Design Fails We Can Forgive (and the One We Can’t)

Hey, it was close. We see you trying. And honestly, most of your audience won’t notice that you picked a slightly different shade. We’ll remind you to review the style guide, but we’ll wait until after you’ve had your coffee.

You were going for emphasis! We get it. It’s a little chaotic and maybe a teensy bit hard to read. We’ll help you rein it in and give you two solid (dyslexia-safe) fonts that always work.
Yes, you can still use your fun font. Sometimes.

Colors may come out a little weird, but you were trying your best. Also, color settings are secretly complicated. 

Sending a print file in RGB instead of CMYK is like cooking a meal on a stovetop and expecting it to turn out the same in a microwave. You followed a recipe, you used the right ingredients, but the tool changes the result.

We’ve all been there. It’s not elegant, but it got the job done. Next time, we’ll show you a versioning system that doesn’t feel like a cry for help—if you can even find your own file again.

What’s that? You hear sobbing from the CEL office? No you don’t.
You needed the logo to fit. You were in Canva at 11:30 p.m. No judgment. But next time you need a stacked logo for a vertical placement, call us. We promise we’re nicer than Canva’s resize handles.

No.
Absolutely not.
This is why designers cry.

Your logo is not a sticker. Word is not a design tool. And a “brand colors” section that just says blue and gold? That helps no one.

We will stage an intervention. We will bring snacks. But we cannot pretend this is okay.

You deserve a real brand kit:

• Horizontal and vertical logos

• With and without the tagline

• Full color, black and white, transparent, reversed (holographic foil optional)

• File formats that actually work

You deserve color codes in RGB and CMYK. Hex. Pantone. Best office paint colors. Hair dye recommendations to match your color season. Aesthetic snacks for your next half-day meeting. 

You deserve an accessibility cheat sheet that says:
“Nope. You still can’t pair yellow text on white.”

That’s a brand kit.

We asked CEL’s Design Director and Senior Designer—aka the calm creative forces behind the scenes—what quietly makes or breaks a project handoff.

Their answers?

“Messy design files slow everything down. Name your layers. Group them. Delete what you’re not using. Someone may need to use this same file in a year, or two, or five. Don’t take shortcuts now…because fixing these files later can be a nightmare.  — Kelly May, Design Director

“Not outlining your fonts and not packaging your file? That’s how print shops cry. And no one wants that.” — Trari Spelorzi, Senior Designer

We’re not all graphic designers, so we’re not exactly sure what they mean, but it sounds like great advice. If you have more questions for them, give them a call. They’re experts in forgiving design fails (but they never forget). Asking questions now saves the project later.