in honesty, as a designer, you should refine your own taste. Know what you like, what you don't. Be unashamed of this: it's what separates your work from others'. Once you do, you'll have 'the angry years' where you go off and rail against this or that to everyone you know (blah blah lucida blah blah poor attempt at contrast harmony blah blah composition not dynamic blah blah).
But all the while, this is developing your internal taste barometer, things you love and things you won't stand for. This will influence your work in every way possible, from things like stroke width (looks too constructivist!) to decisions about texture (halftone again?!, what is this, the 50s?)
I'll agree that it's good to keep up with what other people bitch about (gotta keep up with the zeitgeist!) but it's often funnier than informational, and more often, their posts lack substance or rally around some shallow point that you no longer care about. I mean, yes, i've seen the golden rectangle, i studied maths, but i don't buy the whole "look! look! the golden ratio is EVERYWHERE!" argument that is basically what this webpage boiled down to. But that's my own taste talking.
Comments
in honesty, as a designer, you should refine your own taste. Know what you like, what you don't. Be unashamed of this: it's what separates your work from others'. Once you do, you'll have 'the angry years' where you go off and rail against this or that to everyone you know (blah blah lucida blah blah poor attempt at contrast harmony blah blah composition not dynamic blah blah).
But all the while, this is developing your internal taste barometer, things you love and things you won't stand for. This will influence your work in every way possible, from things like stroke width (looks too constructivist!) to decisions about texture (halftone again?!, what is this, the 50s?)
I'll agree that it's good to keep up with what other people bitch about (gotta keep up with the zeitgeist!) but it's often funnier than informational, and more often, their posts lack substance or rally around some shallow point that you no longer care about. I mean, yes, i've seen the golden rectangle, i studied maths, but i don't buy the whole "look! look! the golden ratio is EVERYWHERE!" argument that is basically what this webpage boiled down to. But that's my own taste talking.