Artists are different. This has been true since cavemen began doodling on cave walls. Today it is a cliché to call artists eccentric or odd, and it bears repeating that there's a bell curve to everything, so some artists are pretty much normal folks (pretty much) while others are, like Salvador Dali or Van Gogh, strange birds with weird ideas or psychologically disturbed folks who cut off their own ears.

The same is true in all media, not just for painters. Today's so-called computer artists are simply artists who have a different palette and tools, with the same mindset as others, somewhere along that artist bell curve. If you run a business and have onsite artists, or deal with them at an agency or in a freelance manner, then you know that it can be difficult at times to communicate clearly. Artists are also passionate, for the most part, and can be quite touchy when it comes to people critiquing, not to say criticizing, their work. It is important, therefore, for non-artists to learn how to communicate with Information Age Dalis and Van Goghs.

The right vocabulary

The first thing that the non-artist needs to understand is that, assuming a certain standard of talent and training, an artist's design is not good or bad. Art school instructors have been telling their Design 101 students for at least a century that the way to judge design is not by gradations of bad to good, but in terms of whether the design works. Does it do the job it is supposed to do? For animators, it means determining if the action is fluid and the story clear. For potters, it means deciding if the piece can be used as intended and look the way it should. For artists who design Web sites and print materials, it means asking, 'does the design communicate what it is supposed to, and lead people (at least a reasonable number) to take the action you want?'

Most artists do think this way, and know that their designs have to be judged on whether or not they are working. This is the term that non-artist managers should use, rather than saying a design is right or wrong, good or bad. Some younger, less experienced artists may still believe that commercial is somehow tainted (by filthy lucre, as some say), but the fact is that much of the great art from the classical Greco-Roman era to the Renaissance was created for commercial purposes. Even the Sistine Chapel ceiling is, in actuality, religious propaganda, and conveys powerful messages in just the way the reigning Pope wanted at the time. Michelangelo, a paid commercial artist, made it work.

Constant refinement

Of course, what works one day, or for one goal, may not work for others. This is why artists will repurpose, refine, revise and re-do what they have already created, to keep pace with changing (commercial) needs. Mature designers that know all of this and have worked in the commercial arena for years can still be emotionally invested in their work. If they were not invested they would not be artists. They have learned, however, in most cases, at least, to set aside their personal preferences and make their designs work for the intended purpose. Because this can be less fulfilling than wide-open creative license, most commercial artists undertake other projects to scratch that artistic itch.

As long as they have other outlets for their so-called real work, even the most elitist artist/designer can make a go of it straddling the commercial and non-commercial (read, pure) art worlds. Not everything in their ouvre has to be judged as to whether it brings in money, and most artists get tremendous satisfaction far beyond a paycheck. However, reality being what it is, the fact that they can make a living with their artistic skills is a big plus. Still, it does take some discipline and occasional attitude adjustment to remain happy and fulfilled in a design position, especially at a firm that has no one who appreciates art and design (and where the right/wrong judgments abound instead of the works/doesn't work dichotomy).

Bottom line

If this is all news to you, and you did not know artists and designers were so, well, complicated, it would behoove you to learn a new vocabulary and deal with staff or freelance artists in a new, constructive way. When they start hearing less-critical reviews of their work, couched in terms that are appropriate to the situation (like, "This works, that doesn't"), you may find that they become much easier to deal with. You will be more likely to get site designs that work when you know how to work better with designers. Ta-da!