We see advertising everywhere. For the most part, the ads look fine, telling us about a product or service and enticing us to click, call, make an appointment, etc. But a poorly designed ad can catch our eye for all the wrong reasons.
While creating good ads can be a challenge, it’s not hard to see when they’re terrible.
But what about KO?
First off, what does KO stand for in that acronym? Stopping an acronym partway through makes this design inconsistent and unbalanced. It’s really an all or nothing situation.
Furthermore, using the same font in the same color and nearly the same size makes things boring, but also confusing. The big green letters for the company name works, but that’s about it. This would work better if there was more contrast in the font size and maybe even color or weight (the thickness of the font).
And don’t even get me started on the gecko.
Less is more
There is way too much going on with this design. From the oversized (and frankly nightmarish) face to the seemingly random font choices, this flyer needs a serious redesign.
The lack of organization actually draws the eyes away from important information, like hours of operation and the name of the daycare center. Those are overshadowed by the face of the monster hiding under your bed. Seriously, who thought that was a good idea?
A better design would organize the information by order of importance. While imagery can help attract attention to your flyer, important details of the business or service/event and contact information should be the primary focus of the flyer. However, the graphic overwhelms the important information on this flyer. Sticking to a simple and attractive design and consistent fonts can help streamline your design and help the important details stick.
How are you even supposed to read this?
When first looking at this logo, I only see a random collection of words, which is not what you want from a logo. There is no rhyme or reason for placement, colors, or capitalization, it seems. According to the original poster of this image, it should be read as “Noi sappiamo quello che devi sapere.” It’s Italian for “ We know what you need to know,” which is still too vague (and a little ominous) for a logo.
While creative alignment and spacing can make a logo visually interesting, words should still be in the order they are meant to be read.
Always preview before launching
This marketing email wasn’t optimized for mobile, causing the text to overflow from the box. Someone clearly didn’t preview the email on all devices before sending it. Come on Google, you should know better.
Leave Photoshop to the professionals
A poorly photoshopped image can be fun in the right context, but you should avoid them in your ads.
Here, it looks like someone just copied and pasted people and food onto this tent with no blending or spatial awareness. While it gets the point across, it just looks terrible. They probably would have been better off having a photoshoot for the product.
Design can make or break a marketing strategy. While these designs got a lot of attention, they don’t instill any trust in the businesses and probably pushed a lot of potential business away. Don’t let design become an afterthought of your marketing strategy.
