Hi there, Bhumika this side from ADMEC. I have been part of graphic designing industry from past 4 years and it won’t be wrong to say that I’m still in my learning phase. Graphic industry is such a dynamic industry that it opens up new avenues for us daily. Even the professional designers who have an industry experience of more than 15 or 20 years, learn something new every day. But the thing which makes them different from the rest of us is how they cope up and change themselves according to the industry needs.
They follow some common basic principles to avoid the irrelevant mistakes in the design and today in this article, we are going to learn about these basic graphic design mistakes that designers should avoid in order to produce satisfying results.
Role of visual communication to create a good design
There’s no arguing – the entire decade has brought a tremendous growth for both technological and digital domains. We are still in awe with the fact that in future we’ll be experiencing much more than this. While we don’t know what it has stored for us, we definitely know about the future of communication – it will be entirely visual.
- Visual medium has become one of the most common and efficient ways of communication. Every brand who wants to draw attention opts out for visual medium.
- Whether we talk about marketing or content section, companies are trying to blend visuals with it.
- They are learning how to beautifully craft their message using various visual elements like stock images, dynamic illustrations, and static graphics.
Role of good designing
Graphic designing, at the core, is all about communicating the idea which has turned out to be an inseparable part of every industry. While everyone is focusing on creating captivating visuals, web has also become a pool some really poor visual designs too. These designs not only develop a negative image of the product but also seems to annoy the professional designers and customers a lot.
A good design not only provokes the consumer’s sentiments but also forces them to make a purchasing decision.
- Today’s audience is smart enough to tell the difference between sensible/good design and bad design.
- Graphic design is a field that involves a lot of research and analysis just like any other practical domain of the industry.
- Good designing helps the companies in creating a strong visual brand identity for them on both online and offline platforms.
Creative designs come from creative minds
People generally don’t know what all it takes for professional graphic designers to create a sensible yet creative design that is effective enough to make the audience stares at it for a longer period of time.
- These designers are the creative mind behind those stunning billboard ads and cute packaging that induces customers like you and me to buy the product.
- Designers, through their amazing and outstanding visualization and designing skills, bring the vision of the company into the reality in such a way that people can relate to it.
For example, if we just have a look at the logo of FedEx, we see how designer has skillfully and thoughtfully placed a hidden arrow in the logo.
Not only it represents the company’s strength and goal of fast delivery in the most convenient manner, but also forces people to look twice at the design to understand it properly. Quite a strategy, I must say ya!
And FedEx is not the only company that has some brilliant designers in their team, you can look up to several brands like famous online food delivery apps – Zomato & Swiggy, Fevicol, Surf Excel or medicine delivery apps like PharmEasy, they too had some really stunning designers on board.
Graphic designers work carefully on other elements like typography, colors, images, symbols and other relevant things to make a design successful.
But as simple as the process of finding an excellent designer looks, it is also easy to become an easy bait for a disaster design too.
How do POOR designs make a big impact?
Many companies still do not pay much attention to their design campaigns and end up losing quite a decent number of valuable customers 🙁
This happens because for the majority of people, their buying decision entirely based on how the product is presented to them. If they do not like the design or fail to understand the concept what company wants to communicate through the design medium, they will not purchase the product and might prefer other brands over yours 🙁
If the logo, banners, brochures and other designs are designed carelessly they might damage the identity and can hamper the future prospects of the business 🙁
Whether you are a beginner in the designing industry or an old hand who is trying to brush up the designing skills these design mistakes can really hamper your progress of becoming a professional designer.
As long as you stay aware of this mistake, there’s no one to stop you. Now, let us have a look over 🙂
Most Common Graphic Design Mistakes to Avoid for Beginner Designers :
1. Not Understanding the Audience
This is probably the biggest mistakes novice designers make. Design, like any other art form is about communicating to the audience and when you fail in doing so, you cannot expect to create a strong and captivating design.
Designs are always created after understanding the psychology, mood and behaviour of the target audience because they will be the ultimate users.
It is the responsibility of the designer to effectively communicate the company’s ideas through the designs.
