Design OCD: Have Faith in your Graphic Designer

I’ll admit it. I’m an organizing junkie. I organize everything. And I’ve become really, really good lately at cramming as much stuff as possible into its container. Loading the dishwasher is a nightly battle to the death to get absolutely every last pan, bowl and lemon zester into that box. And I gotta tell ya, just thinking about packing for our upcoming vacation gives me goose bumps. Two adults, one baby, a car seat, booster seat, stroller, coffee maker, food, bottled water, bathing suits, towels, and at least 5 pairs of shoes for me assembled into our Tiguan for an 11 hour drive? YES!

Image courtesy of Flickr user billaday

I wonder how much of this “talent” has evolved from my 9-to-5 skills. As an interactive designer, I am faced with a similar challenge  to cram elements into their own little boxes on a daily basis. Think about it. A basic banner ad should contain a minimum of:

1. Logo
2. Call to action (a button, a click through, something to pay for this ad!)
3.  A message
4. A photo would be nice. Or an animation. Just something visual to catch the eye.

Normally just assembling all these into a tiny box is pain enough. But designers must be cautious and approach the problem with a critical eye. Adjust spacing and size of each element so each fits just right, so that the viewer’s eye can calmly float from one element to the next in the correct visual hierarchy in order to achieve maximum banner appreciation bliss.

Or that’s the dream, anyways. The reality is that we designers must fight with these competing elements, we are skilled with finding the best way of doing so. That’s the designer’s job. It’s what we’re good at. It’s what makes us think every time we load the dishwasher, or organize our sock drawers. Without the necessary thought and practice required for visual organization, chaos occurs.

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