve the quality of my designs.
3) Even crap designers are told their designs are wonderful when they really need some honest feedback.
4) Sick of all the whiny designers who can't take CC and view it as some sort of personal attack. All other artforms are subjected to CC (look at American Idol) but we seem to be want to be coddled and adored by fans at the expense of learning and growing - what a bunch of hogwash.
5) Sick of much ballyhood trendy designers making disappointing/flawed work that is doctored up by mega talented creative teams to look better than it really is. If our fans are too scared to tell us about these flaws they will simply stop buying and we will be none the wiser.
I just mean to say that it's a little ... offputting...to request that someone say all they have to say and assert that what they're saying doesn't have a good bit of merit because they're saying it faceless...when in essence that is what is being done in the request as well.
Sort of like..turn about is fair play that sort of thing.
It's why I choose to keep my thoughts to myself. If I've got something that I feel needs saying, I try to think carefully before saying it so as not to look like an Ass, because I know words will be attached to me. Forever immortalized in the land of www.
dang. lol that last post by me was just a follow up to the one previously written.
1:57 sorta split me up lol
I don't know what difference it makes whether the critique-er is anon. Pictures are pictures, no? And while not every picture contains something that is a flaw (IMO) it does bring a lot of attention to things that should be checked. And from a designer standpoint, wouldn't it be better to err on the side of (gasp) accuracy, rather than defend your right to mediocrity?
***BRAVO SHARIA and 1:57 pm.***
I just couldn't say it better myself.
(and just for the record I'm NOT on Sharia's team...or anyone's for that matter...but I'm going to check out her stuff just because she is willing to put herself out there for good quality).
8:27am-- I didn't say you didn't care. I said I cared. And my next sentence was, "As a designer you would want to be the best that you can possibly be" in which "you" refers to any designer (including yourself) who strives for high quality in their products.
My point was that just because the big names aren't putting out quality stuff, doesn't make it okay for the "little guys" to do it.
I have certain "big names" I refuse to give my business to because even though everyone goes gaga over them, I think their product is absolute crap and refuse to give them my money.
Honest question here (for both the DDC and everyone else)...
Say you draw something on paper & scan it.
Then you go in to Photoshop, extract the background & clean it up as much as possible.
When you blow it up to 100% (which on my screen is 4 times the size it prints at- going by the ruler on the screen and an actual ruler held against the monitor)... there are "rough" edges simply because the ink would settle into the teture of the papr it was drawn on (even "smooth" un-textured paper).
Printing it out on paper, it looks fine... no random strays or other flaws besides the "rough" edges (which again can only be seen at what appears to be 4 times the print size).
The "flaw" only shows up when blown up on a computer screen.
The doodle is not a vector shape, and is large enough that you shouldn't be resizing it to be larger, only smaller...
Is that something, that if pointed out by the DDC's little red arrows on this blog, would flag the doodle as un-buyable?
I've hunted & searched for tutorials & tips to get the edges smoother... but if the line in question is a straight line from a .5mm pen (scanned at either 300 or 600 dpi- that's tiny), there's not really much that you can "scrape" off the edges to smooth it out.
What would you do if you were the person who drew the doodle? Would you package it & sell it, trash it as sub-par quality work, what would you do?
Oops... second to last pargaraph of last comment (July 11, 2008 9:12 AM)- I meant to say "single line", not straight line... as i know you can do the point to point eraser on a straight line. Most of the lines in the doodles in question are curves, circles, etc...
To: July 11, 2008 9:12 AM and who ever it may concern:
"Printing it out on paper, it looks fine... no random strays or other flaws besides the "rough" edges (which again can only be seen at what appears to be 4 times the print size)."
I only mark "flaws" after I print them and they cause an undesirable effect on the "finished" product.
Re: Anonymity
I think it's almost better that the reviewer remain anonymous. Otherwise she will be subject to vendettas by overzealous CTM's, hate mail from angry designers and a nauseating stream of endless toadying and pimping.
"but if the line in question is a straight line from a .5mm pen (scanned at either 300 or 600 dpi- that's tiny), there's not really much that you can "scrape" off the edges to smooth it out.
What would you do if you were the person who drew the doodle? Would you package it & sell it, trash it as sub-par quality work, what would you do?"
As this is my problem too, I am trying to delete as many of the rough edges as I can, without losing the integrity of the doodle. The other option is to retrace it in Illustrator, but sometimes it ends up looking completely different from what you started with. I am cleaning up scanned doodles at 200% view, as close to the edge as possible. A pen drawn doodle is not going to be vector quality, but you can still smooth it out to the point that the jaggies won't show when printed. Very time consuming, but worth it in the end. Hope this helps.
I'm not going to pay $700 for Illustrator or trash all the CU doodles I bought that aren't vectors - I think if they look smooth at 12x12 print quality it's good enough.
If anyone needs to extract doodles try AlphaWorks (free plugin) - uses alpha channels to change white pixels transparent - very handy.
I am sorry, I should have made myself a little more clear. If they print out clear, then I do NOT point them out as a flaw.
maybe you hand doodler's can use this tip. It's what I do for my handdrawn doodles:
I scan them into PS
Clean them us as much as possible
Convert them to a custom shape (vector image)
Draw out the shape as big as a brush can be in ps (2500 x 2500)
Then I clean that up and smooth it out.
After it's all smoothed out, I package up as brush/.png set
I appreciate what you're doing here and I hope you keep it up! I think it is needed, especially since the anonymity you have helps you to be brutally honest. If you weren't anonymous, would you say it like it is? The stuff from Lost Gurlz really sucks and someone should have told her that it sucks. But probably none of the other designers felt like they could do that. Now I bet she knows what she can do to improve. This is a great service you provide.
Can't wait to see your next review! And please also try to present a balanced view. I would love to hear what was good about the kits you review, too. It seemed like here you just handed out a passing grade. Were there good things in this kit that deserved to be pointed out other than mglScraps nice tags? I bet there where! Let's hear about that to. And maybe an overall rating?
This would all have so much more value if you weren't all anon. Well, besides Sharia. :D (Although I think I might know who the critic is now, after that album story....)
I don't have a problem with a critique, per se. But like someone already said, it doesn't carry much weight in an anonymous setting, and borders inflammatory if the critique wasn't solicited. But that's just my opinion.
Hmmm. I don't think it matters if the critique is anon, because there are closeups of the products, which seems to me to be irrefutable whether I know the "reviewer's" name or not. And candidly, the comments section is just chatter, not critique.
I think you're picking apart things that don't matter on a layout.
You show us all the close ups!
So , we see all the mistakes in the kits .
I think you can make each one in the correct form .
It is very simply to say i´s not good . Look here . But do you make better each one ?
We love constructive criticism .
There are great designers that sometimes make a mistake , too .
And most of products have a review , where you can write for the designer . And the designer review the item .
I think is the correct fom to do your job.
Post a Comment