What is the main reason a graphic design fails miserably? It’s quite simple: you played with graphic content before you worked out your message.
If you don’t have your text, your copy, your content, your message, or your desired reaction nearly perfectly worked out before you fire up Illustrator or PhotoShop or what-have-you, you’ll end up playing with grids and graphics with no real aim. I see junior designers doing this all the time. It’s painful, but you can see what the wrong path looks like from across the room!
Ways to tell if your design is going to fail before it fails
This isn’t an exact science, and I’m not talking about the final end design. I’m talking about iterations. How can you know if your iteration is on the right track? How can you speed up the iterative process and increase quality? First, let’s examine how slow down the iterative design process and muddle up the quality. Here are a few signs to look for, to see if you are about to fail:
- You are focused on the detail of a particular graphic element before all the copy from your notes is even on the screen
- You don’t have the information hierarchy worked out in in sketch or outline form
- You made arbitrary design decisions in your mind before you completed working out copy, and now you are trying to cram text into a pre-fab “template” in your mind
- You haven’t completed at least a few sketches of the final design, either in digital or analog (pencil or pen) form
- You are excited by a “filter” or “effect” you got from a tutorial and you are frustrated as you are trying to shoehorn it into your work
- You spent 3 hours on a texture for the background
- You are fiddling with brushes or stroke widths or opacities on elements you aren’t even sure are in the right place on the page
- You are more concerned and aware of look and feel than about message and desired response
- You don’t know the software very well, and you are trying to learn a cool new trick at the expense of proper engagement with your text
- You think a cool visual technique is equal in importance to textual content
The list can go on, and I’m sure you could fill in a few more. All designers get off track at times in a project. It’s par for the course, but you can limit time-wasting habits by becoming aware of them and eliminating them. But to eliminate a bad habit, you have to replace it with a new one.
How to ensure your graphic design does not fail
- Plan the text: work out some sketches!
- Plan the hierarchy: what is the first most important textual element on the page, and what is the secondary and tertiary?
- Plan the desired response: what is it you want the viewer to do or how to you want them to react?
- Plan the _____ and the _____ and also the _____ without forgetting to plan the _____, too.
Yes, plan. Plan any way you can. Plan as much as you can. Before you start designing, plan.
If after asking yourself “Have I planned?” you aren’t sure you’ve planned enough, you haven’t planned enough.
If you fail to work out these three points, fiddling with fonts, colors, and grids are simply just rearranging chairs on the deck of a sinking ship.
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Plan for success and plan not to fail
Ensure your success and don’t fail: plan everything (as much as you can) ahead, before starting graphic production. Do the hard work of thinking things through before you start the “fun” part.
Oh, and make sure you plan everything, as much as you can, before you start designing. Wait, did I say that already? Well if I did, it’s good for you to hear and no trouble for me to repeat.
Remember that no filter, color combination, font palette, stock photo, original illustration, PhotoShop filter, Illustrator scatter brush can make a poorly planned idea come out looking any better than a poorly planned idea—albeit with some lipstick on it.
Good luck planning and even better luck to you designing!
Good post, Doug, I often saw history repeating itself when I’d get side-tracked on something without the end goal in sight. I’ve learnt the hard way how to approach design projects.
Having your text, your copy, your content, your message, or your desired reaction nearly perfectly worked out is, of course, desirable. But, as sure as there are junior designers, there are junior clients and you have to learn how to tactfully extract from them the information you want!
Hi Rob:
There are too many factors that can mess with getting the right or final copy from some clients, so I didn’t bother to bring in that aspect. But, even with the wrong or incomplete information (which we get all the time), you can still be on the right track in good faith.
What’s worse is going down the wrong design track with the wrong or incomplete information mixed with a fickle client and a poorly worded revision clause in the contract, backed up against a deadline with a piddly budget to begin with. Ring a bell? Hopefully not, but I won’t begin to describe my personal horrors on that front :). If I did, I’d ruin the rest of my week, and probably yours too :).
Ahh, yes it does ring a bell. And, as you say, horror. But never mind, I tell myself, I’ll get it right next time. I’ll not make that mistake again. And then it happens again … just not with the same regularity! Have a great week! 🙂
Hi Douglas,
YOU CRACK ME UP! And at the same time your words stop my mind in it’s tracks. I believe that distraction is the number 2 two reason why a graphic design fails miserably.
I found bonfx.com by accident, and I’ve been wandering around here for hours now. It’s like a support group for creatives! Your brilliant efforts are much appreciated.
Thanks!
If I’m cracking you up, I’m doing my job 🙂 How’d you find bonfx.com? I always like to hear how people stumble across the site.
Support group for creatives – that’s a great angle I should look at. After nearly 2 decades, I think I’m entitled to some design therapy, whether I make it myself or not!
Hey Nik, was just looking at your packaging design portfolio at deepfreelance.com. NICE stuff!
Douglas,
Thanks for this. I’m new to the graphic & motion design world and post like this help zone in on what it takes to be a TRUE graphic designer and not just a “PHOTOSHOPPER”. Sometimes you can get lost in the glitter and gold ( making it look great) and not pay attention to the real message to send or problem you should be solving. I’ve learned this and will continue to incorporate it into future projects to come.
Hi Darius. Glad you found this useful!