Part of design is stepping away from the pixels.

In design one of the hardest things I ever had to learn was the art of when to stop designing. Naturally, I am a bit of a control freak and never pleased by anything – I am a life long bar raiser and always put the most pressure on myself. Knowing when to stop poking to pixels before it’s a layer too far is something that takes time to do. Just as in life, as you get older you learn to let go more – in design you have a similar growth process. The more you do, the more you know when something is done and avoid the always will end in bad things over working.

Possibly one of the most common mistakes that can be made when you are learning design is doing too much to that design. The temptation is always there to add a little here, shift something there. I’ve talked many times before about gut instincts as a designer. Knowing when to stop is part of these gut instincts. It’s not something you get unless you work at it.

I’ve said before and I do really feel it, minimalism is one of the hardest design styles to get right. It means you have to get the ‘leaving alone’ balance just right, otherwise it’s just a half finished design. There has to be just enough of everything when going for a minimalist design. It’s not about a white box with nothing in it, minimalism is about what you put in that box to get just enough design across.

As a designer – it could be as a profession or as a hobby – you should be developing your instincts so that you know when you’ve pushed mr pixel too far and when to let them have a break. Often by keeping revisions of designs this helps, I opt for the every 30 minutes saving option on any design I am doing. I find this helps me to go back if I’ve gone too far – even those of us working day to day in design sometimes go to far. Showcases are full of designs when the designer should just have stepped away from the mouse and waters down the impact of their design by not letting go.