Menu
Have you ever committed a Design Sin? Find out below and what you can do to correct it in the future.
DISCLAIMER: Please understand these are not “Rules of Design”. They are arbitrary guidelines to help you make your designs more effective for the real world. DESIGN RULES ARE MEANT TO BE BROKEN. If you are able to create an effective design from the “Design Sinners” below, go for it!
It’s been a hot minute. Last time we looked at 10 Questions Every Designer will Ask You in an Initial Interview. Today we are going to dive into some basic do’s and don’ts of design. We will take on the Sinners and Saints of effective design and learn why some work well, while others do not. What is Effective Design again? An effective design can be used in different formats, from apparel to signage, documents to digital advertising. Let’s check in on the Sinners first:
Image Source: Wikisimpsons
When designing a logo, or working with a larger body of copy, avoid outlining text. Whether that be to manually bolden the typeface, or have the logo stand out better on a background, there are better options to explore that don’t involve messing with the overall look of the text, such as selecting a variable font. There are a couple of problems that can arise from outlining text. One, outlining text can cause visibility issues when not executed properly. Oftentimes you have to adjust the kerning between the letters as the stroke will otherwise overlap. Two, you have to outline the text in order to adjust where the stroke is located on the letters (inside or outside, default is centre), rendering your editing capabilities null and void. Understand that when designing a logo, you will need reverse versions in order to apply the logo to light and dark backgrounds. In those instances, outlined text may not work out so well. Either your outline or the centre portion of your copy will disappear into the background. The solution to this? Don’t outline the copy, stick to a solid text.
Example of an outlined body of text
Image Source: Know Your Meme
Oh gradients, our favourite setting to play with in Microsoft Office growing up. Rainbow word art, black and purple four corner gradient backgrounds in Powerpoint, Chef’s Kiss the best. I realise that nostalgic memory is pretty niche to those who grew up in the late 90s and early 2000s, but my point being is this: gradients can make your design look outdated, and are a nightmare for printers and fellow designers to work with. If exported incorrectly or in a different program than they design on, gradients can present themselves as “Non-Native Art” which causes headaches and icky clipping paths that need to be sorted through and fixed. Have you ever tried making a gradient with two Pantones? Don’t. Pantones are not meant to be mixed together for on-screen and digital printing purposes. If you are offset printing, specify the pantones you’re mixing but use their CMYK, RGB, or Hex codes when presenting proofs to a client.
Did someone say monotone? Monotone Colour themes have their place in graphic design. But when it comes to displaying important copy, such as a stop sign, contrast is key. If you have a critical piece of information that needs to be conveyed to grab people’s attention, you’ll want to use as much contrast as possible in order to be seen correctly. This can usually be achieved by selecting complementary colours on a colour wheel. See the graph below to get a visual understanding of the power of contrast:
Source: Colour Studies a score of 70 or higher assures good legibility
Later on below we look at how to take this graph and make it more accessible to persons with colour-blindness.
Source: Adobe
If you know anything about the difference between Raster & Vector graphics, you can probably guess why this is a big no-no. Raster effects do not have the same scalability as vector shapes. When it comes to logo design, lack of scalability can result in disastrous consequences. Staircasing becomes a huge issue at larger scales, Vinyl plotters and CNC routers need vector contour lines for cutting, that mezzotint effect you added to your logo in Photoshop? Not only is it going to cause a headache not only for you, but whomever needs to produce it. If you are creating a digital illustration that combines raster and vector elements together, follow these helpful tips:
Illustrate in the largest canvas (or artboard) size you are going to produce.
Make sure your resolution is set to 300dpi or higher*
Flatten your artwork BEFORE sending it for printing or uploading to a POD (Print on Demand) website
(*Please keep in mind that the higher your resolution and the larger your canvas, the bigger the file size you are going to produce.)
