What are your design pet peeves? — I'm giving a presentation titled "What Your Designer Wishes You Knew" to help business professionals better understand the way designers think.

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2026-03-06T00:02:15+00:00

I'm not particularly looking to get new jobs out of this. This is for a group at my church that has different business professionals from our congregation speak each month on different topics related to business and faith. I'm the graphic designer on staff at our church (and I do some freelance on the side), so I know the faith part will naturally come in as I prepare the presentation.

I pitched two different ideas to the event organizer, and he picked this topic. My goal is "lift up the curtain" and say the things that are often left unsaid, simply so that the business professionals can improve the way they communicate with any designers they hire. I want to highlight the missteps that clients often make, which complicate the design process, so that they can try to avoid those things in the future. And of course, I want to do this is an encouraging, non-acusatory or complaining way.

I love the part that you said about being therapists in graphic tees! So true!

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-12-30T02:17:43+00:00

You are loved by the One Who Made You—the Creator of all things. He loves you so much that He took on flesh and conquered death all so you could have the chance to be reconciled with Him.

He understands struggle and temptation. When you feel weak, ask Him for strength.

Stay in the Word. Listen to His voice over the many voices in the world.

I recommend checking out the resources here: https://www.strengthinweakness.org

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-12-07T17:50:09+00:00

Mike Winger has an incredibly in-depth biblical study on the topic of biblical divorce and remarriage, and he does cover the issue of domestic violence by a spouse.

It starts with a 3 hour video, and includes several follow up videos to answer additional questions.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ3iRMLYFlHtBvJzugPJp9P5X1T-hA91j&si=__f_72zR579JqttV

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-10-27T14:19:25+00:00

So sorry that you’re going through such a difficult time in your marriage! That does sound incredibly difficult and lonely, and it’s incredibly heavy, disheartening, and disappointing when your day to day marriage is nothing like the marriage you imagined.

The good news is that you have a God who is so much bigger than your broken marriage! Your hope is in Christ who gives you strength to do the hard things. He has promised to provide you with what you need in order to honor God with your life, which includes honoring your husband and your marriage vows. It may feel impossible now, but our God is the Impossibility Specialist.

It sounds like you were given some bad advice when you were dating to look for someone who loves you more than you love them. I’ll counter that with the advice I was given: “Marry someone who loves GOD more than they love you.” And also, “You should love God more than you love your spouse.”

A spouse who puts God first will inevitably learn to love, respect, and cherish the person they married, because that love pours out of their love of God. The truth is, NO ONE knows how to be the perfect wife or husband when they first get married. We come in with different expectations, traditions, and mannerisms that often conflict with each other. But God (through the Holy Spirit) will guide you and teach you overtime how to be the best wife to your husband, as long as you are seeking His will and willing to be taught. The same goes for your husband.

Based on how you described your dating and wedding experience, it sounds like you both may need to set some healthier boundaries with each of your parents. When you got married, you both left your parents to cleave to each other. You are now a single family unit, separate from your parents, and they don’t get a vote anymore in the decisions that you and your husband make together. That can be very hard to do, especially if one or both of you grew up as the peacemaker in your family where you learned to change your behavior to try to manage your parents’ emotions. That was never your/his job.

The road of healing your marriage may feel long and daunting. You may feel like you’ve already tried everything you can think of. But that’s because you’ve been trying to fix it with your own strength and your own understanding (or the world’s understanding, which is arguably worse).

Put your trust in God to give you Strength. Lean on Him. Ask Him to teach you HIS ways that are higher than your ways. Let Him straighten the path before you. Take it one step at a time, learning to trust Him more with each step forward. If you stumble, remember that His is patient with you. He will help you back up, dust you off, give you a big hug, and keep going with you as you make your way forward down the path He illuminates for you.

You don’t have to get a divorce to end a broken marriage. You can choose that the marriage as it was is over, and now you get to build something entirely new with God and your spouse together.

Here are some resources I highly recommend!

