Worst Mistakes Graphic Designers shouldn’t be Making!!

The most common way for a graphic designer to learn is through trial and error. Especially for young and aspiring graphic designers, who keep on committing mistakes because of lack of experience. You must have heard of the old adage “To err is human”. So the next time you make a mistake, don’t fret over it…instead learn from your blunders. Having learnt from my mistakes, which I encountered in my career, I wish to educate my fellow designers about some of the errors, which they should avoid in any case. Following are 10 of the most common mistakes that most graphic designers commit in their graphic design careers:

1. Working without a Design Brief:

In any graphic design project, the details are necessary to guide a designer through the entire process. Some graphic designers have a bad habit of being overly confident and start the project without acquiring a detailed design brief. A design brief helps you collect all the information about your clients’ design project. Without knowing your client’s requirements, you simply cannot work on a logo design project.

2. Ignoring the Target Audience: The purpose of graphic design is to visually aid companies in expressing their message to their target market. Hence, if the graphic designers ignore the target audience, they will never be able to create the right design. In order to create relevant designs, you must first analyze the intended customers for which it is aimed at. Overlooking the target will lead to a weak and aimless design.

3. Not maintaining a Contract:

In a graphic designer’s career, salary and payments issues are frequent. When you don’t maintain a contract with your clients, you are likely to be swindled of your hard earned money. I don’t wish to imply that every client has ill-intentions. But some clients have a habit of getting the work done and running away with it without paying the designer.

4. Avoiding Contact with the Client: Some graphic designers feel shy while some are completely ignorant when it comes to staying in touch with the client. One of the biggest mistakes you can make in your professional life is not communicating with your clients properly. By not staying in touch with clients during the project, you make them feel ignored and unwanted. You must take feedbacks from them to avoid any client criticisms in the end.

5. Procrastinating:

In any profession, deadlines are extremely crucial to meet. By completing your work on time, you exhibit your determination and sincerity to commitments. Some graphic designers tend to procrastinate on their projects. When they end up falling short of their deadline, they pass off a mediocre design as minimalism design trend. Procrastination will make your clients go away since they expect you to be efficient.

6. Not Staying up-to-date: In this cut-throat competition, it is essential for graphic designers to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the field of graphic design. As technology upgrades every day, newer and better ways of graphic designing are evolving. Those who fail to catch-up in graphic designing eventually lose the race.

7. Not Starting in Black and White: Some graphic designers fail to understand the importance of starting in black and white. They directly create the colored version of the design. This is a big mistake as one should know how the design looks in black and white because some promotional mediums don’t allow for colors. Hence, what you create in color might not look good in black and white.

8. Pass off Plagiarism as Inspiration:

One of the prime qualities of a graphic designer is their ability to be original. Another big blunder you could make as designers is to copy others work. Some designers have a bad habit of passing off what they plagiarize as merely inspiration. While you may get away with it sometimes, but in the long run, your credibility as a genuine and original designer will be badly affected.

9. Neglecting the Power of Simplicity: Some graphic designers believe that if they add more effects in design, it will become attractive. But the reality is otherwise. Adding too many elements to a design makes it complicated and messy to look at. They often neglect the power and significance of simplicity. Instead of making intricate and difficult to comprehend designs, designers must prefer simple concept that the target audience will remember.

10. Lose Confidence:

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually fear you will make one. Be it graphic designing or any other profession, confidence is crucial in the success of your career. One of the gravest mistake you can make as a graphic designer is to lose hope in the middle of a project. There will be times when you will get tired of working on a project or be unsatisfied with the results. But never give up and carry on until you achieve your desired results.

Studying Web Design, Graphic Design or Marketing? Here’s What to Expect

Students currently studying marketing, graphic design or web design will soon join the creative class of Canada’s workforce.

To give them a better idea of what awaits them after graduation, a new study has been released to forecast what creative professionals can expect over the next 5 years.

A new research guide, called The Creative Team of the Future charts the trends in marketing and design over the next 5 years, by surveying over 500 advertising firms.

For example, students can expect to have their opinions heard and valued, with almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of respondents stating that creative professionals will have more influence on their companies’ business decisions.

Grads can also expect an abundance of work, with 62 per cent of respondants expecting their creative staff to work more hours over the next few years and a whopping 85 per cent answered they will need employees to work outside of normal 9-5 business hours.

But the good news is that most, or all, of that work can be done from home, with 84 per cent of those surveyed claiming that more of their employees will work remotely in the next three to five years.

