It’s a Dummy

Word-of-the-week: “Dummy”


This week in Graphic Design 2, we have been talking about craftsmanship, presentations, and mock-ups, so I thought that “Dummy” would be a fitting word for this week. 

Dummy: A mock-up of a design, such as book, poster, or packaging, showing the position of headings, text, captions, illustrations, and other details.

It is a good idea to create a “Dummy” for each print design project. A “Dummy” will give you a true sense of how a design will look, read, and feel, when completed. I have a confession; there have been several times, throughout my design career, that I have not created a dummy when I should have, and I have paid for it later in the process. When building the final mock-up to show the client, I quickly found the design not working as intended, oops. This forces me to rush a redesign that would work, wasting valuable time. So instead of creating a “Dummy” I was a dummy. 


My advice for you is: Don’t be a Dummy. Make a “Dummy” instead.