Quality, Newbies, Insulting Designers

And today's buzz word is... QUALITY.

Quality can be subjective. There are many kits out there that I do not find appealing- I do not think that they are up to my standards. They are too 'cutesy', too 'cartoony' for my tastes. That doesn't necessarily mean that they are 'low quality'- just that they aren't up to my 'quality standards'.

When a group of people is discussing quality- they should leave off the comments about resolution (unless something is drastically low, resolution wise- 150ppi instead of 200-300ppi) and comments about 'cutesy' and 'cartoony'. These days, resolution that falls within the 200-300 range isn't a quality issue- more of a user preferance. Same with cutesy and cartoony- some people enjoy the cutesy, cartoony style. What they should stick to are craftsmenship- how well something was made. If the texture sharp- not blurry or distorted? Are there stray pixels? Jagged edges? When discussing quality, people should be aware that what they don't care for isn't a quality issue. The fact that it keeps coming up just shows me that there are many who are dismissing designers who do not fit their style as 'low quality'.

One of the emails that I read today addressed the issue with newbies (ok, a few of them did). I love this- it's a conundrum. I have to wonder how many designers made the decision to sell because someone, somewhere, told them that they were 'great' and that they 'should sell their kits'. The decision to become a designer should have more to do with the designer and less to do with the reactions of friends and family. The market is so saturated with designers- many of them average- that it's hard for the truly amazing designers to get a good start. I think that the only way to combat this problem is for store owners to be more selective in who they allow to sell through them. The designers are the store's face- they are what a store's reputation is builty upon.

Finally- I'm appalled at the number of people who will not give a designer a second chance- or even a chance to fix a mistake- because they are afraid of insulting the designer. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO COMPLAIN. You are not insulting the designer (unless your email to them is full of four letter words that you wouldn't repeat in the presence of your grandmother- please, people, think before you hit send!)- you are offering them the chance to correct a mistake, and in the process, IMPROVE. What really truly gets me is the number of people who make this judgement based on one kit or one freebie- they see something that they deem as 'low quality' (and how often is this truly a quality issue? How often is it really a 'style mismatch'?), so they refuse to go out and purchase or download another kit by that designer. In my eyes- that just isn't right. Instead of giving that designer a chance to improve- they are condemning them.

Oftentime in real life, we do not automatically condemn a store because we had ONE bad experience with that store. We say to ourselves 'that cashier was having a bad day', 'they were probably short staffed', or any one of the hundreds of reasons that we come up with to explain away a bad experience. If it happens again- we might complain, or we might explain it away again. When we complain, we look to see how our complaint is taken (is the manager listening? is he making up excuses? is he being polite? is he offering something to us to make up for our bad experience?)- we are guaging his customer service level. We are more likely to go back and shop at that store- even with all the problems that we've had in the past- if the manager gives great customer service. We will go back and try them again. We typically have to experience some sort of problem with a store before we decide that we won't shop there again. We give these places second- and often much more than that- chances. Why are we so quick to condemn a digital designer?

We shouldn't. Plain and simple. Give the digital designer the same chance that you would a brick and mortar store.