5 Things To Consider Before Deciding On Your Graphic Designer

Great design can make or brake a business, the first thing your customers will see could make them feel impressed and inspired, or make them look elsewhere to your competitors.

Very often companies can rush into getting a design or brand set up. Time is normally of the essence and as time is money mistakes can be made in haste.

A quick checklist has been compiled that could save time tears and trouble:

1. Research

Have a look at different designers, look through portfolios and see what you like. Get the opinions of others, what looks good to you may not look good to others, so getting the opinions of others for designers you like the look of is a wise move. Have a browse through designers portfolios, check out the range of their expertise. Creative designers like to showcase the range of their work as they are proud of it.

2. Budget

What is the budget you have to allocate to your design/brand. Be realistic, if you are approaching a top design agency with a small budget then you are wasting their time and yours. Great design does not have to cost the earth, but it does take some searching for.

If you are working to a budget, perhaps approaching the project in bite size stages could be best; spreading the cost over a few months of design to allow you to get the best designer possible but giving them the time to work on your campaign.

3. Competitors

What are your competitors doing? How are they presenting themselves, what angle are they taking and what is working for them. With design and branding, fitting into the industry/market is important, but so is standing out in the crowd. Great designers know how to get the balance of making you fit in, yet stand out.

4. Timescale

Honesty is the best policy; once you have found the designer you like the look of you need to be honest about the timescales they have to work with. Most great designers are in demand, and they will need to fit you in. If a designer has lots of spare capacity and free time, the question needs to be asked as to why.

Designers cannot be expected to come up with award winning designs for you if they only have a couple of weeks to research, design, and produce ideas (which then would need to be reviewed by you and whittled down). Sometimes taking a bit more time will pay dividends rather than rushing in like a bull in a china shop.

5. Partnership

Relationship is the key to business, if you have a close relationship with your designer then all the better. Not to say that you need to go around for meals with the family; but having a close working relationship will only add value to your finished product. For you to understand how they work (as designers are creative creatures thought to come from a different planet) and how they understand you (do they really know your business and market place) and your objectives.

By following these practical guidelines you should be able to find the right designer for your project. The world is well stocked with graphic designers, of all shapes and sizes; local, national and global. Choosing a designer based on their ideas, creative skill and background is more important than choosing someone local or cheap.

How to Catch-Up in Graphic Designing – You Snooze You Lose!

We are living in a world where information travels faster than light and people communicate faster than ever. In this rapid age of technological advancements, the field of graphic design has immensely developed as well. Every other day, new and innovative techniques of graphic designing surface from here and there. These times make the life of a graphic designer all the more challenging since they must keep the pace with the latest developments in graphic design. Especially for newbie and aspiring graphic designers, it is essential to stay in touch with the latest developments and advancements in the world of graphic design. And for those designers who are seasoned, it is all the more essential to pace up with the next generation of design. However, the question arises…how to catch-up with all that is novel and upcoming? Following are some simple and easy ways of staying in touch with the latest developments in the field of graphic design:

1. Surf on the Google Wave:

In today’s age of internet revolution, you can pretty much search for anything that is present on this planet. The web has developed into a huge database of information on all kinds of topics. Graphic designers should take advantage of this blessing and stay in touch with the latest developments in their field. Subscribing to RSS feeds is also a good idea to pace up with the current happenings in the world of graphic design.

2. Blogging – Creates Discussions and Ideas:

Most people believe that starting a successful blog requires immense knowledge on a particular subject. But I beg to differ. This is because the purpose of a blog is to generate discussions and dialogue on various issues. By starting your own blog, you will be able to learn from other people who will comment on your blog. Through discussions, you will stay in touch with the latest developments in your line of work.

3. Be Conservative – Read Books:

Another incisive approach that has been neglected nowadays is the concept of reading books. Many people perceive books as old fashioned. Many also term the concept of book reading as geeky and nerdy. Well, if this were true, then J.K Rowling would have never been a super hit. Being a graphic designer, your thirst for knowledge should never quench. Always take pleasure in reading design books and keep yourself on track with what’s new in your field.

4. Follow Other Designers:

We waste countless hours of our time on social media and networking sites like facebook and twitter. So why not use it constructively to gain knowledge and information about graphic design? Simply follow other designers and be a part of the designer community. This way, you will be tweeted about the latest movements on the web and you will be updated every second.

