Today, I’m going to break down three tacky mistakes surface pattern and craft designers make. Hopefully, this list will help you evaluate your own design work!
Mistake #1 Enlarged Designs
When designs are enlarged, the negative space and shapes are visually different. Since most of my designs fit on an 8.5 x 11” sheet of paper, I am designing for a “letter” size. Once designers enlarge a design, you need to adjust type, shape sizes, and more. Keep an eye on anything that looks inappropriate!
Mistake #2 Oversaturated Colors
Oversaturated colors are an amateur mistake. While bright colors can be appealing, this is more about unintentionally oversaturating colors (think fluorescents). To avoid this, get a second set of eyes on your design work!
Mistake #3 Your Sizing Doesn’t Make Sense
This mistake happens because designers do not test patterns off the computer. A common mistake is overly large designs. Ultimately, these big designs are difficult to use for physical applications. To avoid making this mistake, print off designs to check their size. 
I hope discussing these mistakes allows you to evaluate your designs.
If you want to learn more techniques for becoming a successful designer, join my upcoming Design Bootcamp!
To delve a bit deeper into the three tacky design mistakes, please listen to episode 169 on our podcast here: