Think Smart Designs Blog: Freedom or Limitation in Graphic Design

Graphic design is a vast field and its bounds are nearly limitless. Similarly, there are no limits to the degree of creativity of a graphic designer. Most designers believe in freedom in design, while at the far end, some follow design limitations. But…anything done in excess is bad.

The followers of design limitations hold firmly to the set rules and principles as laid out by the book. While at the other extreme, supporters of design freedom advocate that it gives them the opportunity to explore their creative instincts and come up with better designs. While both aspects are significant in their respective domains, excess of both freedom and limitation can spoil the design.

Drawbacks of freedom in Graphic Design:

Let us first analyze the freedom aspect of designing. How is excessive and uncontrolled freedom in graphic designing a bane?

Time consuming:

Having said that freedom in graphic designing gives you the liberty to explore new and unique trends, it also can be a time waster. Lack of restrictions enables a graphic designer to think of more and more concepts. The more the concepts you think of, the more the choices you will have at hand. The more choice you have to select among, the more time is exhausted on the project. Sometimes freedom in graphic designing becomes detrimental when you have to meet project deadlines.

Wandering away from the subject:

Graphic designing is such a diverse field that excessive contemplating the design concepts can result in deviating from the project itself. Without any bounds, when a graphic designer starts conceptualizing the design, one idea is superseded by another. In this way, he deviates from the main subject and gets lost in the thought processes.

Confused concepts:

It is an accepted fact that freedom in designing broadens our horizons and gives us the opportunity to think out of the box. But too much thinking leads to confusion. Sometimes when you get involved in excessive freedom, you come up with various choices to choose from. This can be quite confusing for graphic designers to choose the best alternative out of superfluous options.

Leads to regret:

The worst part about being liberal in graphic design is that there are more chances for cognitive dissonance to arrive. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling that arises after taking a certain decision. Sometimes after selecting one design, graphic designers lament…“If only I had chosen the other design”. When there are more choice to select from, the grief of not selecting the other designs is more.

Drawbacks of Limitation in Graphic Design:

After having discussed the drawbacks of freedom in graphic design, let us now analyze the other extreme. How does design limitation cause problems for graphic designers?

It bounds creativity:

While design limitations are good to the extent that they save valuable time, excessive design restraints bound the creativity of graphic designers. It undermines the ability of graphic designers to fully utilize their creative talent and try out innovative ideas and styles. Graphic designers can come up with creative ways only when there is a certain degree of liberty for new ideas and concepts.

Inflexibility creates boredom:

A designer bound by design limitations is like a lion trapped inside a cage. Excessively working in limited domains creates boredom and dullness to the job. Graphic design is in no way a dull and boring field and hence working within design limitations can be quite frustrating for graphic designers. When you work within specified constraints, it becomes a monotonous and tedious endeavor.

You don’t make a distinction:

Imagine if all graphic designers work on the same design principles and are bound by the same design limitations, then there would be no difference between any of them. Although personality types of graphic designers are different, they are distinguished by their style of work. Operating under design constraints disables the designer to exploit his unique skills and limits him to the fundamentals. Hence nothing innovative is to offer to the customers can distinguish them from their competitors.

Don’t think out of the box:

The best part of graphic design is that it lets you experiment with new trends and techniques. With design limitations and strict regulations, you don’t think out of the box. To get noticed, one has to come up with innovative and revolutionary ideas. But with excessive limitations around a graphic designer, this task is quite hard to accomplish.

Hinders progress and development:

One of the major setbacks of design limitations is that it creates hurdles in the way of progress and growth as a graphic designer. Since you stick to the fundamentals of the design and don’t explore new trends and practices of the industry, you are likely to lag behind as a graphic designer.