5. Keep an Open Mindset:

The foremost thing for a graphic designer to accept any major developments is to keep an open mindset. This is because, in order to accept any change, you need to broaden your horizons and learn to keep a flexible attitude. Being in the designer community, you will get heaps of opinions, thoughts and viewpoints from other designers. Always learn to accept others opinions and ideas. You never know when they might come in handy in the near future.

Graphic Designs in Business

Can you imagine life without graphic designs? Today’s world is full of designs which you might not aware of it. In every aspects of our lives from the moment we wake up till the time we goes home, we see graphics everywhere. It has became a part of our lives and businesses too.

Businesses use Graphic Design in a various of ways for their products and services promotion such as poster, newsletter design, banners, flyers, logos, brochure design, business cards, letterheads, websites and etc.

Graphic design is the use of graphic elements and text to communicate ideas or information to specific audiences. It refers to a numer of artistic and professional disciplines which focus on visual communication and presentation. Various methods are used to create and combine symbols, images or words to create a visual presentation. Typically, graphic design is most commonly-used to create marketing materials in businesses such as magazines, advertisements, logo, web design and more so.

Graphic designers or graphic artist as sometimes called are the one resposible in creating unique and amazing graphic designs. They mainly plan, analyze and create visual solutions to communicate people. I would say that they are the one mostly needed in most businesses today because they find effective ways to get messages across in print, electronic and film media using a variety of methods they know. It may be through photography, animation, color, illustration and other various techniques.

Graphic design when done successfully by graphic designers, it attracts attention, enhances the message you are sending and adds credibility to your business.

A good graphic designers can communicate a message through design.

A good graphic designers build trust and confidence in companies and helps in brand development..

A good graphic designers can enhance the image of advertising.

A good graphic designer welds artistic concepts.
A good graphic designer is legible.

A good graphic designer creates appealing and attractive design.

A good graphic designer is unique.

A good Graphic designers consider cognitive, cultural, physical, and social factors in planning and executing designs for the target audience

A good Graphic Designers gather relevant information by meeting with clients, creative or art directors, and by performing their own research.

Communications done by visual effect is far more effective than written communication; even the unspoken significance of emotion and importance are conveyed. Is the topic serious or playful? Has the viewer to be soothed, stimulated, and urged to action? Graphic Designers control the message and so there cannot be any compromise in the world of graphic designs. Graphic Design is important wether like it or not, it simply create balance between design and technology.

Though this is the age of computers, even prior to this computer revolutionized production designing was a part of everyone’s life. Graphic Design has always kept a position of cutting edge. Communications done by visual effect is far more effective than written communication; even the unspoken nuances of emotion and importance are conveyed. Is the topic serious or playful? Has the viewer to be soothed, stimulated, and urged to action? Graphic Designers control the message and so there cannot be any compromise in the world of graphic designs.

The State of Webfont Quality from a Type Designer’s View

The rendering issue, at least at text sizes, is not going to go away anytime soon. As it’s been pointed out, the naivety of some designers, coupled with the marketing motivations of webfont services and distributors, does not bode well for the readership. The bandwagon has left, with everyone on board, but not realizing it’s missing a wheel.

[Editor’s note: Ross initially posted this text as a comment but I felt it required the space and prominence of a new post. — SC]

Some of the following simply reiterates what Stephen has already observed, but I think it is worth reinforcing from a slightly different perspective.

Firstly, let me address the statement:

Font buyers rely on providers more than ever before. Those who provide quality and transparency will lead this new market and medium.

I certainly hope this will be the case soon. Currently, providers use a few approaches to address the quality issue. One approach is to leave the optimization up to the foundry or licensing designer. This is obviously the least expensive and most profitable approach in the short term — profitable for the third party provider, that is, probably not for the smaller foundry. Another approach is to develop some sort of “autohinting”. From what I’ve seen this is at best a stopgap that provides somewhat adequate results some of the time, and would be what I consider only a first step, perhaps suitable for fonts that you knew were only being used at larger sizes, or as a basis for manual improvements. If I could generalize, the main point of weakness is that most automated routines only recognize obvious features of glyph anatomy (eg. stems, and to a lesser degree vertical alignments) but are mostly incapable of recognizing relationships, which is a core principal of TrueType hinting; the rasterizer has to be explicitly instructed that the counter of an ‘e’ shouldn’t collapse and should have white inside of it, unless told otherwise using Delta instructions. Autohinting can only say there is a top stroke, a middle stroke, and a bottom stroke, and that the top and bottom are in alignment zones. In fact, it doesn’t really know that the middle stroke is in the “middle”, it just knows its a stroke, and it doesn’t know anything about the relationship between the top and bottom. And so on.

