by R. B.

Created on: October 08, 2008   Last Updated: October 09, 2008

You know bad design when you see it. You might not be able to put your finger on it, but something looks wrong. Good design is transparent, it is a window that lets the message shine through and hit the audience like a spotlight. Bad design is gunk on that window, fighting for attention and making the viewer think the message is cheap, unprofessional and untrustworthy.

Many of the common design problems are technical, that is to say, they relate to the craft of the digital file that will be printed, put on the web or otherwise distributed. The technical problems are addressed below. More important than any number of technical issues however, is the design itself. A designer needs to know what audience he or she is communicating to and what he or she is trying to tell them. Unfocused or confused design with no message and poor visual hierarchy will sink any amount of technical expertise. The basic layout and look of the design must be strong.

Using the Wrong Program
This is one of the most common problems with new designers. You need to use a program that will generate useful files for professional printing. MS Word or Publisher are not design programs. They are for home or inter-office printing and simply lack the controls and backbone necessary to create files that can be professionally printed. A page layout program like InDesign or QuarkXpress is vital to produce multi-page printed documents.

Generally programs like Photoshop and Illustrator are used to create content that is then inserted into InDesign or Quark. Sometimes designers will use Photoshop or Illustrator to create simple documents like postcards, posters or business cards directly, skipping a layout program. This is fine, so long as the file itself follows the other rules and handles the text well.

Color Mode
Monitors emit light and paper reflects it. This might seem trivial, but it sets up a problem. Graphics for intended for a monitor, like web graphics, need to have an RGB color mode. Graphics for printing need to have an appropriate color mode for their method of print, CMYK, Spot Color, Duotone, etc. Printing an RGB graphic can cause trouble and distort the colors away from what you want.

Resolution
Screen resolution is safe at 72 dpi. Monitors can only display that much, so graphics will look sharp and crisp. If you're designing for print however, you're going to want more. Depending on the nature of the printing this can be from 150 dpi to 300 or more. Find out how it's going to print before constructing

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