Does design Twitter want a code of ethics?
Snarky comments are of little use to the creative industry, but can Twitter be saved as a place for useful design discourse? Nicole Phillips and Craig Oldham discuss how to deal with negativity and whether design Twitter needs a dose of online etiquette
This year Twitter celebrates its 15th birthday and for most long-time users it is hard to believe that almost two decades have passed since the little blue bird landed in our lives. The service is far more sophisticated than it was at the beginning, but in many ways it's still a messy place of expression in the Wild West. In addition to being an insidious source of racism, misogyny, homophobia (and the list goes on), Twitter is the spiritual home of snarky commentary. Here rebrands and new logos are being crushed by the morass of public opinion.
In many ways this is nothing new. Design is a public discipline, which means that most designers and studios understand that criticism is an inevitable outcome. But things can get strangely personal on Twitter. Nicole Phillips, designer and founder of the blog Typograph.her, received unsolicited negative feedback on Twitter and knows firsthand how demoralizing it can feel.
"Creatives are by nature emotional beings," she tells CR. “I know this is a big stroke of the brush for any creative person, but it's pretty true. That makes us good problem solvers. But we're so invested in our work and it's really easy to (negative feedback) as a reflection on yourself and looking at your creative skills. I think it can be super crippling. If you post something and strips of it have been torn off, you can remove it from your social media feed, but it's still available in the world. "