I see some mention of rendering quality — how one provider’s approach bests their competition — but I see little actual sensitivity to the quality. For the provider’s own websites, where they can chose the best option (one would hope they would, at least), they chose fonts which are not optimized and have obvious, easily remedied issues. Not the best advertising, but at least its truthful, I suppose.

Even with those who really do know better, you see rather odd examples. Stephen pointed out Monotype’s FontsLive site, which doesn’t show examples below 24px (ppms?).

Webfont at FontsLive.com with ClearType rendering.

On this page they are promoting the quality of their webfonts, but if you look at the first ClearType example, it very much looks like it is not even hinted (vis. 36px and below). It doesn’t surprise me that it isn’t hinted, but that they are using it as an exemplar of their webfonts. This illustrates a couple of the issues I already mentioned: the “provider” is pushing a service without adequately addressing quality issues, which in turn aren’t seen as affordable to the original foundry because the original foundry’s/designer’s slice of the pie doesn’t warrant the expense. So the complaint that they are only showing larger samples is a valid one. It’s a bit of a snow job, but in this case they can’t even pull that off because the problems manifest themselves even at display/headline sizes. (The second Copperplate example has the same problems.) Fortunately, their collection of fonts for text are well chosen because they are well hinted, but the distinction can be blurred, especially in cases where something that could be a “text” font is categorized as “headline” because its unhinted.

So now we have webfonts, and they’re spilling out into the wild faster than they really should. Well, actually, they aren’t really all webfonts, they’re just marketed as such. What are the discussions about quality taking place in foundries, distributors, and third party providers? What steps are they taking towards addressing the quality issues? Do they care? The one positive thing with webfont services is that the fonts are served, rather then installed, and so when a better quality version becomes available there isn’t some onerous install and upgrade procedure to deal with.

It also doesn’t help to skirt the issue by placing blame, or making excuses or predictions that are not demonstrably accurate. Saying its Microsoft’s fault because their rendering is “crappy” is specious. The (TrueType) rendering is fine, as long as the (TrueType) font has a suitable level of instructions. There are more fundamental reasons why MS have chosen to retain this relationship between the rasterizer and the font, some of which has to do with the global nature of their market. Whether or not Windows rendering is better then OSX rendering can be debated subjectively. This debate has no affect on the existing and near-future market that the font and design industries have to serve, where actual OS proportions should rule the decision-making process. Windows XP may well be anachronistic, but it so happens over 50% of users happen also to be anachronistic, and an additional 40% of people are using other flavors of “crappy” rendering systems. That’s approximately 90+% of users out there using “crappy” “anachronistic” software, and as suppliers of content to those systems we have to do the best we can.

The same goes for the argument that in a couple of years we will all have 300ppi screens. Well, maybe, but I wouldn’t count on it. We will have more high resolution devices (mostly mobile devices), but again we are looking at the bigger picture when producing content for the web. I won’t go into it in great detail, but it is considerably more difficult to manufacture say, a screen that is 70 square inches (such as a laptop) then it is to manufacture a screen that is 5 square inches (such as the iPhone). Manufacturers have to be able to produce volumes of screens at an attrition rate that does not impact efficiency (ie. if you have to chuck half the panels because they have dead pixels, it doesn’t make financial sense). This end of the industry doesn’t seem to move nearly as fast as the other components. Screen resolution has been nearly fixed for the last decade, with most devices hovering around the 100ppi mark (+/-10ppi). So this argument is fine, if you don’t mind not releasing any webfonts for the next 10 years (or however long it will take for high-res screens to be the norm) — otherwise you’re not really doing any good to our end customer’s experience.

Which brings us to the solution end of things.

I don’t think foundries realize yet the “damage” they’ve done by saturating the market with libraries full of fonts not-yet-ready-for-screen. [...] But nonetheless, type-designers, get busy with it! — Angus Shamal

Right. Easier said than done. There are only a handful of people on the planet who do TrueType hinting professionally. FontLab certainly has the basic tools available, if you know how to use them or are willing to learn. So that’s one hurdle. The other is time and/or money. Hiring a third party to do your hinting is an option if you can find someone with the time and if you can afford it. It is highly specialized and is priced accordingly. But the more basic issue — regardless of the form of the investment in hinting — is whether that investment translates to a reasonable return for the originating foundry or designer after all the distributors and “providers” have taken their cut. It seems to me a more coordinated effort may be a better option and that all parties involved carefully consider the quality of the product being released, and collectively find a solution to deal with the issue.

