Keep it Simple

The most effective designs are usually very simple ones. One of my college teachers really drilled this into my head through the various exercises he had us do. When I'd show him a draft of a design he'd examine it and ask, "Do you think you really need this element? I think you already saying that with something else." Sometimes an extra graphic picture or effect just clutters the message. My teacher stressed that there was no need to say the same thing multiple times and doing so just clutters the design. An extreme example is if you were designing a poster for a concert and used lots of clipart of of music notes, instruments, piano keys and sheet music. Chances are you could communicate the same idea just as effectively with only one of those elements. In fact you might be able to communicate the idea more abstractly by making the typography and colors convey the feeling of music which would probably make it look more professional. The main idea is to focus on saying your message well and saying it only once. After all you wouldn't type the sentence "Come see a great band!" on the poster in the copy multiple times so don't do the same visually. Ask yourself what the bare minimum is that you need to convey the message and start experiment by dropping what isn't needed. This will take time and even courage to try removing things you've worked so hard on but will make your design more effective and easier to read in the end.