5 Common Design Mistakes

Thank you to Lauren Shay of Full Stop Publishing for this Blog Post.

Imagine you are at a trade show and handed a myriad flyers from other businesses.  At the end of the day, what would you rather read – a flyer with slabs of text, five different fonts, graphics crammed into every bit of extra space, and colours that clash with the business’s brand; or a flyer written concisely, with carefully selected fonts, plenty of white space, and a tasteful colour scheme?

Whether you are designing a flyer, brochure, booklet, newsletter or business card, the design of your printed and promotional material is crucial to piquing the interest of your potential customers. Many businesses adopt a DIY approach to design. Unfortunately, they too often make the following common design mistakes – losing the time and money they had hoped to save by doing it themselves.

 

1.  Too much information

You are passionate about your product or service, and want the whole world to know how fantastic it is. Before embarking on a small manuscript for your flyer or brochure, take a deep breath. You want to whet your potential customer’s appetite with your design, not overwhelm them. If you have too much information, people will not be bothered to read on – and you will lose potential sales. Consider what vital information the customer needs to know, and write clearly and concisely. Always have your material proofread – if not by a professional, at least by someone with a strong grasp of English and grammar.

 

2.  Fear of white space

Businesses often feel as though white space is ‘dead space’, and try to cram as many elements on to the page as possible. However, it is important your design is gentle on the reader’s eye. White space is a design term that refers to space on a page ambien online legal uncluttered by images, graphics and text. Its effective use can help highlight what is important on a page, maintaining the reader’s interest. Ensure you have enough white space between headlines and text, and rather than span one big slab of text from one side of a page to the other, break it up into columns, which are easier to read.

 

3.  Too many fonts

Can’t choose between Arial, Garamond, Calibri, Book Antiqua and Helvetica? Why not use them all?  Stop!  Too many fonts in a design look messy and can confuse the reader. Limit your fonts to no more than three. This will help keep your design clean and appealing to the eye, encouraging your potential customer to read on. Also beware calligraphic fonts, which can look pretty at first, but are quite difficult to read if used for paragraph after paragraph.

 

4. The wrong effect

There are lots of neat design effects you can use for your text and images – drop shadows, colour gradients, blurred edges, inner glows, the list goes on. Used with restraint, they can give your design a real boost. The problem is when businesses use too many effects in the same design. It can give off an air of primary-school project, which can tarnish your business’s professional image.

 

5.  Off colour

Keep the colour scheme of your design in step with your business’s brand. If your logo features blues and greens, don’t choose a red or purple background for your business card, for example. It sounds simple, but people often try to get clever with colours and use too many, or ones that vary wildly from the business’s brand.

 

Design should be eye-catching, but it also needs to be easy to read and understand. Keep it simple and you will keep your potential customers interested.