Ross Mills is a type designer and co-founder of Tiro Typeworks. He has been involved in the design and production of multilingual and specialist typefaces for Microsoft Corp., Linotype Library, Apple Computer, the Government of Nunavut and others.

How Graphic Designers can get a day off – 7 Wicked Excuses!!

Graphic Designers are humans and not computers…clients should realize this fact. We are not machines that can run for hours ‘n’ hours with the same pace and efficiency. Even machines need rest, so why we graphic designers are blankly refused when ask a day off?? But with a Hitler like boss, unrealistic deadlines or pitiless clients, how can one ask for a day off from work? This is because you know that if you ask for a day off, several taunts and criticism will be hurled at you by your boss (or clients in case of freelancers). So what effective excuses can help you escape the realms of workplace?

Before I start on today’s subject, let me clarify that my purpose here is not to encourage graphic designers to be irregular and often take sick leaves, neglecting their important tasks. But on the contrary, these excuses will convince even the cruelest of bosses and clients, for times when you are not in a working mood and have a dangerous deadline to meet. So, whenever any of the graphic designers want to beat the heat, try any of these 7 wickedly effective excuses.

1. Kill a relative – For the 9th time:

The next time your merciless boss won’t allow you to take a leave, kill a relative of yours Not literally (god forbid) just make him/her expire for a day or two. Or even better, use an already expired relative and pass them away again. Just call in at work and say “I can’t come to work today; my grandmother/grandfather expired last night.” But beware of not using the same person at the same workplace. It may work twice or thrice, if you’re lucky, as you may get caught deceasing the same relative.

2. Fake a Faint – Heat Stroke:

Now this excuse could be a little tricky to pull off since it’s a little difficult for graphic designers to be good actors. But faking a faint is an effective excuse to save yourself from an urgent presentation boss has asked for or a meeting where he will be asking for your work update. Just when you feel you’re not up to the mark, stand up from your seat and pretend to faint in front of your colleagues. No matter how strict a boss you inherit, he/she will have to send you home and you might end up getting a paid sick leave for multiple days.

3. Come Wearing Sunglasses – Red Eye Infection:

Another neat trick to convince your boss for a day off is by coming to work wearing sunglasses. You don’t mean to impress your boss with your dashing looks here, but just a cover up for red eye infection. Tell your boss that you have caught a contagious eye virus but still you are at work to meet the deadline. Reluctantly, your manager will have to let you go and probably advise you to take the week off to recover. No matter which field you are working in, be it SEO services or Web Development, this trick will surely help if your job is to sit in front of the computer for hours.

4. Get your cousin Married – Twice in a month:

Got a close relative that has reached the age of marriage? Then it’s time for you to arrange a fake wedding for them and get a day off from work. Call your boss (or client, in case you’re working freelance) and inform them that your brother/sister/cousin is getting married today and your presence is critical as they might get cold feet. But don’t even make the mistake of inviting the boss or client in courtesy even…it may spill the beans.

5. Food Poisoning – Critical Stage:

One of the evil myths of graphic design is that its Child’s play. But the reality is that it’s not…we need a break from work as well. But you’re not getting a sick leave on a minor flu or cough? Then it’s time for you to use the more serious and grave excuse of food poisoning. At times, graphic designers are unable to finish off their projects within the deadline, maybe because of sheer procrastination. Now they must evade an angry boss or client with an excuse. Use the food poisoning reason to buy yourself a day or two off the work. Explain that your stomach is severely affected and might be in a critical state.

6. Fake a Mugging – LIVE:

One of the shrewdest of excuses for taking the day off is faking a mugging. Let me explain how this could be done in most realistic way…call your boss and keep a friend ready nearby to act like a mugger. While giving an explanation for being late, all of a sudden shout like you’re mugged and keep your mobile on so that your boss can hear the phony episode. After a while, call at work and explain the whole event in a gloomy and miserable voice. To win more pity, tell how you resisted the mugger and got hit on the head with the butt of a gun. Eventually, your boss will advise you to take the day off or maybe a week to recover from the ‘traumatic’ incident and the bump in your head.

7. Back Spasm – Work load:

Being graphic designers, majority of your work is accomplished on the PC. Spending too much time on the computer can cause back spasms and sore necks especially for workaholic graphic designers. A day before you want to a sick leave, show signs of a back pain and sore neck in front of your supervisor so that he recognizes your pain. Now it all depends on how you act it out, you will easily get a trouble free day of relaxation at home.