Mistakes are the part of designers work and it makes the designers more acceptable in terms of having a positive attitude towards work but also acts as an opportunity to learn, become a good designer and grow skills. Mistakes are common when you are working in a creative field that involves your clients and their own interpretation of work that they want from you. Workspace can also help identify your bad design mistakes and correct them at the right time.
But, when mistakes are identified at a much later stage then it can be a threat to your job. Even freelance graphic designers, best graphic designers, product designers or even textile designers make certain mistakes in common that need to be avoided. The leading designers have also been there doing the mistakes that you do but there is always a scope of correction and be aware of your mistakes at beginners level so that you do not do the same graphic design sins and unavoidable mistakes at the later stage.
Here are some of the mistakes that you need to avoid in order to have perfection in your work without any uncertain hindrances along with the advice on how it can be avoided:
Focusing On Certain Portions Of A Project:
It is a very common mistake that any product designer, freelance creative designer or a graphic designer makes while working on a certain project. It involves giving too much time on things that you love to do or are interested in while avoiding other dumb mistakes that you have been doing which you know very well.
For example, you may be working on the freelance graphic design work of making a magazine layout along with a front page and infographics for it. You might be spending too much time on making illustrations for the front page to look beautiful and other infographics, but in the excitement of making one thing very beautiful, you might forget to put a page number on one of the pages. In this, you know how it is the worst graphic design mistake even if you know it is so silly, but in front of your client your impression would be bad.
How To Avoid:
- To avoid making one part of the project so good and miss the other details that you normally don’t do you must balance and distribute your project time evenly.
- Put a checklist of all the small as well as big details you need to put in that project.
- Do not rush while putting small details and giving larger time to large ones.
Having Too Many Projects At Once:
If you are working on freelance logo design for company A and along with that you are designing graphics design for a website and to be a cherry on the cake you are attending calls and working for another job. In this way you won’t be able to focus on all the projects you are working simultaneously thus losing focus and making all the projects not upto the mark. Remember every project you are working on is the investment you are doing for yourself and for building your portfolio. You were hired for a great quality and you are dividing that time to do other tasks at the same time and you would obviously do small mistakes that will make your chances to get hired again less.
How To Avoid:
- Reduce your workload if you are working on your dream project. Do not get involved in any other project. Give all your time to that.
- Do not lose quality of work while doing many things together.
Unstructured Projects:
When you are excited about a particular freelance you tend to look for everything you need to do sequence wise. For that you become unstructured as sometimes designers get confused as to what to do first. They receive calls, start writing, sketching without arranging things.
How To Avoid:
- Fix time for particular things like attending calls in the morning and no other time.
- Write down what to do first and fix time for things.
Lack Of Understanding Of Instructions:
Designer often miscommunicate so that they do not sound dumb. Communication between the designer and client is critical. It is the responsibility of the designer to ensure that they have understood the information clearly.
How To Avoid:
- You need to understand what the client wants to say as you won’t be able to do that for their target audience as well if you yourself don’t understand it.
- Try restarting the information what you have understood in this way you won’t have to ask directly and you would get the correction directly from the client.
Excessive Design:
Designers often get confused about designing minimal and giving too much design so that the product looks beautiful and detailed. They often end up over designing the product and the product looks cluttered. Do not create visual pollutants on the product to make it look detailed. Just because you think that you can design so much doesn’t mean you should. The product should look simple and well designed.
How To Avoid:
- Understand why you are adding the detail and go through the design process again.
- Focus on creating features that are visually balanced.
- Leave required negative space so that the design could breathe.
Designing For Themselves:
Freelance graphic designers often get into the trap of thinking that they are designing it for themselves and not for a graphic design company. They often go off track with what the client has instructed and make changes according to their own wish.
How To Avoid:
- Understand the instructions carefully.
- Do not make changes just because you think it should be changed. Ask for the client and propose an idea of what you think can be good for the design and then do necessary changes if the client likes the idea.
Lack Of Consistency:
This is the major problem among designers that they often explore and make the same designs repetitively. Learn how to use visual elements and designs and do necessary changes to save yourself from monotony of work.
How To Avoid:
- Read and try to inculcate new things in your work.
- Make designs often and have consistency in designing things. Do a graphic design freelance or become a web design freelancer so that there is consistency in your work.
They Save Incorrectly:
In a hurry, designers often forget to save their work while they are working on a freelance or a graphic design project. They often end up sending the wrong file to the client as their final work because they do not save the name correctly and send the old progress file.
How To Avoid:
- Always save as new whenever you are saving any project while making corrections.
- Save as new names whenever you make corrections to the actual file.
- Check all the things before sending it to the client.
Forgetting About The Target Audience:
Many web designers and graphic designers forget for whom they are making the design or a product. One should never compromise on the market otherwise the design could not be sold to the target audience and all your effort will be wasted.
How To Avoid:
- Have a clear idea of what you are making and for whom.
- Set your target audience and make a board and keep it in front of your eyes.
Being In A Rush To Complete Designs:
This is the most sinful thing a designer could do. In freelancing, they often end up not giving actual time required for a project and in a hurry the quality goes down. Client or freelance web design companies give freelancers paid projects on hourly basis and they want the designers to give full time on that project.
How To Avoid:
- Do work faster but smarter.
- You should have a good approach towards design and give considerable time required.
So, due to above such reasons designers often end up making such mistakes which could hamper their design and work process. They need to understand their mistakes and work accordingly to have better future prospects.