At the end of the day, a good design is essentially one which meets a given set of requirements or stated need. Graphic design generally has a business purpose and, that being the case, should accomplish a particular goal. That may mean driving sales, educating, or whatever applies to your business model. Design should be used to aid marketing by presenting information in a clear and concise manner, as people simply do not have the patience or time to read a mass of never-ending marketing spiel. The message must be clear. Whether it is a brochure, poster, logo or website - the design should emphasise the message.
The biggest demand is for...
...funny design, or design that is interesting enough, or remarkable enough, that people will want to show it to their friends.
Good design is aesthetic
The aesthetic quality of a product - is an integral part of its utility. It has always been a hard task to argue about aesthetic quality, for two reasons. Firstly, it is difficult to talk about anything visual, since words have a different meaning for different people. Also, when people like something, they have often no idea why. It could be because it's beautiful or because they know it's expensive. Secondly, aesthetic quality deals with details, subtle shades, harmony and the equilibrium of a whole variety of visual elements.
Good design is as little design as possible
Economy is the same as the 'less is more' principle. On average, simplicity tends to emphasise a design's intent more powerfully than complexity. Save special effects for New Years Eve - use only browser compatible fonts, because what looks good in your browser may not look the same in your customer's browser. Just because you can print in all caps in that cool new font, it doesn't mean you should. Readability wins out over gimmicks every time.
Continuity of design
Be easy to identify - use your branding effectively. Develop a consistent theme for your
printed material. You want your icons to have a certain collective family quality. If some of your icons are high-tech, they should all have some kind of reference to high-tech. The icon that is different will stick out like a sore thumb. Your website should be closely linked and tied in to your other marketing and branding efforts. You need to present a unified front to your customers to be memorable in the marketplace. Consistency is the key.
Good design is timeless
Fashions, almost by definition, change with time, so if you can make something that will still look good far into the future, then its appeal must derive more from merit and less from fashion.
Good design looks easy
Like great sportsmen, great designers make it look easy. Mostly this is an illusion. It takes special skills to assemble the headlines, text and graphics of a printed page so they catch a reader's eye and elicit the response you want. In most fields the appearance of ease seems to come with practice, so trust people who know their work really well.
Good design can copy
Attitudes to copying often make a round trip. A novice imitates without knowing it; next he tries consciously to be original; finally, he decides it's more important to be right than original. Unknowing imitation is almost a recipe for bad design. If you don't know where your ideas are coming from, you're probably imitating an imitator.
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