Top Five Design Faux-Pas.

Look - we're marketers. We are paid to be clever. We try to engage people in a sea of noise. It's not an easy task! But come on, fellow marketers. When you eschew function for form, you're gonna lose some leads. That's what's happening in marketing right now. I'm seeing this (struggling to see) on-screen and in print, so no media is immune. Here are the top five stupid things marketers and designers are doing right now that need to stop.

1. Light grey type over a white background.

I'm not sure where this dumb idea originated, but apparently black text over a white background became a bad thing over the past few years. Not everyone has the 20-10 vision required to see this nonsense. Contrast is an important concept, folks. I believe I just saw yellow text on a white background somewhere too. Not smart.

2. Margins that dive into the fold, yet leave white space in the column.

Yes, Wired Magazine, I'm looking at you. Trying to look at you, anyway. What idiot layout bro is asleep at the wheel there? Notice I said "bro" because there's no woman dumb enough to dump columns into the crease while leaving an inch of white space towards the end of the page. Although some white space is aesthetically pleasing, people like symmetry, too. White space where it doesn't make sense is just stupid. And what gives with the 1" columns and microscopic text? Subscription cancelled.

3. Great looking sides, and nothing where we spend the most time.

Sign makers - the great bane of all marketing. Unfortunately, most I've met in Florida are high-school burnout wannabe marketers who just fail at everything. And you're trusting these morons with your marketing message? Who's the real dummy? Just look at all that space on that Nissan milk truck! Her back window was SCREAMING for signage! People spend exponentially more time behind your van than next to it in traffic, yo. So why would you skip the back windows? Fool.

4. Engrish Labels.

You took the time and effort to bring your product to an English-speaking market. You spent thousands on transportation and tariffs - not to mention the time involved in negotiating that nightmare. And then you destroy your potential by completely ignoring our culture and language to save a couple hundred dollars by using your cousin's brother's uncle's supposedly bi-lingual sherpa to write your English translation. You've seen these offenders - in clothing tags, in the instruction manuals for any electronic device, and on every single assembly sheet with any piece of Ikea furniture. It's especially bad when the vendor specifies "We Pay Attention to Every Detail" on their image shots. Sure you do.

5. That Damn Asian Font.

It's not Times New Roman, Georgia, Garamond, Calisto, or any of the hundreds of much more attractive and usually free serif fonts anyone in the civilized world can download and use in minutes - but some awful interpretation of some 1950s craziness Mr. Sony probably used with the first Japanese televisions imported into the United States. Here, I'll name it for you: Times Old Qin. Hey Asian manufacturers - we can tell you're Asian manufacturers from your font. In this new "America First" era, wouldn't you think people would feel more comfortable with instruction manuals that at least look domestic?

Get it together designers and marketers. These are obvious and simple errors that can be easily fixed. Call me - I can help set you on the path to righteousness.

#design #marketing #sign #label #language #advertising