You may have heard this phrase once or twice in your life. And if you’ve ever hung around me for any period of time, you’ve heard it often.

I believe my father said it a few times though I’m uncertain from who I heard it first. It means a design, any design like print, web, industrial, architecture, that is crude, poorly thought out and looks like it has been forced into existence. Some people design with insight and wisdom, some with pencils and pens, others with a computer, and some design with a hammer.

A hammer is the wrong tool to design with. It’s the right tool to build with just not to design.

Granted, you can easily make bad design with wisdom, pens, pencils, and computers. I know, I’ve done it. However, designing with a hammer is a particular type of bad design. It’s bad design with a mission. And that mission is often dictated by a very control oriented client.

Designed by Profit is another form of bad design. It’s a type of design where all the ‘design’ decisions were dictated by a profit margin. In other words, as cheap as possible. Walk into any fast food place or meta retailer to see design by profit in action.