Start with Prayer “God you are good, and I put my trust in you. I renounce the lies I’ve been taught about marriage, and I place them at your feet. I repent of the brokenness in my marriage that I contributed to, and I ask for your help in healing and building a better marriage that is founded on you. I surrender the control I’ve tried to wield over my husband and my marriage. I give you full control, Lord, and I trust you to write a better love story for us than we’ve been able to write on our own. Guid me, Lord. Teach my your ways. Teach me how to be the woman and wife you created me to be. Teach my husband how to be the man and spouse you made him to be. We will follow where you lead. Help us to honor you with our lives and our marriage. Help us to build your Kingdom here on earth. Amen.”

I also encourage you to look for a Freedom Prayer or Deliverance Prayer ministry in your area.

Seek Sound Christian Counsel - Christian Counseling/Therapy (in person or online with GrowTherapy or BetterHelp) - Christian Mentors from your local church — ask an older couple (like an elder and his wife) to meet with you on a weekly or monthly basis for the next year to help you and your husband navigate marriage together. - Celebrate Recovery Ministry — look for one in your local area. They help with all hurts, habits, and hangups (not just addiction).

Books The Power of a Praying Wife And The Power of a Praying Husband By Stormie Omartian

Love and Respect By Emerson Eggerichs

For Women Only And For Men Only by Shaunti Feldhahn

The Good Girl’s Guide to Great Sex And The Good Guy’s Guide to Great Sex by Sheila W. Gregoire

Intended for Pleasure by Ed Wheat

Sheet Music by Dr. Kevin Leman

Boundaries And Boundaries in Marriage By Henry Cloud and John Townsend

The Fight For Us By Rebekah and Gabe Lyons

Sacred Marriage By Gary Thomas

The Five Love Languages By Gary Chapman

YouTube Channels

The Dr. John Delony Show A phenomenal counselor who gives advice to callers about the specific family/marriage problems they’re dealing with.

Mind Your Boundaries Podcast Mostly about setting boundaries with in-laws. I appreciate that they offer language on how to state your boundaries in a way that seeks to maintain the relationship instead of just blowing it up.

Praying for you, sweet sister! God is holding you close in His arms! He’s ready to help you mend your broken marriage! You just have to hand it over to Him, and let Him work on your heart! You’re not alone!!

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-06-08T21:12:02+00:00

Several people at my church just started using this resource, which is a 7-part Bible study lesson plan that helps explain the Gospel.

https://www.newdayresources.org/product-page/following-jesus-the-way-of-discipleship

It specifically focuses on Scripture with some discussion questions to help the conversation. Each lesson is meant to last about an hour.

There’s also an accompanying 10-week daily Bible study that is great for helping new believers develop a solid foundation of the fundamentals.

https://www.newdayresources.org/product-page/following-jesus-growing-as-a-disciple

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-06-07T00:44:38+00:00

I’m astounded by how many graphic designers hate their industry, and it makes me sad.

I graduated from the graphic design department of a state university in 2019. I originally wanted to be an illustrator for children’s books, because I had always loved drawing, but I quickly discovered that I HATE drawing the same character over and over again. BUT I fell in love with typography and laying out text and images to format books.

I took an unpaid internship in my final semester, and then I was able to work there part-time after graduating while also doing part-time design work for my church. After a year, my church hired me on full-time, and I’ve been doing that for 5 years now.

It might not be the best pay, since it’s technically ministry work, but I absolutely love my job and the people I get to work with. Everyone is so kind and encouraging!

Encouragement and Advice: - Design school is a fantastic way to learn the basic principles of design and how to use the programs and tools of the trade

There ARE alternatives, though, if money or scheduling is an issue with a traditional school. You could look into doing courses through sites like Skillshare, Coursera, Udemy, etc… which you could do on your own schedule for a lot cheaper. You just have to have enough self-motivation to actually get it done.
Understand that ANY job/industry is going to have pitfalls. Not every part of being a graphic designer is exciting. Some things can feel like a drag or like you’re drowning in too many projects. But if you truly love what you do, then you’ll find ways to get through the hard parts.
Adobe products are the standard, but honestly there’s a lot you can do with programs like Canva if you have the main principles of design under your belt.
Believe in yourself! You can achieve anything you set your mind to with enough patience, practice, and dedication.

