The Hardest Design Lesson to Learn

Design is hard work. There is no question about that. It takes time, skill, and a lot of planning to pull off a great design. So what is the hardest design lesson to learn? Is it choosing that perfect font that communicates your message? Is it selecting the best color scheme that adds that extra flare? Or is it coming up with that creative concept that will blow the competition away? While all of these steps in the design process are important. The hardest lesson for a designer to learn is to listen to the opinions of others. It echoes the age old principle, "The customer is always right." Any designer knows that, to most non-design people, everything you do looks wonderful. In some cases, a customer's idea of a design gives you this strong...

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Top 5 Font Tips for Great Design

I have finally begun to read The Non-Designer's Design & Type Books. I received it a few months ago to critique and have barely touched it. I first looked at it last night. The opening pages discuss what the author calls the "Joshua Tree Epiphany." He tells the story of receiving a tree book for Christmas. Excited about his new book, he opened it, ready to identify the trees in his neighborhood. The first tree was a Joshua tree. He told himself he'd never seen one of those before. As he began identifying the trees in his neighborhood, he realized that 80% of the houses had Joshua trees in the yards. The principle he was making from this story is that you tend not to notice something until you are aware that its there. I pondered this...

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The Cost of Good Design

We just had our annual church business meeting. Immediately, some of you are falling asleep because that's what you do in business meetings, but here me out! In our meeting, and in most meetings, we passed around the church budget. One of the line items was "Advertising/Promotions." We even are starting a "committee" for this. Like it or not Graphic Design has made its mark on the church. Church marketing cannot hope to live without it. So I asked myself this question "How much should a church be willing to spend on their Advertising campaign?" To be perfectly honest with you, I have completely forgotten what number our church had down in the budget for this, but I hope to list many of the costs a church will need to undertake in order...

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