Resources to help a new employee with bad design taste and judgment?

I realize that what is "good" is both objective and subjective. There are certain things in design that are 'good' and 'bad'. I was taught in a time where they still showed us how to do pasteups in case our computers weren't available. People today don't really understand what that process is. It's all 'in the computer' now. And to completely honest, there is a ton of (EXTRA LARGE AIR QUOTES HERE) "DESIGN" that gets put on this sub that I think it utterly atrocious, but is praised left and right. There is some room obviously to 'think outside the box' and make untraditional content, but I think people see that as an open door to "i can do whatever I want and call it art". I actually think there is a bit of an unspoken rule here to for some reason NOT tell people their designs are bad. We all need that critique and if you can't handle it, you shouldn't be in a profession that is constantly critiqued by bosses, clients, the public. If a design is bad, it should be said, in a tactful manner.

Well, this is a tough one. I didn't understand why and how things looked attractive at first until several semesters of college, projects, material and good old fashioned critiquing sessions. Comparisons, redesigns, and communication from experts (my professors) helped immensely. Even other peripheral classes like photography and drawing helped, just takes time to connect the dots. Once you learn these aspects, you see it everywhere.

Through learning the rules, principles and elements of design like contrast, repetition, line, direction, color theory, typography and many others, you kind of understand why a flyer made in MS Word by someone who says they have an "eye" is usually pretty awful when compared to a professional designers version of the same thing. Sometimes, it's what I recognize as the main difference from someone who is self taught on their own accord vs someone who went to a college with a decent program. I say that only because design programs, colleges and essentially the entire creative community is pretty vast where I live, work and went to school.

If she's at the point of only being interested in graphic design and is going to start learning, there are a lot of books out there dedicated to the non-software aspects of our field. I taught intro graphic design classes for 9 years and I saw exactly what you are seeing, in nearly every class from 75% of the students.

Since my classes mainly focused on learning the software, I couldn't focus much on elements and subjectivity a whole lot. I did recommend my favorite book for further reading, The Non-Designers Design Book. There might be further videos to expand her knowledge after reading the book but it's a great book for beginners to start understanding things like "why is this color used" or "why is this text larger and bolder than everything else on the page".

Buy her both volumes of Taschen’s The History of Graphic Design. Tell her to recreate that stuff in her spare time. She’ll absorb a lot that way.

Can you provide context on their background?

I assume this is a junior? Are they a grad or self-taught? If a grad, what type of program did they go through, in terms of specific major, length of study? Did they have any other work experience?

In terms of the hiring, did you hire them or someone else? If someone else, what are their qualifications (if any) and are they still around or working with this person? If not, why? I have known cases where someone gets hired via nepotism, like an owner's nephew or something, is that the case? Is there any recourse if they don't work out (can they actually be fired)?

If you hired them, what made you pick them? Presumably their portfolio was much better than what you're getting on the job. What kinds of things did you discuss in the interview? Was the work student work or "real" work, and if the latter, was it collaborative or what was their role?

Or I suppose to provide context for you, are you a designer? What is your background? Are you asking for external resources because you're not really able to mentor them?

If you are not a designer, it sounds like there are no other designers as well. Is there a reason this person was hired over a more experienced designer? It's not usually a good idea to hire a fresh grad/junior into a role as the only designer in a department.

The reason I'm asking all this is to know how much work would be required. If you're dealing with a 3-4 year grad from a true graphic design program who had a great portfolio and interview (which I would think they'd need to land the job), then maybe the issue is just confidence. It's also common for fresh grads to have to trouble adjusting to actual jobs relative to what they were used to with school.

If the person was hired without really being qualified, it could be a lot tougher as you might be dealing with someone that is simply lacking the years of development, and there may be no real quick fix.

In either case I would think just direct discussion, critique, etc and just working through with them where the work has issues, and to address what those issues are, whether it's rushing past adequate concept development or just not caring about details, it can help give insight into where the actual problems occur. (Often younger designers jump to the computer without knowing what they want to make and kind of create it as they go but lack the experience/ability to do so effectively.)

I'm a firm believer that you can't really "teach" good design. It's a skillset that you either acquire over a long time (and continue to refine constantly). Or you have a natural eye for design, layout, or visual aesthetics, and then grown upon this. Again refining your skillset as you go. A lot of "good" design (I'm sure someone may disagree with me) it learnt through trial and error and imitation of good design fundamentals.

Obviously the longer you practice a skill, typically the better you get. Passion makes this process faster in my opinion. I'd recommend finding your employee some good fundamental courses or resources. Perhaps there's a few YouTube channels she may have an interest in, or even some skills or areas she'd be interested in learning more about on udemy or skillshare?

Unfortunately passion and attitude don't always achieve the result you're looking for - but she sounds like a receptive and passionate individual who likely wants to better herself and her design skillset. If she takes an interest in learning fundamentals I'd say she's likely worth the investment to get her more structured help. Alternatively, there may be someone in your department or business, or even an outside source who may be willing to educate her?