For example, if your target audience it mostly ladies and young teenage girls, it would be really stupid on your part to use dark colors like red and black for the brand instead of choosing the soft pastel ones like blue, pink, orange or green.
2. Limiting Yourself
Graphic industry is a creative industry which offers you an unbound freedom to explore new styles, designs and try new things consistently. As as designer, you should never limit your thinking capacity otherwise you won’t be able to compete with the rest in the race.
Producing a design in itself is a creative process. Never stop experimenting and going weird and crazy. Designing is the only industry where you can be completely mad and still behave sane.
Not everything you try will turn out to be the best but no design will become best if don’t try in the first place.
3. Using too Many Fonts
Designing can look really fascinating and intimidating to beginners but hey you! don’t fall into the trap. Playing with fonts can be really fun but only if you do that as an exercise.
Design with too many fonts can make it look chaotic and can also annoy the viewers. Using too many fonts can give an unprofessional look to your design.
I always suggest my readers to never go beyond using two fonts. Now this is another skill that designer should adopt. They should know how to use fonts in pairing to maximize the effect of design.
Designers should use the fonts that perfectly matches the mood of design. For example, if you are creating a design for business company, feminine and script fonts will fail to capture enough attention.
4. Delivering Less than What is Promised
Out of all the mistakes that has been covered till now, for me this one is the most damaging one.
Creating a satisfying design isn’t a few hours or a single day task. Designers need some time to go through each and every aspect which are capable of affecting their design structure.
Whether you are a freelance graphic designer or work in any MNC, you should always keep things clear while discussing about the deadlines of the project.
You can set the deadline as per the expectations and requirements of the client. It is always better to finish the project earlier than stretching it over for an unknown period of time.
(P.S. Don’t make deadlines as per your convenience, you’ll never learn how to work in a professional manner. Your deadlines should be set according to the client’s expectations and not your working mood.)
5. Poor Color Selection
Like every other design element, Colors too have an impeccable impact on the mind of viewers.
Every color leaves a different impact on the mind of the consumer. For example, Red can be used to depict anger, strength and boldness of the brand whereas blue is used to communicate the calm, forward thinking and modernisation of the brand.
Designers should always choose their colors wisely. Creating a right colour palette should be their priority because many times, a right design becomes awful just because of the poor color selection.
Another common mistakes that designers usually make while selecting Colors is that they forget to add a contrasting colour.
They sometimes overlook the basic contrast in the design which makes the dull and boring.
They should know how to blend light colour with the darker one for effective branding and communication.
6. Crowding the Layout
As a designer, you are made to learn various things and among them the most basic is how to stick to ‘Less is More’ rule. While you can have a lot to say but fitting all of that in a compact layout is not a good idea.
Graphic Designing is all about how you can communicate a larger message with simple visuals. You can always use icons or images in place of words that convey the same meaning.
Try to avoid filling your content with everything you have. It is not mandatory to apply everything you know in one single design.
Always leave a breathing space – white space in your design. It will not only make your design look balanced but effectively conveys your message.
Designers have to strike a balance between empty space and design elements to produce an outstanding result.
7. Ignoring the Basic Design Principles
While I have mentioned above that designers should always try experimenting new things, they should never forget the basic design principles.
There are 8 common design principles that every designer should follow. You cannot create a good design while ignoring them.
8. Copying Others Work
Designers always look for inspiration before getting started with the project and they are also advised to go through the works of several other artists to understand the current trend of the industry.
But it is obviously not okay to copy the entire concept of someone else and pass its own as your own work. Copying somebody else’s work will not only hamper your creativity and credibility but also limit your design skills.
So, these were some common mistakes that designers should avoid. These design mistakes will not only hamper your progress as a professional designer.
Before diving into real industry make your grip strong over these mistakes. Once you learn to overcome this, then there’s no looking back.
As an expert in providing digital media education to students, ADMEC offers high-quality training through graphic design courses. We have a team of competent and trained professionals who will provide you an in depth working of all the leading graphic software. This makes our institute the best graphic design institute in Delhi.
So, what’s stopping you from becoming a master of media and entertainment industry.
That’s all from my side folks. Stay tuned with us for more informative blogs. Till then, Keep Exploring!
