I always struggle with giving creative feedback. I can only imagine what's it's like to be a creative director and have your work (which is inherently personal) continually critiqued in front of you. I guess you learn to grow really thick skin (or plug your ears discretely).
This last week, I gave a cartoon talk to 200 people at Unilever, and it was surreal to flip through my cartoons on a jumbo screen waiting for the audience to get the joke and start laughing. Usually, I send out my cartoons alone and I'm not there when people get them. So, it was a little nerve-wracking to be on a stage hoping (and praying) that people would start laughing (anyone, anyone, Bueller, Bueller). A bit like that old dream of showing up to school without your clothes. Anyway, that's what I imagine it's like to be a creative director in a client meeting.
So, I always try to dose my creative feedback to others with plenty of ego stroking. An early manager of mine described it as a "criticism sandwich", which led to this cartoon.
Here's the best way to give feedback - skip the layers of praise. Any decent creative who has been around a while can separate themselves from their work.
The only thing that really ticks me off is when a client starts tell me that they don't like it. I don't necessarily design to sell a product to the client. When they start telling me that, I challenge them to tell me how it doesn't meet the business objective.
I once had a marketing manager reviewing an ad target at teen girls tell me that he "didn't get it." I told him that was probably a good thing!
Posted by: Stephen Macklin | April 05, 2008 at 04:47 PM
Tom - I like the praise - especially the genius bit...don't stop.
Posted by: Josh | April 13, 2008 at 07:23 PM
Wasn't that also called a "shit sandwich"?
Posted by: JR | April 15, 2008 at 10:16 PM
Tom, I'm guessing that talk was at Unilever UK... many of us in our US offices have your cartoons posted in our cubes- keep them coming!
Posted by: US fan | May 05, 2008 at 05:03 AM