March 03, 2005
Mea Culpa or Oopie
So I made a huge error. This was a mistake of the blushingly bad, glaringly obvious type. One that makes your gut knot a little, and those beads of cold sweat start to form on your forehead. You know. We've all felt it.This was the type of error that, had my high-school journalism teacher seen it, she probably would have called me and said, "See? I told you so." No, Mrs. Barry, I didn't misspell surprise, again, Jeez. Let it go, would you?
Those of you who caught it, caught it. And I'm sure I lost some readers because of it. But I made it, and I deserve to lose them for making it. It was a mistake. A glaringly obvious mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. And it permeated the whole site. But for some reason I just couldn't see it. I was too close or too busy. Or something. So there it was. Well, it's fixed now.
I guess it just goes to show that, even though I ride upon my high horse casting aspersions on others, I also attempt to hold myself to that same kind of standard. I try to critique my own efforts. I am hypocritical and play a little holier than thou, but I honestly try to subject myself to the exact same criticism and reassessment on a regular basis. I can always do better. Which brings me to today's topic...
First, always go back through your old work. No matter how old, no matter how dated and seemingly useless it is. I don't care if you got paid to do it or not. Whether it's a client piece or a corporate piece. Do it, because you'll discover things you didn't see. You'll see errors and omissions and screw-ups. And you should be proud of that. Why? Because you made a mistake? No. No one is really proud of mistakes. You should be proud because now you have enough distance and you have grown enough that you can see the mistake. It will seem so obvious now. Glaringly obvious. And maybe, just maybe, it will help you grow, and prevent you from making that mistake again.
When I'm in the mood for self-degradation, I often go back through my portfolio. I jump to the pieces that I thought were "so perfect," and every time I find something. Something new. Something off the grid, or grammatically incorrect, or just plain wrong. I find something that, given a second chance, I would fix. And it always makes me realize how far I have come. And how much I have learned. Sometimes, beating yourself up can be a very good thing.
And trust me, no matter how good you are, how famous, or how exposed, no one is ever going to look at the stuff you do as closely as you do. Well, I might. But then you'll be in this blog, and how cool is that? What's that, you say? Rude.
Second, always go through your current work. It's difficult. Extremely difficult. I like editing. But I am a freak. And even good editors and not-so-good editors make mistakes. (See above.) But you need to do it. And in order to do it well, you need to create some distance or find a different perspective. You have to find a way of removing yourself from something with which you have been so deeply and intimately involved that you can see it from a different angle. In the best case, so you can see it from the angle of your target market.
Maybe your target market could care less about a misspelling but a poorly cropped image would send them off the deep-end. Maybe your market is fine with simple graphics if they understand the technology under the hood is running solid. It doesn't matter what you do. Take the opportunity to look at it differently.
Read it backwards. Look at it through a mirror. Read it out loud. Test it in an old browser. Turn on high-contrast. View it on a different platform. Print it in black and white. Reduce it in size. Scale it up. Pretend you're someone else. Just look. Just touch. Just smell. Just taste. Whatever you have to do, find a way to get a different perception of the piece. Because, if you do it right, you'll see things that you never saw before. And your work will be better for it. Marketing or otherwise. I promise. And I speak from experience.
When was the last time you made a mistake big enough to knock you off of your horse? Share in the catharsis. I'm getting back in the saddle, and I'm looking forward to your return.
Mea Culpa or Oopie
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