Bertha's Blog: Nightmares Graphic Designers Will Want to Avoid

Monday, May 15, 2017

Nightmares Graphic Designers Will Want to Avoid

No profession is easy. Those who are dreaming of being a graphic designer because a friend of their friend told them it’s a child’s play, think again! It’s not that people shouldn’t choose this profession, but it would be better to consider the downsides and gear up for the worst situations beforehand.

Discussed here are the things that keep graphic designers up at night and haunt them when they’re asleep.

1. Working in tight deadlines or pressures

Breakthrough logo ideas rarely pop up overnight; when creativity is at gunpoint, it will eventually get killed.

Meeting deadlines has a significant role to play when it comes to nurturing a trusting relationship with your client, but according to different sources of research, time pressure kills creativity. Right! At times, you must stay in line with the time frame, but having unrealistic deadlines can genuinely affect the productivity and quality of your work.

Solution: We need to unleash new means of working with quick turnarounds. Develop a sense that the work is critical and the urgency legitimate.

2. Forget to bring an essential tool

It happens a lot! You just forgot your favorite stylus or Wacom at home, and now you have to use a touchpad to create a custom logo design with a deadline of next few hours. Seriously? This can be one of your worst nightmares as a designer – and then you find out that you have left your headphones at home and now you have to hear others humming and enjoying music.

Solution: Make sure you have a backpack or a big bag comprising of all the essential tools you cannot consider working without, period.

3. Keeping up with the trends and technology

Technology is evolving exponentially, so are the practices in various industries including graphic design. We have witnessed the shift from mouse to interactive tablets, the 3D printers churning out finest details, wearable tech for infants, and the list continues.

Designers these days must stay updated with the latest technology. They have to create designs and logos that are used on devices no one saw coming any sooner. Being aligned with the most recent tech trends may be far easier said than done, but you have to do this if you don’t want to be lagging behind.

Solution: Try to search for the latest logo design trends almost every morning. You cannot know everything latest, but it’s possible to stay abreast with what interests you, speeds up your work, and is great for your career.

4. Clients from hell

You might have heard stories about the most dangerous clients in the design world. If not, then consider you client commenting, “Your font is quite outmoded, can we use comic sans, instead?” or “that black looks so dark” as a response to your devotedly-made designs.

Solution: Sometimes, you just have to forget about what you want and see the design from the outlook of your client. Think about how s/he wants design(s) to be rather than how you like them.

5. Accidental shortcuts

It’s more like a nightmare disguised as a daydream. You are working, and you accidentally pressed some keys and BOOOM!!! You just discovered a new shortcut that is so useful to you. Now what? You have no idea which key you pressed to get it, and now you can’t press all the keys all day to find it, Right?

Solution: The Internet is crammed with information, and you can easily Google the shortcuts for that particular software you were using. You can find some Adobe shortcuts for designers here.

6. Crashed software

What can be more maddening than having sluggish performance, unexpected hangs, and sudden crashes when you were 20 layers deep?And you didn’t save any of it? Bam! And you lost your work and temper.

Solution: Dear designers! Firstly, you must be friends with CTRL + S. Secondly, make sure your software is updated, your system is clean, and our plugins are okay. There are many ways to stop your preferred design software from crashing so often.

7. Falling in love with an expensive font

Need no diamonds, want “TEFF Lexicon” and “Parfumerie Script Pro”. Designers always have special feelings for fonts; they can even look at them forever. You may feel that the font is worth your money, but it might be hard to pay such an amount.

Solution: There’s no denying that a good font can enhance your design or make your design efforts look high-end. If you like a font so much and have enough funds, too, then buy it, but it is better to reserve it for big budget projects.

Conclusion

These are some of the nightmares, heartbreaks and struggles designers go through in their careers. After reading all these, it’s hard not to have a little sympathy for the designers who’ve actually experienced these scenarios. Remember, try not to let your nightmares keep you from accomplishing your dreams.

If you have experienced some of these nightmares, share your stories in the comments below!