Messaging and design are like brownies and ice cream. Sure, each can be good on its own, but when you put the two together, their textures, flavors and temperatures play off each other, offering you a one-way ticket to flavor town. In short, they make each other better.

As a graphic designer, you will likely be challenged at some point in your career with creating some type of large format design. While “large format” doesn’t have a formal size definition, it’s a design that’s usually viewed from a distance and is, well, large. We’re talking billboards, trade show displays, vehicle wraps, or even custom flooring and walls. Given the massive size of these designs, the stakes are higher; the larger the design, the bigger any mistakes will appear. On top of that, large format printing is expensive. You’ll cringe at having to reprint your work because of an avoidable mishap.