Editor’s Note: This post was written by Shayne Moore, a Director at a leading design agency in Christchurch, having a pool of professional graphic designers who design and build beautiful designs. Shayne is passionate about digital marketing and loves to share his creative ideas on the latest design trends. You can know more about him on Linkedin.
It’s a competitive world out there for a graphic design agency, so sometimes it might seem like you need a perfect resume to even have a shot – there’s always another designer who’s willing to do it cheaper or faster if you don’t handle yourself perfectly.
But how do you make sure you always are on top of your game?
Well, all designers have their own approach, but there are certain pitfalls that should be avoided by designers if they want to be able to compete in such a fierce market. These mistakes can quickly turn any design project into a disaster, so for all those who are new to the field or just want to make sure they’re doing everything right, here are the top blunders that should be avoided.
- Starting Work Without a Brief
Many over eager web designers make the mistake of starting to work on the design project without having a thorough briefing session with the client to figure out exactly what the he needs and how the project should be approached.
After all, if you go through any type of project without making a coherent plan first, you’re almost definitely setting yourself for failure, so collect as much information as you can about what the client wants, then add your own suggestions, and only afterwards can you finally map out the action plan and start doing the actual work.
- Not Enough Communication
Now, after you have a good plan and start to work on the design, there will obviously be a lot of communication needed with the client in order to know if you’re headed in the right direction. You don’t want to end up having to re-do the entire project because you steered of course along the way.
Also, it’s a good idea to have a relationship with your colleagues so you could consult each other when needed – another professional’s opinion can shed a new light on any project and help you get over hurdles much faster.
- Take on Jobs that You’re Not Ready For
It’s a common scenario where graphic designers want to get as much work as possible, but sometimes it’s actually better to remain realistic about your abilities and to turn down an offer if you’re not up for the job. Always make sure you find as much info as possible about each project and only accept the job if you feel you feel you can handle it.
Of course, that does not mean that you shouldn’t challenge yourself to improve and have confidence in your ability – always take jobs if you know how to do it, but just don’t accept those who are not suited for your area of expertise.
- Cramming Too Much Into a Design
Many a graphic design agency try to prove their expertise and sort of justify their price by cramming as much as possible in a design, but this can actually backfire and make the design much less appealing that it could have originally been.
Sometimes the most effective design solutions are those that manage to trim everything that’s unnecessary and leave only what’s important. So think of what your client needs to say with his website and cater everything to that.
- Making the Design Too Colourful
When looking for new ideas and for ways to keep the design services fresh, many designers start experimenting with colours and sometimes end up using way more than was really needed.
Once again, staying on the conservative side is sometimes a smart choice – too many colours do nothing else but distract the viewers and so you should simply stick with a highlight colour and then work everything else around it.
Conclusion:
It’s a rough world out there for those offering design services, so for anyone who wants to get ahead, avoiding mistakes that can hinder your design efforts is simply a must.
So all graphic designers should strive to get a clear idea of what the client wants, always keep communicating with him, stay within his capabilities and also make sure they don’t try to cram too much into their designs, because often less turns out to be much better.