Top 4 Design Mistakes Beginners Make

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In today's video, I want to share with you The Top 4 Design Mistakes I see beginners or non-designers make.

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video transcript:

Top 4 Design Mistakes Beginners Make

Don't worry if you make any of these mistakes, they are super easy to fix and I'm actually going to demo for you today the mistake and the solutions, so that you know exactly what you need to do in order to fix it.

Mistake Number 1: Fill the Entire Canvas

What you want is to have white space or empty space around your design. This is going to make your design much easier to read and look way more professional. For example, with this design here, all of the elements have been really stretched out and are taking up the entire canvas. So as you can see, the text is hitting the edge here and even on this side which is really not enough space. What you want is some empty or white space around each of your elements. So this is the before:

And this is the after:

So as you can see there's this empty or white space all the way around it and it now looks a lot more professional and is easier on the eye. So see if you can add more white space to your designs.

Mistake Number 2: Not Understanding Hierarchy

You want the font sizes that you use to help convey your message. So you might be using the same font type and size to display all of the information in your design. But what you want to do instead is add some hierarchy to your design. So by this I mean using different font types and sizes to communicate what is the most important part of your design. So in this example, the most important thing that someone needs to understand about this particular promotion is that it’s grand opening day.

The other information such as the company name and the date and time that it's happening, that is more secondary:

So by using different font types and sizes, we make it much easier to understand. Plus it looks way better too.

Mistake Number 3: Using a Dark Color Font on Top of a Dark Background

This makes it very difficult to read. Here is an example of that and as you can see it's just a bit too tricky to read. So you really want to always be prioritizing legibility. And luckily this is a really easy fix. So this is the before:

And this is the after it:

So all you need to do is change your font to a lighter text and then just double check it and make sure that it is a shade that is really easy to read on your particular background. And this is also going to look much more professional.

Mistake Number 4: Piling Way Too Much

Piling way too much into one design is something that you might be guilty of. This is a problem that I see across lots of different mediums, whether it's your PowerPoint slides or your social media graphics. Don't overload your designs. So I totally get it. You want to give your audience all the information that they need to know. But the problem with this is that it looks too cluttered and they'll just scan past it if that's the case. So rather than telling them absolutely everything that they could know about your event, instead what you want to do is keep it simple and only include the most important facts. Here is the before:

So here is one example that you could have done:

Which is much more simple design, or you honestly could make it even simpler and just go with something like this:

So always be including the absolute essentials and you can always include the rest of the information in your caption instead.

Those are the top four mistakes that I see beginners make. I hope you found this video helpful. With the before and afters, we now know exactly how to fix these problems.

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