13 Signs You’re a Bad Graphic Designer
I found this blog article while doing my daily internet crawl, and - due to my OCD nature and obsessive curiosity - had to stop and find out for myself. According to blog author, Jacob Cass, there are 15 tell-tale signs as to whether or not your designs qualify as B-A-D. If you answer “yes, I do that” to three or more… well, sorry. You’re a bad designer. But fear not! This doesn’t mean you fail, it just means you have new areas to work on improving. 
I’ve quickly listed the 13 signs below:
1. Do you use Helvetica font in everything?
2. and 3. ”Do you use straight quotes instead of hanging quotes on the ends of quotes and hanging quotes instead of prime marks for numbers like 7‘3“ or just leaving quotes/apostrophes out completely? Thats just silly. ”
** I’d like to add one here: Do you use any type of typewriter font (except, of course, if there’s a SPECIFIC REASON you’re using it for a design)? I absolutely hate those types of fonts… it always makes a design look really dated.**
4. Do you double-return your paragraphs?
Like this?
Instead of like this?
This looks so much better…
5. Punctuation. Do you double space it? It’s not a requirement anymore, and rather redundant.
6. Do you place solid color boxes behind your text?
This one I agree with only up to a certain point. I believe that there is nothing wrong with placing a BODY of text inside a colored block to help set it apart, IF it is cohesive with the design and layout you are using. I have used this method quite successfully in many of my designs.
7. Do you use centered layouts?
This is okay for certain designs,
but as a general rule, it tends
to look dull and is annoying to
read large blocks of text this
way…
8. Do you use way too many borders in your designs?
9. Do you indent your paragraphs with half-inch indents instead of the more modern, em dash indents?
** I think this one is rather… eh. Take it or leave it. It’s a valid point, but at the same time, it’s really rather minor compared to the other ones (in my humble opinion).**
10. - Do you use hyphens for bullets • Or not?
11. 
**Again, this might have a place in design if it is A) used sparingly and B) cohesive to the design you are using!!**
12. Do you use 12-point fonts in designs instead of10-point fonts?
** Again, I think this is rather minor. Although I admit as a personal preference, in designs, I MUCH prefer the 10-point. It looks sleeker, more professional, and you have more room to play with layout (such as indenting, spacing, etc.) without making body text look too crowded.**
13. Do you underline your text?
** This is true… I mean, bold or italics really are the better choices…**
14. DO YOU USE ALL CAPS?
** Sometimes, it’s okay, like for a headline or title. NEVER FOR BODY TEXT THOUGH! YOU DON’T WANT TO LOOK LIKE YOU’RE SHOUTING, DO YOU?
15. And finally bad gramma n’ speling in yer designs?
** Uggggh, this is a BIG NO-NO!!! That’s why God gave us spell- and grammar-check 
And on a final note, I’d like to add a few of my own (I’d categorize some of these as more of “pet peeves” of mine):
• ALTeRNaTiNG TeXT (not that many people do it but I’ve seen it, and it scares me…)
• typing in all lowercase… it’s okay for a title (the “modern” look) but do not do all lower-case in the body text unless you really want to look like an amateur. 
• Using really boxy, strict-grid layouts. You’re a designer, c’mon! Break out of the box a little bit!!! 
• Using all kinds of different fonts in a layout.
And that’s it for me. I hope you found this as interesting as I did! Thankfully, according to this I am NOT a bad designer. Whew!! *wipes brow* That’s a relief. Thought for a second I was gonna have to find a new career path… o.O
So what do YOU consider bad design?
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