TELL ME HOW EASY THIS IS TO READ in comparison to this line of text. Welcome to a short lesson in Decorative and Display typefaces. Obviously I used the most extreme case of design sins: Cursive Font in Uppercase. As you can undoubtedly notice from the above text, visibility becomes a huge issue with display or decorative fonts. Same goes for large bodies of text:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Sorry, that was a nasty trick, the above copy is placeholder text and is only intended as an example of how difficult it can be to read display fonts in large bodies of text.
What about logo design? Try to avoid using decorative fonts for logo design. Sure, Lemon Tuesday is a fun font! But does it read well in all applications that it is required for? Probably not.
Source: Da Font
Honestly, people who manually expand or condense fonts either by using the text palette Horizontal/Vertical percentages or the transform tool on the point (artistic) text layout, make me want to pull my hair out. You destroy the integrity of the typeface by completing these actions and anyone who has to recreate your design will curse your name. A little dramatic? Perhaps. But there are better ways of handling expanded and condensed fonts that don’t send fellow designers into a frenzy.
Image Source: Life Wire
Honestly, pKey phrase is “Heavy Reliance”. Relying on Auto Trace to do everything for you is just bad design practice in general. If the image you are starting out with is quite pixelated, you’re going to have a bad time. Hitting that Auto Trace button is going to result in a blobby, node riddled mess that if you did spend the time and energy cleaning up, you should have used the shapes and the pen tool to begin with. The Auto Trace tool is great if you are strapped for time and are planning to clean up the design at a later date. It should not be used as a one and done method. I completely understand as a beginner, it can be difficult to understand the nuances of the pen tool and drawing with shapes, BUT that is how you learn and become a better graphic designer.
Photo by Lala Azizli on Unsplash
So you spent hours on a design for a client, and they hit you with “Oh yeah, by the way, the landlord of my shop’s building requires this to be a lit sign”, what do you do? Do you panic because you came up with an elaborate design that will cause the sign maker to have a stroke? Or are you cool as a cucumber because you did your research ahead of time and knew to ask the right questions? Designing without the final outcome in mind really only sets you up for failure; the more often you make designs willy-nilly with no forethought, the less new and returning clients you are going to have. You could have the most visually appealing design the world has ever seen, but if a client needs it to be scaled down for an embroidered badge and it looks like crap, then it’s not an effective design. How do we fix this? Learn how to work backwards.
Source: Reddit
You may as well be exporting a JPEG. The purpose of providing a client with a PNG file for their logo, or any other web graphic, is so it can be displayed without a white background hindering the file being displayed on their website or other digital properties. Not all web designs or social media posts are going to have white backgrounds. Learn how to export files properly below.
Source: Nissan
Hoo-mama. This is a tough one, but it comes up in brand identities and guidelines a lot. Similar to outlining text, using non-contrasting colours, and heavy use of decorative fonts, it comes down to visibility. You want your design to stand out for the right reasons. Applying your logo over a busy background gets it lost in the fold. You want your brand to stand out, not lose itself in the shadows. There are ways around this where you can implement text and graphics to a busy background, but that usually involves adding a matte between the layers so that your eyes have something to rest on while not bugging out. The opacity of the matte can be adjusted slightly so that some of the background can break through without overpowering the top layer of the design.
Source: Mythology Vault
Source: Museum of Fine Arts Houston
Eventually, we can talk about basic design principles, but the main reason to start logo designing in black in white is twofold. One, it checks your positive and negative space ratio, two, effective design requires black and white versions for a logo design for light and dark backgrounds. Do design with colours in mind, but think about what solid versions of the logo are going to look like as well?
Source: Verivide
Effective logo design is not colour mode numero uno and done. Oftentimes your client will need to use their logo for more than one format, such as physical and digital copies. What’s the most expensive colour mode to work with? Pantone. The reason it is so expensive is that it is used in offset printing, which is very labour intensive and Pantone inks are quite costly. So why start in the most expensive colour mode? Pantone is still a universally accepted colour matching system used by all industries that work with colour. Start with a pantone and work your way down to CMYK and RGB from there.
