From social media images and website layouts to putting together a cohesive grouping of promotional products, there are a lot of opportunities to flex your creative muscles as well as grow your business at the same time. If you’re trying to create a product mock-up, creating a new logo, or composing some print marketing for a new campaign for the first time, designing new artwork doesn’t have to be scary! We’ve put together a couple of the most common graphic design mistakes and how you can avoid them.
A Lack Of Consistency
Your graphic design should exude the feel of oneness. Utilise the same visual elements all throughout the design. For instance, a “Contact Us” button that is blue and rounded at the top of the web page has to be the same at the bottom of the material. You can’t have a red button at the bottom of the material. However, make sure that you don’t overdo consistency.
Incorrect Usage Of Fonts
Typography is very important in any design and has a significant impact on how your brand is perceived out in the market. And the fonts you select determine whether your message will be delivered the way that you intended. This means that it’s crucial to utilise fonts that are easy to read and represent your brand’s personality.
Unfortunately, graphic designers occasionally use too many fonts in a given design which can start making it look a little too busy. Generally speaking, no more than three fonts should be used in a single design. In addition, you could use one font with different weights instead. However if you decide you want to utilise multiple fonts make sure they’re from the same family and that they complement each other.
At the same time, fonts have to be in tune with the overall feel of the design: if you want to convey a strong message, utilise a bold font while for a more laid back vibe, try rounded, free-flowing fonts.
Poor Kerning
The term ‘kerning’ refers to the spacing that is between the letters in your writing. Even though it may sound straightforward, poor kerning can ruin the general impression that you want to make with your piece of design. Your written words may look entirely unreadable or confusing or in some cases, it can even be comical. Make sure that you pay very close attention to kerning if you would like your design to be visually balanced.
How can you prevent this design mistake?
- Make sure that you add equally perceived space between letters,
- Squint or cross your eyes so that you can see the space between the letters without getting distracted by the characters, and
- Pay equal attention to spacing between words and not just spacing between letters.
Poorly Executed Gradients
Try not to utilise an excessive number of poor-quality gradients. Study the colour wheel, learn how to use trajectory graphic programs and then start creating eye-catching gradients. Make sure your gradients are pertinent to your design and that you are able to execute them well.
Using Stock Images
Stock images can be a very helpful and reasonably priced solution when you’re working on a project that requires particular images. However, utilising too many stock photos can make your project look cheap or – alternatively – unprofessional. Many common stock photos are used over and over again which makes it a dead giveaway when you include them in your marketing piece. In addition, make sure that you are properly buying the photos you do end up using in order to avoid sending out photos with a watermark or ones which are low resolution.
Not Communicating The Message Clearly
At times graphic designers are so involved in colours and shapes that they ignore the message. The chief duty of a graphic designer is to convey a message effectively. Colours and shapes are just the means, not the end. Keep in mind that the ultimate measure of your success is how well you have conveyed the message.
Lack Of White Space
At times, designers feel like they need to fill every single space however this can start making designs look very cluttered and difficult to look at. As a result, designs that are too distracting can overpower the viewer and therefore the message that you’re trying to get across gets lost.
As such, understanding how to add in white space can make designs far more visually appealing, making them a lot easier to understand. Just to be crystal clear, white space is the clear space that is between design elements (not only space on a white background): it’s the unmarked areas of any colour, image, pattern as well as textures.
And utilising white space correctly can assist to emphasise important elements such as the call-to-action, making specific messages stand out properly. So remove superfluous design elements like borders, for instance.
