Graphic designing is a serious work which involves a lot of aspects such as researching a company’s business and depicting its brand message. Making any kind of mistake in designing work such as a logo, business card, website, brochure, etc. can even potentially damage prospects of a company. But a well- thought out graphic design can turn a company and its business into a trustworthy brand in the eyes of the target audience.
A great design can be determined by the type of software being used and whether you use too many online tools and plugins, which can somehow disrupt your ability to use your own skills. A designer's mistakes are somehow lies in whether they use a vector or raster based design, color grading them properly using hue and saturation or not, or using a proper color mode like RGB and CMYK. If any of these things get left behind, then even a great concept of design won't work in the end and that would cost you your time and money.
Whether you’re a brand new designer looking to jump into your first order or you’re an old hand who’s looking for a refresher, these common graphic design mistakes can ambush any designer and potentially cause a lot of harm. Working with proper elements of design is a beneficial thing for any designer.
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This is the 2nd article related to common mistakes designers make. For Part 1, click the LINK.
So, take a look through these critical mistakes you need to keep an eye out for. As long as you stay vigilant and double check everything, none of these problems should bother you.
1. KERNING YOUR FONTS
If you’ve never heard of kerning before, don’t worry, it’s very simple. According to We Design Studios, kerning is the process in typography where the space between letters in adjusted, either manually or automatically. Kerning is important because in some situations, adjusting the space between letters can make the wording more legible and pleasing to the eye.
However, misusing kerning or not paying close attention to it can cause some major problems, from misinterpretations to destroying a design’s cohesiveness.
2. DESIGNING FOR YOURSELF
It is always absolutely imperative that you stay cognizant of the fact that you’re designing a project for a client. Whether you’re a freelancer or working with a company, it’s incredibly important that you stick to the client instructions and don’t make changes because you think it looks better.
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The customer is paying for a graphic design, and your job as a designer is to do all you can to help the customer achieve their vision.
3. MISMATCHING FONTS
Non-designers also have a tendency to overdo it by combining too many fonts. This tends to give the design a disorganized and unprofessional look. Mixing and matching different fonts can help segment a document. It can also change the reader’s attitude toward the content in a subtle but effective way.
If you do it too often though, it can make the reader feel very disoriented as their goal becomes less about receiving the information you are conveying and more about figuring out what’s the point in all the changes. It also makes your publication look cluttered.
4. LACK OF NEGATIVE SPACE
Basically, negative space – or white space, as it’s often called – is the area of the layout that is left empty. It may be not only around the objects you place in the layout but also between and inside them. Negative space is a kind of breathing room for all the objects on the page or screen.
A sure sign of an amateur designer is the lack of white space (or negative space) in a visual design. But instead of looking at white space as empty space, consider it like any other important element of design. A good example is the Google website. You're never roaming around, wondering where the search bar is.
5. FAILING TO CREATE CONTRAST
Another common problem is not using contrast effectively within a design. Not knowing how to use contrast effectively can mean the difference between an effective design and an ineffective one. The example below uses a light color, a dark color, and a bright color.
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Always experiment on tweaking color tones according to need of the design. Create color palette based on shades or get reference palettes online. A great color scheme always work pretty well.
6. NOT SCALING PROPERLY
Non-designers are also at times reluctant to use large and small scale, but they shouldn’t be. When this is done, it is important to make sure that the elements are not stretched in ways that were not intended so that they do not become distorted.
Keeping original structure of an image is what always beneficial for. Whether you insert a logo or some other graphic related file, always make sure to keep the original proportions of that image.
7. INADEQUATE SPACE BETWEEN LINES
Leading is the spacing between lines of text. As seen in the examples below, having too much space between lines can cause your text to appear disjointed, while having too little space can make the blocks appear too tight and crowded.
Depending on the type of design you are making, a great step to master the spacing is to experiment on the font you want to put in your design. Balancing the spacing of such text can provide you some good space and vice versa, i.e. fill up the empty space.
8. STRIVING FOR COMPLETE SYMMETRY
Another common misstep is to try and make a design look too perfect and symmetric. The use of absolute symmetry can make a design appear boring, while trying something not so symmetrical can produce a more eye-catching design.
9. FAILING TO COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY
Designers and non-designers are both guilty of this. Many times, we can get so caught up in creating a design that appeals to our own tastes and aesthetic preferences that we forget about the client’s needs and, worst of all, about the content and how it should serve its audience.
So, whether you work on small scale project or a huge budget client's work, always communicate them while taking their opinions and write them down. An opinion is as same as requirements, which basically is a good starting point of the project.
10. COPYING OTHERS' WORK
Although it is advisable to look for inspiration in others’ creations, it is definitely not okay to copy someone else’s work and pass it off as your own. This will not only hurt your credibility in the end, it will also limit the reach and impact of your message. Also, steer clear of clichés and overused design elements.
One thing to always focus on is to create your own designs. Even if you make some crappy or unattractive designs in the start, but keep on practicing is only going to improve your skills.
CONCLUSION
Graphic designers make common mistakes such as not understanding the instructions from the clients, not researching their business, raising their expectation due to loud promises, use of many fonts, colors, and end up making the design complex, and so on. It would be good if the designer keeps it simple.