Source: Affinity Forum
Instead of using raster effects on your design, opt for vector effects! They are scalable, and, if set up properly, production friendly too! Explore making your own patterns in vector and artistic brushes too.
Source: Design Cuts
Decorative Fonts should be used sparingly, and with tact. Examples of tactful uses of Display/Decorative fonts include:
Short Headlines
Short title sayings (i.e. greeting cards, wedding signage)
Posters
Essentially, Decorative and Display fonts are wonderful for capturing the reader’s attention for short form bodies of text. Use it on larger bodies of text and you will lose your reader’s attention very quickly.
Source: MyFonts
As we discussed earlier, manually expanding or condensing fonts wrecks their integrity. As an alternative, look for typefaces that carry Expanded and Condensed versions. This ensures that you are getting the appropriate look you need and it is universal, meaning anyone can use it as long as they have access to that font.
Source: Wikicommons
As scary as it may look, the pen tool is your friend! Start with basic shapes, watch some tutorials on youtube, practice practice, practice! You can’t get better at something without practice. Future you will thank yourself when you are able to trace any graphic with ease, and even make your own freehand drawings!
Source: Jamie Mill
As weird as it may sound, work backwards. You want to think of every application your design will be applied to. From the largest billboard, to the tiniest favicon or embroidered shirt, where is this design going? How’s it going to look at different scales? Does it read well on light and dark backgrounds? Start with the end results and work your way back. This is why it is important to ask your client the right questions ahead of time. Instead of panicking like we did in section 8, now you have a complete sign package that not only the client loves, but sign makers, printers, embroiderers, etc. can rest easy knowing they can get a job done quickly and efficiently with no hassle.
Source: CSS Tricks
Learn the difference between raster and vector, then apply this to your exporting options. The list should go as follows:
JPEGs: For Digital applications that have white backgrounds
PNGs: For all Digital applications that require a transparent background
EPS: For all Physical applications and digital applications that require scalable graphics
PDF: **Export in Vector Format** viewability for those who do not have the correct programs for EPS.
Export both web-friendly and high-quality versions of the raster files, and label them accordingly. This will help with load times on websites so that they are not bogged down with file sizes.
Source: Wikipedia
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is the lead standardisation for appropriate contrast on content online. It is a tool that can be used to ensure your design is accessible to those with visual impairments such as colour blindness. It is also important to do your own research on colour-blindness. For example, Red-green colour-blindness is the most common form of colour-blindness so designing with red and green can be difficult. Always speak with your client about the context of their design to find out how accessible their project needs to be to the general public.
Photo by Laurentiu Iordache on Unsplash
“I’d rather laugh with the Sinners than cry with the Saints, the Sinners are much more fun…” – “Only the Good Die Young” Billy Joel.
Design is meant to be fun! It is an art form, and like most forms of art: it is subjective. Don’t bog yourself down thinking you have to play by the rules all the time. Some of the best designs are bred out of non-conformity and rule breaking. Here is a list of famous Designers that thumbed their noses at the regular crowd and came up with some incredible work:
Photo by Jakub Pabis on Unsplash
YOU ARE A PROFESSIONAL. Charge Professional prices. Undercutting yourself not only hurts you but others in the industry. Charging less than the industry average leads to the attraction of less than desirable clients, the kind that expect everything for free. You will end up with double the work for half the reward. Price yourself based on your experience, the materials you use (Programs, internet, electricity, rental space, etc.), and administration costs. Websites such as Fiverr, Etsy, Hatchwise, and other online platforms are already riddled with Scab Artists that scrape the bottom of the barrel to make a quick buck. If you are serious about this industry and proud of the work you do, price yourself accordingly.
That’s it! Remember, all of these do’s and don’ts are guidelines not set rules (#21 is definitely a rule to live by though). Now get out there and start designing!
Next month: When to Call in Professional Design Help.
