Bad design

Bad design isn’t something I particularly enjoy talking about but its quite easy to be critical and point the finger at things that are ‘bad’. but I’d like to approach this question of why do people like bad design?

I think partly its to do with education, many clients don’t want good designs. They want something they perceive as being good and from a graphic design point of view they aren’t always the best solutions to the project.

Occasionally clients can be swayed from bad design decisions by providing them with alternatives but that isn’t always the case. I would agree with those individuals critical of graphic design as a profession. Many people have recently been lashing out at the design community saying that bad design arises out of the DIY capabilities of individuals.

Most people have a computer and they mostly come with graphical software, usually MS Paint. I think to be a designer you need to have some sort of graphical skill regardless of being degree educated or not. I believe you can see the difference between designs produced by non professionals and amateurs.

Just because your a design professional though doesn’t automatically entitle you into making good designs. I recently read the article ‘don’t be a tooler’, which highlighted the need for designers to engage properly with their tasks.

Design is one of those fields that is constantly moving forwards and the biggest revolution has been the computer but maybe its time to return to the drawing board.

Another reason for bad design is cheapness, sometimes clients only have so much budget and designers so much time. Also there is some value to be had out of cheapness.

If your brand looks cheap it exudes qualities of being good value and being affordable. Some people intentionally want poor design.

However ultimately whats ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is down to personal taste, in the end there are no guidelines to taste.