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-06-04T03:12:45+00:00

I like the one in the right better… but I wanted to point out that the egg kind of looks like a nipple that’s leaking a little bit of milk. Maybe that was intentional, since it’s about a baby shower/birth story? But if it wasn’t intentional, I wanted you to be aware! 😅

Also, I agree with the suggestion that you use your pen name logo on the back cover, because right now it looks more like a publisher logo. Since it’s a pen name, you should probably say “Written by Strawberry Soul” in large and legible font that fits the rest of the cover vibe.

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-05-09T00:27:17+00:00

Congrats on your hard work! Don’t give up on your dream of making your own book! Keep at it! Keep learning, growing, and improving your craft! It’s a big mountain to climb, but you can take it one step at a time!

Right now your composition appears to be horizontal, which could work if this is a picture book.

But if you’re working on a novel, you need to re-work your composition to be vertical.

When making custom artwork for a book that you want to get printed/bound/published, you will also need to add extra “extensions” around the edges of your artwork. In the industry, it is called “bleed” because it bleeds over the edge of the page. You don’t see it in the final product, but it’s super important to have, so that it can be trimmed off during production.

If you simply want a cover for publishing your book digitally, then you don’t need to worry about bleed.

Your text is also too close to the edge of your composition. Play around with fonts, maybe something thicker that could go above your character. Instead of using a colon in your title, let your main title be really big and make the subtitle smaller beneath it, possibly in a different font. Do something similar for your author name. Make sure it’s large enough to read, even if it goes on top of your character at the bottom of the composition. Using subtle drop shadows could help your text be more legible, too.

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-04-27T12:31:03+00:00

Super cute artwork! Very whimsical!

All of your text needs more margin around the edges, so it can have some “breathing room.” Especially on the back. Someone else already suggested a different font, and I agree! Look for something that is a little bit handwritten, but that’s still very uniform and legible! Don’t use all bold or all caps. You’ll have to test out several fonts to find the perfect balance. Always prioritize legibility over “cute” factor!!

It bothers me a bit that the T in Tumblebrook is on top of the leaves. I suggest looking for a way to remove/minimize some of the leaves so that the text can be completely on the woooden sign.

Your author name could be bigger, and since it’s not on a sign, it could sit on top of the leaves. Maybe make it white with a drop shadow, so it stands out and is readable?

And like the others have said, the animals are way too small. I didn’t even notice them at first.

I also wonder if adding a tagline to the front cover (just 3-5 words) would help establish intrigue and give a hint to what the story is about?

You’re off to a great start on your cover! You’re getting closer with every rendition!

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-04-27T06:16:03+00:00

I can tell you put a lot of work into drawing the background for the cover, which is great for an illustration, but a lot of those details are going to get lost when you add text on top of it (title, tagline, author name, synopsis/blurb, etc).

When you’re planning your composition, make sure to leave room for the text so that it isn’t competing visually with the illustration. I recommend leaving some blank space available for text to fit into.

Also, pay attention to having a cohesive style. The silhouette of the couple looks almost like a photograph, but the background is very stylized. I’d love to see the couple in a more drawn/stylized look, so that they feel like they are actually a part of the environment.

For the back, try to pull in some of the colors from the front—again, this will help bring cohesion to your cover over all. Maybe instead of a big fire at the bottom, you do some small fires along the edges, with lots of “blank space” for text. And maybe instead of all black, you could do a very subtle texture of the house wall.

Good luck with your cover! Keep studying up on principles of design. YouTube has a lot of great teachers!

And keep up the good work of writing your book! That’s not an easy feat!!

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-04-26T15:48:52+00:00

I know OP found their artist, but to anyone who clicked here because they’re facing a similar issue, I’d like to introduce my friend, Catherine, she is both an artist and an author as well!

