Know When to Finish

One of the most important rules that you need to follow as a graphic designer is knowing when to end the creative process in a project. As a beginner, most people have this issue and that's okay. We all start off making mistakes and learn from them. In order to find the right balance in your work, that just takes time, research, and of course practice. It took three years for me to really find my balance and it wasn't easy by no means.

How to Know When to Finish

• Stop what you are doing: Get up from the computer, look at it from a distance and ask yourself, do I need all these different elements in the project to explain the concept?
• Outside opinion: Ask a few people that you know or don't know if the design is too much or not enough. People know good artwork from bad artwork. If possible ask another designer that you can trust for their opinion. Use social media links and post images if you need to really reach out to people.
• Double check: If anything is cluttered or doesn't make sense and doesn't flow with the concept take it out. If you have any old ideas about how a project should look, definitely check those again and just try to figure out what key points and images you need to use to complete the project and deliver the concept
• Compare: Compare the project to someone else's with similar concepts. See how they designed their project and the arrangement of the images, text, and symbols.

The rookie mistake: Design roulette

Basically your projects' fate is dependent upon the flip of a coin. This is the, "If all else fails," method. Now this method not something that I would never advise at all! Businesses do take risks. However when it comes to flipping a coin just don't fall into this habit of uncertainty and you will be alright. You're clients will not be pleased if they find out your work is based on luck. That's unprofessional and will get you into trouble.

The Finish

Once you begin to understand and learn when to stop designing, then your life gets so much easier. You confidence will go way up and your creativity will shine a lot more. Less will always be better than cluttered and junky.