One of the worst things about design is that you can put a lot of work into something that comes out looking like, well… nobody put a lot of work into it at all. Here are a few techniques that could make you look like an amateur, even if you know what you’re doing.
Blur
Blurring is a pretty common image editing and design technique. Unfortunately it looks like a lot of negative after-effects of image manipulation.
The two Orlando Sentinel logos seen here have a major difference: One is sharp, and one is blurry.
To most people (including most designers), it’s impossible to tell if something has been blurred, or if it simply looks blurry as the result of something else. If the above logo had been made larger, for example, it would look a bit blurry afterwards in most programs. For a print company on the web, this might not reflect well on the Sentinel if they had the bottom, blurry logo on their website.
Of course, they do have the bottom, blurry logo on their website– that’s the original. The top one has had a simple sharpen filter run on it.
The tips:
- Avoid unnecessary smudging or blurring, especially on type.
- Solicit feedback from people just getting started with design.
Lossy
Image manipulation can wear out your images fast if you’re not careful. JPEGs get a grainy look. GIFs can go low-palette or get that weird, spotted look. And all images can get pixelated through repeated resizes, even if you’re resizing down.
Occasionally you’ll want to use a pixelation effect, a grainy effect, or an effect that mimics a low palette. Be careful that your image or artwork doesn’t too closely resemble these common missteps in image manipulation.
Even popular effects, like the “grunge” effect, can start to resemble image degradation. Here’s a “grunged” bit of type, and then a lossy version of the same type, without any grunge effects.
One has a carefully applied dirt/wear effect. One was just saved with really bad GIF options. To the layperson, these two might start look very similar, very fast, especially if we were more aggressive with a grunge or retro effect.
The tips:
- Avoid retro or grunge effects entirely. (I’m kidding! But seriously, do be careful with any effect that adds wear to a picture.)
- Be extra careful with pixelation and grain effects.
Repeating backgrounds
You can do really cool stuff with repeating backgrounds while keeping your file sizes ultra-low. The second you remind your user of the bad backgrounds of the past two decades, however, you’re done.
(This says “Welcome to my homepage!” Tell your eyes I said sorry.)
The tips:
- Avoid seams. If you’re in Photoshop, you can use Filter > Other > Offset to quickly see where they might be apparent. For certain backgrounds, the healing brush can help you fix seams really fast.
- Avoid prominent details. If you have a smaller repeating background, make sure there are no large marks or patterns that make the repetition painfully obvious. In Photoshop, use Edit > Define pattern to make your image into a pattern, which you can then use to fill (Select “pattern” instead of “foreground color”) a large canvas. If anything sticks out, remove it. You can also make the background image larger to less the repetition effect.
- Avoid repeating backgrounds altogether if you can. Lots of sites have full page background images, with surprisingly low file sizes. But that’s another post…
So there you have it: Some mistakes the pros can make and accidentally look like amateurs. Got something to add? I’d love to hear it in the comments.