How can you tell the difference between a good designer and an amateur?

[estel]

I thing the real diffrence is in way of work (flow)
real designer (artist) make sketch idea and then make design
amateur sit in front of computer and trying (everything posssible) what software does

[axule]

just remembered those days that I was just a starter.

[Chung Dha]

I thing the real diffrence is in way of work (flow)
real designer (artist) make sketch idea and then make design
amateur sit in front of computer and trying (everything posssible) what software does

I doubt nowadays you have to sketch on paper plus I have noticed things you sketch on paper sometimes never works when you try to remake them on the computer. I have many times when a sketch looks awesome then when I tried to make it the angles and size looks way to odd. Also just stop wasting time and just make the thing that is in your head.

[danilo frosina]

a good designer shoot by himself the pics and create the images which he needs by himself without surfing the internet looking for something that he can use

[sharie]

uummm a good designer does research! even old school designer research, maybe in books or driving around. Searching the web is no different than driving around looking at logos or reading through books or advertisements.

What is wrong and illeagal is copying/using someone elses work

a good designer shoot by himself the pics and create the images which he needs by himself without surfing the internet looking for something that he can use

[Chung Dha]

uummm a good designer does research! even old school designer research, maybe in books or driving around. Searching the web is no different than driving around looking at logos or reading through books or advertisements.

What is wrong and illeagal is copying/using someone elses work

I agree research is needed to be able to know what is out there and to avoid. If you stay lockup inside a room not knowing that already exist you probably make a double that is already out there not knowing it.

[danilo frosina]

uummm a good designer does research! even old school designer research, maybe in books or driving around. Searching the web is no different than driving around looking at logos or reading through books or advertisements.

What is wrong and illeagal is copying/using someone elses work

of course u do researches and it's normal to surf the internet to get an inspiration, but what i said ( or what i wanted to say ) is that amateurs use images made by others

[kubicheck]

I agree. Typo, typo and... Typo!

[addisoft]

Nice Post...Graphic design is a popular art and a practical art, an applied art and an ancient art. A Professional graphic design assembles together images, typography or motion graphics to create a piece of design.

Amateurs have far more informal and relaxed approach to process and critical ideas.

[Robertzo]

i saw somewhere this advice: "Think more, design less" ... and i agree, like jecrt said too: it's all about the concept and executing the concept

[noahcharnow]

Choice in color, composition, typography, presentation are to name a few. I am constantly seeing these errors with students at my school. Many of my fellow students seem to struggle with describing why they have made specific choices in their work such as color or composition.

[mpdesign]

Lots of good ideas here for spotting amateurs. One more is that either they give too few choices or too many. Usually when designing is done, a professional will show the customer 3 different concepts for the customer to choose from. Too many type faces and too many colours could be a good indication too. Also leaving orphan words in text areas and unfinished parts. Look for tidyness as a good designer will always look over the final design and tidy it up for any little things. They should always ask before hand what medium(s) the design will be used on and supply the artwork in such a format as to adhere to each medium for output, printing, etc.

[HMDesigns]

I agree with Stacia, I think designers should follow the KISS method (keep it simple stupid) when designing, unless the design solution requires say a sense of chaos, then in that case, do what you must. And Danilo, I get what your saying, some designers look up images or clip art and just slap them on a design, not cool at all, but I think it is perfectly fine to gather images and from those, create your own image, that way it makes your design that much more original, thus allowing you the designer to increase prices and making sure your not plagiarizing or stealing someone else images.

[MParts]

But what about amateurs who win contests by using filters which make bad logo to look nice and contest holders like their logo to be nice? CH are not designers, they usually don't have an idea what is a difference between good and bad logo. How professional designers can beat these sparkling amateur logos in CH eyes?

And, I do not agree that amateurs can be spotted by using ordinary fonts. There are world known designers who have and use their favorite fonts. I think, the worse thing is that I often see exotic fonts which looks awful and do not fit logo overall.

All professional designers do their researches on the paper. The more experience I get the more I understand that good design good idea can not be found with straight work in computer. In this way you become dependent on your software, so there is creativity then?