Creating your own graphic design can be a different experience for every individual that embarks on this journey. While the prospect of creating a social media, website, or print design may be exciting and intriguing for some, it may be an entirely frustrating, daunting, or simply fearful expedition for others. Many clients will have several unrealistic expectations and assumptions about the graphic design process and maybe surprised and in some cases disappointed by the outcome, they are met within reality.
Many individuals will have expectations of their graphic designs that are unfortunately unrealistic and will ultimately leave them dissatisfied with their work. However, this is not due to a lack of quality in the designs created but rather an expected standard that is too high and entirely unachievable. For example, some users may approach the task of creating a design with high hopes and the expectation that it will be easy to produce a popular new creation that impresses people and enhances the image of a website, social media page or business logo. These users may then be frustrated when in reality they may struggle to generate the creativity needed to fabricate a unique image. Furthermore, users may find it difficult to impose their personality and individuality on a graphic design, leaving it somewhat boring and unimpressive.
Another expectation users may have regarding their graphic designs is that once a design is put in place in their chosen location, such as a social media page, the new design will transform the page entirely. Although a unique and interesting image is extremely important for a social media page or website, it can only enhance the page up to a certain extent. A page or site with an exceptional logo design but with limited and uninteresting content will not be hugely popular. In contrast to this, a page with incredibly entertaining content may lose out on a huge number of viewers and website traffic if it does not make use of an engaging and inviting graphic design in order to initially capture the viewer's attention.
The expected ease at which creativity and inspiration will be found when creating a graphic design can be detrimental to an individual as they will only be confused and annoyed when they find themselves struggling to come up with a new, unique idea for a design. Not only being creative but also being able to convert this creativity into an image or graphic design is not something that comes naturally to everyone, however many people simply assume that they will be able to do this with relative ease. This leads to frustration and an increased level of stress among these individuals when they sit down and try to force their creativity out and into some sort of idea for a graphic design.
Furthermore, once a design has been created, the creator may expect every viewer to thoroughly enjoy it and to receive nothing but positive feedback on their creation. In reality, no matter how good the design is or how perfect and flawless the creator may feel it is, there will always be people who do not like it or simply wish to give a negative comment. These comments can be hurtful, especially when the design is something you have spent time and effort on, however negative feedback will only hurt more when you brainwash yourself into not expecting to receive it at all. There is no such thing as a perfect design and even if the majority of people enjoy an image, one or two may not and may even feel the need to comment negatively on the creation. It is important to not take any criticism to heart and try to understand what it is this person doesn't like about your design. The best way to handle negative comments is to try to use them to aid and improve your designs in the future.
An additional expectation users may have is that they will be able to create an intricate and complicated design that is also aesthetically pleasing to viewers. This can be quite challenging to do and therefore may leave some individuals upset and confused when they struggle to construct a detailed and labyrinthine design. Not only can it be incredibly difficult to produce a design that contains complex and elaborate details, but it may even take away from the success and popularity of the design. In some cases, simplicity is more effective and some viewers may find a more basic design more enticing and enjoyable than an unnecessarily complicated one.