I really like hockey. Like, I rarely go on YouTube, but when I do, it’s for either rap videos or hockey videos. The other day, I was watching a video from my favorite NHL- and hockey-related channel, TSN Bardown, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI02E81Vzqs) about rating alternate jerseys, and then another video by them about rating the Reverse Retro jersey series that the NHL put out either last year or the year before that (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sW2tJt3700). The videos are goofy and lighthearted, but the people in them consistently point to small things as the reason for something being rated a B- rather than a C, or a B+ rather than an A-. It got me thinking about how the tiny things, details people might gloss over, really do matter.
Some of the details were things like, “if the Sharks had added more highlights here here and here, it would feel less gloomy and more striking.” Or, “if the jersey didn’t have this stripe here it would be much more cohesive.” These are things that average people — just regular hockey fans, not designers or artists — are noticing and articulating, but clearly they got past the rounds of editing and review that I assume corporate designs at such a high level go through. (I mean, they’re designing for the NHL, so I assume they get reviewed before being sent to production.) Therefore, I think there’s a lot to think about here about the power of detail and the value of meticulousness.
I’ve always been super detail-oriented. It’s what makes me a good painter, and it feeds into everything I do. For example, in the Dada project, I went through each pixel of some of my elements, cutting things out and making sure it looked perfect. I went though every frame of animation to try to get things looking just right. My non-design friends saw me doing this and genuinely thought I was crazy — I got a lot of “I could never have the patience to do that!” But I really do enjoy when a job is well done, and I simply don’t think a job can be well done if it has not been combed through with detail in mind. This is true for my pursuits outside of art and design as well; when writing papers, little turns of phrase and specific wording matters very much to me. When in conversation with others, I try to hang onto those little details of things they’re excited about, things that make them react certain ways, to be able to learn more about them and make sure my image of them is grounded in the little details that reveal so much about people.
I think I’m outgrowing perfectionism, but I do still want to be proud of myself. I know that for practical purposes, we can’t always go through everything, but generally, I think it’s more valuable to fix the little things than just leave them be, knowing that they could have been better.
