5 Ways To Ruin A Great Design.
As an active, contributing member of the Church Marketing Lab on Flickr, I’ve seen my fair share of bad design pieces. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to say that everything in the Lab is bad; that would be an unfair assessment. But, there are times that I find a design piece that could_have_potential and it’s so often ruined by bad design practices. I’ve also been involved in Graphic Design forums all over the internet and have seen some pretty bad designs outside of church marketing…
Heck, I can look back at my own work from years ago and find things that I did to completely ruin what could’ve been a decent graphic design. So here are the 5 things that will, almost always, ruin what could be a perfectly good design, in my humble opinion:
1. Stretching the type.
- Seriously… this is basic - don’t do it. If you’re ever tempted to hit CTRL-T, grab the corner of your bounding box, and stretch that bad-boy without holding the shift key… you need to let go of the mouse and walk away. Don’t stretch your type!
2. Abusing the ‘Blending Options’.
- The key word to this one is… ABUSING. Blending Options can be your friend; but, more often than not, they’ll turn out to be your worst enemy. Next time you open up your Layer Styles window and feel the need to check more than 1, or 2 boxes… you could be in some deep trouble, call for help - get out while you can! SeanP knows all about this one. : )
3. The ‘Drop Shadow’.
- Even though this could probably fall under ‘Abusing the Blending Options’; it’s serious enough to deserve its own place on this list. The Drop Shadow option in Photoshop has made amateurs world wide feel like they can keep up with the big boys. Trust me, adding a Drop Shadow will not make your bad design look any better… quite the opposite my friends. Do yourself a favor and learn how to create your own shadows. : )
4. Poor Understanding of Resolution.
- Getting a grip on the basics of resolution will change your world. I can’t begin to tell you how important this is! If you’re working on a design for print and you download the web resolution stock image, you’re design is destined for failure. Nothing worse than a high-resolution design piece sporting low-resolution images… Get back to the basics and get a grip on resolution.
5. Papyrus Syndrome.
- If you remember anything_at_all, remember this one. If you have a copy of Papyrus on your computer, kill it - now. This is, quite possibly, the most overused typeface in all of history and especially in church marketing. But, Papyrus is not alone - Papyrus has friends. He brought along Bleeding Cowboys, Scriptina, and Comic Sans. Here’s my advice… don’t choose to use a typeface because everyone else is, or because it’s trendy - choose your typeface based on the feel and flow of your design. And… kill Papyrus.
14 Responses to “5 Ways To Ruin A Great Design.”
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HA, BLEEDING COWBOY!!!!!!
Didn’t YOU use that on the round up artwork, ha!
I know what you mean though, SOOOO KILLED!!! I seen it everywhere recently…
You caught me Gordo… I did, in fact, use Bleeding Cowboys back in November of ‘07. But, in my defense… I was Bleeding Cowboys before Bleeding Cowboys was cool and highly overused.
Searched for "Bleeding Cowboys before Bleeding Cowboys was cool." Was surprised that exact quote came up. It's getting fairly absurd how ubiquitous that font has become. It's a shame, I remember being impressed by it originally. I wonder if the author (Last Soundtrack) gets any royalties as I don't believe his license allows for commercial use.
Nice list.
I’d like to add, for your consideration:
3b. Never, under any circumstances, use standard Photoshop filters as a key element in a design. In fact, it is best to avoid said filters if at all possible. No, you do not need to use the “glowing edges” filter. Ever.
Absolutely. Great addition to the list…
Are we forgetting anything else???
I feel like Layer Styles (read: blending options) and default filters have earned a bad rap. Just because amateur designers over-use layer styles, doesn’t mean that they don’t have their place. I think a better rule of thumb is to use them in moderation and only when appropriate.
I agree Chad… I think it’s more about the ABUSING of the Blending Options / Layer Styles that kills what could be good design.
Dude I really think the overuse of strokes deserves it's own bullet (not to be lumped in #2) and how could you forget the lens flare?
Well.. these are, in my opinion, the TOP 5. There are countless ways to ruin what could be a good design… just ask Kyle.
I joke I joke!
[...] text of a book. I see fonts all the time that become wild fads, are easily recognizable (see this scathing-but-true article about design heresies), but have no staying power. These sorts of fonts usually end up wooshing by [...]
Great post. Because my wife and I are moving, I've just handed off the design job at our church to a noob volunteer (no offense intended). I'm glad they are jumping in, but at the same time, but I've noticed a trend lately (at least in my corner of the world): I work with a lot of people who have design degrees and they can't design worth squat.
How could one go through 2-4 years of school to get a design degree and then design a piece that uses bevel and emboss, drop shadows, bad color choices, and no conceptual clarity whatsoever? I'm describing the first design out of the gates for this volunteer that was pastor approved and is now haunting the screens and bulletins at our church. Do they not SEE how bad of a design it is? Especially, compared to my ever-improving work the last 2 years?
I needed to vent. But like I said great post.
Russ… man… I completely feel your pain! It's hard to believe that people can sport a degree in Graphic Design and have 0 concept of basic design practices.
You can vent here any time!
I rock the lens flare, TYVM! muahahahahahhaa
Aaah, Papyrus
Bad memories. I had to design a book cover for a client that insisted on using the Papyrus font. I still hate the thought of that project. Blaaaah!!