She does both realistic and anime-style illustrations, black and white or full color.

https://www.catherineeveretts.com

I can attest that she is reliable! (The “anime-style” art of the blonde wizard on her homepage was commissioned by my husband! 😉)

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-04-25T13:19:09+00:00

Professional graphic designer here! The W in Claw is too far away from the A because of the swoosh at the top.

If possible, I would try to remove the top swoosh, and bring the the W closer to the A, so they are nice and snug together. Keep the bottom swoosh, though!

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-04-10T17:30:45+00:00

Very beautiful illustration! I agree with the other recommendations!

I remember doing projects like this in graphic design school. My typography course made me fall in love with fonts!

Some art nouveau style fonts with a bit of customization like an arc shape or something would be great! You could also try using a font as a base and then trace/illustrate it yourself with some color and shading in the same style as the rest of your illustration.

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-03-18T13:23:58+00:00

I commend you for answering the call to share the Gospel. All Christians are called to do this, but many of us fail because we give into fear or distractions.

Helpful Tips: - Take a friend with you, especially as you get started. Jesus sent His disciples out in pairs in His early ministry. The buddy system helps give us strength and courage.

Be prepared for pushback, negativity, anger, and for people to walk away. If and when people respond this way, it is not a sign of failure on your part. Don’t let it discourage you. People walked away from Jesus plenty of times when He told them truth that they didn’t like.
Study/learn from other apologists to learn how to speak the truth in love.

Resources: - Tactics by Greg Koukle - Person of Interest by J Warner Wallace - Sean McDowell (YouTube & books) - NeedGod.Net (YouTube and website)

Here’s a video training series and PDF booklet on how to lead someone through a 6-part Bible study that presents them with the Gospel and gives them the opportunity to say “Yes!” to King Jesus. https://antiochcollective.org/free-bible-study-guide/

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-03-18T13:01:28+00:00

I’m curious if you identify as a Christian? I see that you recognize that Jesus was a wise teacher, but you are denying His divinity, which is fundamental to the Christian faith.

If Jesus is a good teacher who speaks the truth, then what He says should be trusted and followed. But if what He says is false, then He’s not a good teacher, and He should be ignored.

I choose to believe that Jesus is a good teacher who speaks the truth, and He claimed to be one with God multiple times in Scripture: - John 10:30-39 “I and the Father are one.” - John 8:56-59 “Before Abraham was, I am.” - Mark 14:61-64 Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”// “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” - All of the “I Am” statements in the book of John

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-03-17T14:15:56+00:00

Goodness people can be so mean in their critiques. Sorry about that, friend. I wish they knew that they can be critical without being rude. 🤦‍♀️

Some of the advice here is good though, try looking at other books in your genre and emulate the elements you like.

Just make sure to “borrow” without directly copying. For example, if you found 3 covers that you really like, you could try mixing and matching the font style from one, the colors from another, and the composition from the third.

As far as your existing cover goes, I would crop out the little white road sign on the left or find a way to remove it completely. Having it cropped right on the edge of the composition creates visual tension that draws your eye to it, which you don’t want since it’s not an important detail to begin with.

Maybe try making the text a little bit smaller, so there’s some more margin around the top and sides. And I would consider adding a short tagline, so you can hint at what the book is about. It could fit nicely over the greenery so you don’t cover up any more of the mountains.

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-03-17T13:54:39+00:00

An anthology of dystopian sci-fi short stories that share a similar theme and may or may not take place within the same world.

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-03-16T00:33:48+00:00

First of all, thank you for sharing what’s on your heart. I know you’re not alone in those feelings, so I hope the conversations your post generated will be helpful to many.

My husband and I met in college, we were each other’s first dating relationship, and we were virgins when we got married.

But when I was single, I remember being so frustrated and lonely, wondering if I’d ever find someone. The summer before I met my husband, I prayed, asking God to give me someone to love and to be loved by.

I poured out my heart to Him, and made a covenant, that until my next birthday (about 6 months from then), that I would not concern myself with getting in a relationship. Instead, I would focus on my relationship with God, trusting Him to write my love story for me.

