How to spot (and avoid) a bad graphic designer when hiring for your brand

How to spot a bad graphic designer before you hire one for your brand

If your marketing team or agency is about to hire design work —for your own brand or a client's—, it pays to recognize the signs of a bad graphic designer. These aren't strict rules, but they are elements to watch for in any business and its design. In the digital landscape, graphic design is one of the most important and least understood areas, which is why we see a clear distinction between good work and inferior work. Graphic design should be built into your marketing plan and form part of your visual communication strategy to improve communication and brand identity. To avoid these mistakes, it's important to understand the fundamentals of design and color theory. Graphic design improves engagement with your target audience and is an essential part of your visual communication and digital presence. Graphic design is an essential part of digital marketing and should be reflected in your corporate design and brand guidelines to maintain visual consistency.

On small projects, this aesthetic drift barely shows. But as a client grows in revenue and headcount, their standards for communication and design rise. And these mistakes quickly filter out vendors. Raising awareness of the mistakes a designer may be making is the first step toward choosing better.

For the sake of hyperbole or exaggeration, we've amplified the mistakes so they stand out more. There's a tremendous amount of information online to build your knowledge and train someone in these qualities.

The same font everywhere

Do you use the same font for everything? This is one of the easiest ways to spot a lack of "personality" in design. Typefaces like Helvetica, Montserrat, Open Sans, and the like are the first choices for amateur designers. A bad graphic designer doesn't flag these points in a business and isn't actively conscious of the decision. To improve your use of typefaces, check out our guide on typography and fonts and how to apply them correctly in your visual communication strategy.

You may need to train your eye, but you'll notice a constant repetition of styles across brands. That's not necessarily bad; for example, Helvetica is the most popular font of all time, but that's exactly the problem. Other fonts (thanks to beginners' misuse) like Comic Sans have earned a negative reputation because of it.

Poor typesetting

Incorrect writing is a very common technical error. Much of it stems from the transition from the typewriter to digital typography. Some common mistakes are:

• Using straight quotes
• Double spaces
• Poor use of strokes
• Not using proper typographic dashes
• Underlining text too much
• Using all caps to emphasize
• Poor writing or spelling errors

To improve your typesetting, it's important to understand the fundamentals of graphic design and apply typography correctly in your visual communication strategy. Good typesetting improves your communication and strengthens your brand identity through better visual communication.

Misusing Gestalt

You need to know the principles and laws of Gestalt to judge whether a design is good or bad. It doesn't mean that not following them makes a design wrong, only that they have to be considered in the process. The principles of Gestalt improve your visual communication strategy and should be built into your marketing plan to improve communication and engagement with your target audience.

• Law of continuity: if several elements form a shape or flow, they're perceived as a whole. For example, a bulleted list like this one.
• Law of similarity: similar elements are perceived as belonging to the same group. For example: color, shape, size...
• Figure-ground law: the ground is everything not perceived as the figure. In other words, the two elements are clearly distinguished.
• Law of proximity: elements close to each other tend to be perceived as part of the same group. For example, a list of terms.
• Law of closure: a shape is perceived more clearly the more closed its outline is.
• Law of completion: an open shape tends to be perceived as closed.

These principles improve your visual communication and are an essential part of graphic design, improving your digital presence and strengthening your brand through digital marketing.

Poor aesthetics

When editing software offers tools, many of them get overused repeatedly. The most common one we've seen is the use of bevels, shadows, and gradients.

We should avoid rainbow gradients, exaggerated reflections, and heavily contrasting textures. They're very powerful tools but very easy to use badly. Looking at the evolution of design, we've noticed that these three pillars are fundamental (and aesthetically improve a piece), but their limit is very delicate. Shadows and reflections that should have a normal intensity are being pushed to values 10 or 20 times higher than normal. To improve your aesthetics, check out our guide on color theory and how to apply it correctly in your visual communication strategy to improve your corporate design and strengthen your brand.

Review checklist before delivering a piece

• Clear visual hierarchy within 3 seconds.
• Correct contrast and legibility on mobile.
• A consistent typographic system (a maximum of 2-3 families).
• Final files organized and production-ready.