A Good Designer …

… FINDS AN ELEGANT WAY TO PUT EVERYTHING YOU NEED ON A PAGE

I’ve spent a long time around designers. Good ones, great ones, and a few who shall remain nameless. And in all that time, across magazine layouts, website builds, event programs, promotional materials, and everything in between, I’ve come to believe that the difference between a good designer and a merely competent one comes down to a single, deceptively simple skill: knowing what to leave out.

That might sound counterintuitive. Surely design is about what you put in? The colours, the typography, the imagery, the hierarchy of information? Yes — but only up to a point. Because any designer can fill a page. The art is in filling it elegantly, which almost always means making hard decisions about what doesn’t make the cut.

I learned this the slow way, through publishing. When you’re putting together a magazine — and I’ve been doing it for over two decades — every page is a negotiation. The editor wants more words. The advertiser wants a bigger logo. The photographer wants their image uncropped. The reader wants it all to feel effortless. The designer is the person in the room who has to make everyone’s competing demands not only coexist, but sing.

The great ones do it without you noticing. That’s the real test. When you look at a beautifully designed page, you shouldn’t be thinking about the design at all. You should be thinking about the content — drawn into it, guided through it, never once aware that someone made a thousand invisible decisions to get you there. The moment the design calls attention to itself, something has gone wrong.

White space is perhaps the most misunderstood tool in any designer’s kit. Clients hate it. They see emptiness and they want to fill it — another pull quote, another logo, another call to action. But white space isn’t emptiness. It’s breathing room. It’s the pause between sentences that lets meaning land. Take it away and everything crowds together, fighting for attention, and nothing wins.

Photography, I’ve come to realise, has its own version of this principle. A great photograph isn’t one that contains everything interesting about a scene. It’s one that contains exactly the right things — and excludes everything else. The framing, the moment, the light. Everything unnecessary has been cropped, waited out, or simply not pointed at.

That’s elegant design. Whether you’re working with pixels, print, or a camera lens — the discipline is the same. Decide what matters. Commit to it. Have the confidence to let everything else go.

I’m not a trained designer. I’ll be upfront about that. But I’ve worked alongside enough of them to recognise genius when I see it — and to know that the pages I remember longest are never the busiest ones.

They’re the ones that made it look easy.

Brett Hayhoe is the publisher of Q Magazine and the creator of Hayhoe Pix Gallery.

brett

As the Publisher, Editor, and Administrator of Q Magazine for over 21 years, I have been dedicated to promoting LGBTIQA+ lifestyles through an innovative digital platform. Our monthly publication, the only one of its kind in Australia, serves as a vital resource for the community, combining engaging content with cutting-edge technologies like 3D digital formats and online accessibility. My expertise in desktop publishing, social media, and event planning has contributed to Q Magazine's growth as a trusted voice in the LGBTIQA+ space. With a strong focus on inclusivity and authenticity, I am committed to supporting the community and offering competitive advertising solutions to help businesses genuinely connect with our audience.

See Full Bio