What I Didn't Understand About Graphic Design

Why My Early Designs Were a Mess

Graphic design isn't just about looks. It isn't just colors, fonts, overlays, or textures. A good design has one thing: A goal. A purpose.

At a point in my graphic design journey, I didn't know this.

I've always aspired to be an amazing designer, and, I still do. But back then, whenever I thought about design, I thought almost entirely about aesthetics. To me, good design was design that looked cool. Period.

Where It Started

A few years ago, about three years back, I had a friend who introduced me to graphic design. This guy was good. Like, really good. He understood the tools. He had the skills. At the time, he was probably the best designer I had ever seen.

And naturally, I wanted to be like him.

The Mistake

So whenever I had a design idea, I'd open Photoshop and start throwing things onto the canvas.

• More layers.
• Crazy backgrounds.
• Confetti.
• Light rays.
• Random images.

If I thought it looked cool, it went in. And at the end of it all, what I usually had was an unstructured mess of a canvas. The funny thing is, I didn't realize it. In my mind, I was designing. I was being creative. I was making something impressive.

But I was completely missing the point.

What I Wasn't Thinking About

I never stopped to ask what the design was actually supposed to do.

• What message was it trying to communicate?
• Who was it for?
• What was the purpose behind it?

I wasn't thinking about any of that. I was focused on making things look cool. And because of that, I kept creating designs that looked busy, felt cluttered, and just looked... bad.

When Everything Changed

It took a while before everything finally clicked. The moment everything clicked, I started seeing design differently. Not better per-se. Just differently.

Some of the biggest lessons I've learned as a designer came from that realization, and I'd love to share them with you so you don't fall into the same dilemma I did.

And that's what I'll talk about in the next post. This is just part one.