As a graphic designer and marketer (or even a business owner who likes to take matters into your own hands), you must admit that there have been times you’ve messed up when working on a design. 

With any luck, it was probably a mistake that you either spotted in time or was easily fixable even when the design had been created. 

But what about when it goes wrong? What do you do then? Or more importantly, how do you avoid making a potentially disastrous design mistake? 

That’s exactly what we will be looking at today. Here are the 3 most dangerous design mistakes that you must avoid at all costs! 

1. Rushing the design

It doesn’t matter what your sales team or client says, never, ever rush your work. 

Many businesses and even marketing firms tend to take the design department for granted. It doesn’t matter how complex or important the design is, they usually want it yesterday. 

As a designer, it’s crucial for you to not give in to the pressure and hurry your design. Creative work always requires a very specific headspace, and a sense of urgency can mess it up even for the most talented of designers. 

Remember, deadlines will always be there. However, you should make it very clear to the rest of the team (or client) that you need a certain amount of time in which you can let your brain work comfortably.  

2. Being too emotional

This is a very common mistake that almost all designers make at one time or another and yet no one talks about this. 

It’s understandable to take a certain sense of pride or ownership in your work. After all, you’ve worked hard to get it ‘just perfect’ and sometimes people’s opinions can seem downright stupid. 

Despite that, it’s always a bad idea to get too emotional about certain elements in a design. After all, you’re not the one who is paying for it, and getting into an argument with your client or the rest of the team is not such a great idea. 

The best thing to do in such a situation is to take a deep breath and focus on what’s important – getting the design out there and keeping your clients happy. 

And you can always save the particular version that you’re so proud of on your portfolio! 

3. Overthinking

Another one of those disasters that no one likes to talk about, overthinking can ruin designs for even veteran designers. And the most overthinking tends to happen when there’s blank or negative space in your design. 

As a graphic designer, the one thing you need to learn is to embrace negative space, even if it looks dangerously blank to you. That’s because you’ve been staring at it for hours on end and your brain is pulling a sneaky on you. 

It doesn’t look the same to viewers and filling it up will result in the one thing you should always fear – a crowded, messy design. 

That’s it for now

As a top design and marketing company, we’ve experienced all of these and more. The important thing is to learn how to identify when you’re about to make such a mistake and avoid it early on. 

If you have any design disaster stories you’d like to share with us, feel free to reach out!