Robert Christgau used a clever grading scale when analyzing music albums. Think about these things when you are completing your work — design can be measured according to similar criteria.

  • An A+ record is an organically conceived masterpiece that repays prolonged listening with new excitement and insight. It is unlikely to be marred by more than one merely ordinary cut.

  • An A is a great record both of whose sides offer enduring pleasure and surprise. You should own it.

  • An A- is a very good record. If one of its sides doesn’t provide intense and consistent satisfaction, then both include several cuts that do.

  • A B+ is a good record, at least one of whose sides can be played with lasting interest and the other of which includes at least one enjoyable cut.

  • A B is an admirable effort that aficionados of the style or artist will probably find
    quite listenable.

  • A B- is a competent or mildly interesting record that will usually feature at least
    three worthwhile cuts.

  • A C+ is a not disreputable performance, most likely a failed experiment or a pleasant
    piece of hackwork.

  • A C is a record of clear professionalism or barely discernible inspiration, but not
    both.

  • A C- is a regrettably successful exploitation or a basically honest but quite incompetent
    stab at something more.

  • A D+ is an appalling piece of pimpwork or a thoroughly botched token of sincerity.

  • It is impossible to understand why anyone would buy a D record.

  • It is impossible to understand why anyone would release a D- record.

  • It is impossible to understand why anyone would cut an E+ record.

  • E records are frequently cited as proof that there is no God.

  • An E- record is an organically conceived masterpiece that repays repeated listening with a sense of horror in the face of the void. It is unlikely to be marred by one listenable cut.

Robert Chrisgau Record Grades