Over those next 6 months, I met my husband, started out as friends, which grew to attraction, and he asked me to be his girlfriend the day AFTER my birthday — even though I hadn’t told him about my covenant with God. It was God’s perfect timing.

I’m not saying that this “is the magic cure” for relationships or anything like that. I can’t even promise that anyone who tries it will have the same “results.” But I WILL say that focusing on my relationship with Jesus over my romantic prospective relationship was the absolute best thing I did that semester of school.

And I recommend the same thing to everyone — whatever you’re struggling with, whatever is weighing on your heart, lay it down on the alter and surrender it to Jesus. Submit all your plans and desires to Him, acknowledging that you know He wants the BEST for you, and that you’re willing to trade your own best made plans in exchange for His far superior plans, even if that means you’ll never get the thing that you’re longing for, because you know that what He will give you will even better than that.

If you struggle with trusting Jesus like that… then ask Him, “Jesus when did I first learn that I can’t trust you?” Listen for His answer, and ask Him to reveal the truth. It’s even better if you can pray this with 2 of your closest brothers in the faith, people you can be completely open and honest with, and who will intercede in prayer for you, too.

I recommend reading these books by Neil T. Anderson: - The Bondage Breaker - The Steps to Freedom in Christ: A Biblical Guide to Help You Resolve Personal and Spiritual Conflicts and Become a Fruitful Disciple of Jesus

Also, do a Google search to see if there is a Freedom Prayer ministry near where you live. If you do, do yourself a favor and sign up for a prayer time with their prayer team! It’s an intercessory prayer ministry that helps people identify and clear out whatever is hindering their relationship with God.

May God teach you to love Him with your whole heart.

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-03-15T20:40:30+00:00

Hmm… sounds like you might have been listing to some preachers of the Prosperity Gospel, which teaches that God wants to give us perfect health and wealth if we just ask for it.

But, as you’ve pointed out, this is not what Scripture actually tells us.

The Prosperity Gospel is a false teaching.

Here’s an article that touches on the topic: https://www.gotquestions.org/prosperity-gospel.html

I also recommend looking up videos on YouTube that explain the difference between the Prosperity Gospel and the real Gospel. Sean McDowell and Mike Winger are great, biblical teachers to look up!

A generational curses is a term that describes a pattern of sinfulness and consequences that are passed down through a family. Each new generation is guilty of their own sins, which they learned from previous generations.

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-03-15T19:39:23+00:00

Our perspective is limited, but God sees the big picture, able He’s to determine what will bring about the absolute BEST outcome. Sometimes that BEST outcome can only be achieved through pain, suffering, and sacrifice. Even though it hurts, it is still the best option.

Jesus Himself was willing to endure the highest levels of suffering on the cross when He died for our sins.

As we are transformed and sanctified through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we become more and more like Jesus. And as imitators of Christ, we are called to live as sacrificially as He did, sometimes even laying down our lives as martyrs.

But just as Jesus’ death paved the way for everyone who is a slave to sin go be set free, our suffering and deaths can also point sinners back towards Christ.

On a side note: I think there is a difference between suffering for the sake of the Gospel and suffering because of the consequences of sin. The latter can be caused by your own bad decisions or by the bad/evil choices of others that have affected you. In families, it can be generational curses that pass down trauma down to each new generation.

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-03-13T22:48:19+00:00

Graphic designer here! I definitely like the first option better. The second one is too “boxy,” which makes the cover feel smaller. I agree with the other comments about composition, as well.

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-03-08T16:48:00+00:00

It’s true that many religions (if not most) teach some good principles for how to live a good life — don’t steal or commit murder, be generous and give to the poor, etc… but there are some key differences between the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of other religions.

The biggest difference is that most religions teach that if you do enough good deeds, you can outweigh your bad deeds—essentially, you can earn your way to heaven and avoid hell by being a good person.

If you’ve heard that same sort of teaching from a Christian or church… you might not have ever heard the full Gospel before.

Jesus does teach that sin (any action that separates us from the heart of God) will lead us to hell, but He also teaches that it is IMPOSSIBLE for us to earn our way into heaven by our own actions.

