On its face, it seems good. It’s got everything you’d expect. Maybe it’s the color or the type. Or the icons or the textures. Or it’s familiar in a comfortable way. So trendy, it’s friendly. And in our rapid fire world of instant shareability, when nothing exists for too long, just give it a quick “Like” and move on to the next.
But if you look closer, it just doesn’t hold up. Maybe it even falls apart. It seems trite, uninspired, derivative, or sloppy. Looking closely, you feel uneasy, incomplete, and wanting something else entirely, even though you may have initially thought this was it. Instead, now you just want it to stop doing whatever its doing.
This, in the world of design, with my own work, may be my biggest fear. I’ve certainly been on the viewing end, seeing some new piece of graphic/web design I initially thought was great. But then, I looked closer and realized it wasn’t all that good.
When you design for a living, there are moments of burnout. Of not being at your best. When you must create because that’s what you’re paid to do and there’s no time to wait for inspiration. It’s your job to make, so you better get to making.
With this fact, it stands to reason that not everything you do will be the most amazing piece of graphic/web design anyone has ever seen. Regardless, upon closer inspection, the design should always hold up. It should be pro. It should be inspired. And it should do the job.
