It’s everywhere and yet we just don’t care. Bad design is ubiquitous in our culture and never more so than on a local level. National brands seem to have it together and perhaps deep pockets help make design a priority. When you bring this idea down to a local level it seems that all the artists have vanished.

Any similarities?

With enough design know-how or at least a touch of creativity in your blood you will immediately recognize the following design fails:

• The logo that has been done in MS Publisher
• The 3 fold brochure template done in Word
• The business card done in Word or MS Publisher!
• The quickly assembled flyer … and any word processor will do
• The PowerPoint slide with too many words!

What is the point? There are different levels of design; good and bad. I suppose you could say there are other points along the scale, but why bother? So here’s some free advice:

Club Leaders: You represent all the good things in the community so find a good designer and no, your treasurer is not a designer!

Churches: When you have a flyer to do, find the artist in your midst and see if they can create a great looking working template for you (read Nehemiah).

Skilled Trades (et all): Just a little effort and a few bucks will improve your image. From stationary and marketing materials to your invoices; a designer can make you look hot!

Small Business Owners: If you are willing to spend money to advertise, then at least spend a few bucks to make your ad look decent.

Suits: Death by Power Point is really not acceptable behaviour!

Creative Types: When you launch a website that lacks creativity … you hurt us all.

I recently came across this thought: The “EARTH” without “ART” is just “EH”. A lot of the design I see everyday makes me say “Eh?”. Are you just ignoring it or do you see it too?