The 9 most annoying things every designer does

[Rss Bot 1]

Although we might hate to admit it, even the most amazing designers can have annoying traits. So much so, in fact, that the team over at Spiralytics decided to investigate, with resident designer Jevie Palalay illustrating the nine most annoying things that designers do.

"I think I speak for every designer when I say that this job changes how we think and act in the outside world without even realising it," Palalay comments. "Some good, but some are downright annoying for non-designers, especially for those who date us," she explains.

From buying products purely for their packaging (even if you don't particularly want the product inside) to critiquing absolutely everything you see, it could be said that working as a designer has a pretty huge impact on your life. 

We can't help it, we're just inspired by everything we see, okay? You never know when the fonts on that old herbal tea box or colours on that chocolate bar wrapper will come in handy. The 'mess' on our desks will drive fastidious partners, friends and office PAs crazy, but we're never going to stop.

Apparently, taking five minutes to even open the menu can get tiresome to hungry friends. But if said menu has a particularly striking (or, even better, a perplexingly awful) logo, what can we do? It's not our fault we were born this way!

You never know when a graffiti font or retro font might be just what you need. Or when a project might call for 23 subtle variations on Helvetica. (FYI, our best free fonts for designers post has 56 different fonts at the moment. Just sayin').

Part of being a creative is being open to other types of creativity, not just design. Apparently, non-designers can find this a bit pretentious though.

We may not be Cecil Beaton, but we have a good eye for striking visuals (well, duh). Don't hate the player, non-designer friends. These graphic designers have particularly strong Insta game.

A bit like the menu thing, designers just can't switch off. If there's bad kerning or dodgy compositing, it will actually haunt our dreams. Maybe. But apparently our loved ones just don't care that much – they just want to watch Stranger Things without analysing its poster first.

Moving swiftly on...

But ARGH! That Dave is an absolute moron for doing that, how on Earth can he think that copying and pasting into World is a legitimate way of sending photos? What is this, 1995? Those blank stares from your mum are because she secretly thought this was fine, too.

We actually don't think this is a problem. After all, beautiful illustrations and designs have long been part of the joy of buying and reading books. Go on, head down to the book store and lust after some more – the new Futura book has a pretty sweet embossed cover.

For a more in-depth look at these traits, head over to the Spiralytics website.

Related articles:

• 26 books every graphic designer should read
• Doodle art: 52 great examples
• 12 of the best places to live as a designer

View the full article