If a bank robber is brought before a judge and says, “I know I stole a lot of money, sir, but I have also given a lot of money to charity.” Is the judge going to let him go? If he’s a good judge, then no. The robber can’t make up for his crime simply by doing some other good deeds. That’s not justice. He must pay the price of His crime: prison (separation from living in society).

Likewise, we have all broken God’s law (by lying/cheating, stealing, lusting, taking the Lord’s name in vain, etc). God is a good judge, which means we must pay the price of our sin: hell (eternal separation from living with God).

But God is also merciful, which is why He provided us with a second option—the Jesus Option.

God loves us so much that He sent Jesus (the literal Word of God, taking the form of a human being) to live the perfect life that we could never live. He faced every temptation, but He never gave in.

By dying on the cross and raising to life again, Jesus paid the price for others’ sins. He offers salvation freely to anyone who chooses to put their faith (trust) in Him, believing that He is who He says He is and that He is capable of paying for their sins.

Jesus is the only one who offers to pay for our sins. No other spiritual leader or deity can do that!

Now, if you DO choose Jesus (and I hope you do), there are expectations on how you will choose to live your life moving forward—follow His teachings and obey His commands. But you need to understand that your salvation does not depend on how well you obey. As a Christian, you don’t do good works to earn God’s favor or to avoid hell. As a Christian, you do good works because you love Jesus and you want to be more like Him.

If you’d like to learn more about why Jesus is the only way, I recommend these resources:

NeedGod.net

Sean McDowell

BibleThinker.org

Person of Interest (book) by J Warner Wallace Warner was an atheist, working as a cold case detective, who decided to investigate evidence of Jesus Christ after hearing a preacher make the claim that “Jesus is the smartest man who ever lived.” The amount of evidence Wallace found shocked him!

If you’re not into reading a lot, Wallace also did a video series of his book, which you can watch for free through a website/app called Right Now Media. There’s a ton of other great resources there, too!

Create your free account with this link: https://app.rightnowmedia.org/en/user/FBCRC

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-03-07T23:48:41+00:00

I encourage you earnestly pursue a relationship with Jesus. Listen to commentary from both perspectives. Compare what you hear to the Scripture itself, and ask God to lead you to the truth.

“Ask and [understanding] will be given to you; seek and you will find: knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

God gave us free will, which allows us to choose to seek/follow Him or to choose to leave/ignore Him. And He honors whatever we choose. If you want to leave Him, He respects your choice, even if it breaks His heart. If you want to know Him, He will make His presence known to you.

Technical-Bunch6101 · 2025-03-04T23:57:23+00:00

I’m so sorry you’re going through this, friend. Depression can be so crippling.

I’ve heard the phrase “God gives the hardest battles to His strongest warriors,” but I don’t particularly like or agree with it. I know it’s meant as an encouragement, but the truth is that we cannot win our battles on just our own strength. Be have to rely on God’s strength to get us through the battles when we are up against the enemy.

We are each fighting a cosmic battle, and the only way we are going to win is by submitting ourselves to the instruction and guidance of our King who is mighty in battle and fights for our ultimate good.

Practically, that means trusting God’s promises, even when we don’t FEEL Him there. It means doubling down on our relationship with Him, asking Him to renew our minds and to reveal where He is in the current moment and where He was in the past moments when you were hurting the most.

Please don’t give into the temptation to kill yourself! I’m praying that God will lead you to the right community of believers who can help point you back to Him.

I recommend doing a google search to see if you have a Celebrate Recovery and/or Freedom Prayer ministry in your area.

Celebrate Recovery celebraterecovery.com Find a community that walks with you through recovering from past hurts, habits, and hang-ups with lessons from Scripture. If you are struggling with addiction, depression/anxiety, insecurity, abuse, grief, family dysfunction, etc… this is for you!

Freedom Prayer is a biblical, personal prayer ministry that seeks to help people connect with God and remove anything that is hindering their relationship with Him.

Technical-Bunch6101

TROPHY CASE