Introduction
Search the area! From dark alleyways to online, graphic design can be found everywhere. You’ve come to the perfect place if you’re a beginner artist, a brand owner, or a freelance graphic designer trying to improve your design abilities.
Let’s be honest: You’ll have to go through a learning process before turning your struggles into victories. The good news is that once you understand the foundations of graphic design, you’ll easily make engaging visuals and be prepared to discover ten essential graphic design techniques for non-designers and novices that will help you improve the look and feel of your brand on your website and in your social media posts. Move along!
- Ensure simplicity.
Keeping things simple is the best and most crucial advice for non-designers and beginning designers. The worst kind of design is overpowering and challenging to comprehend. Engage your inner minimalist to keep things straightforward. Use the least amount of text and fonts possible, keep the colours in check, and balance the visuals. It is detailed but striking. Although not many elements are employed, a vibrant background and bold typefaces are adequate. The secret to successful innovation is not cramming your design with as many images and features as possible. It involves striking a balance between visual appeal and clearly and persuasively communicating your message.
- Research colour theory.
Look into colour theory; it’s entertaining (and super helpful). Skilled graphic designers never rely on luck when choosing the colours for their compositions, and neither should you. Colours improve designs, create moods, and convey ideas through psychological impact when used harmoniously. Colour combinations typically include 1-3 primary and an equal number of secondary colours.
Use your brand’s primary colours in your graphics, digital business cards, social media posts, etc., to maintain consistency. If your company doesn’t already have a defined colour scheme, get some ideas from these lovely website colour schemes. One of the most popular and effective methods for giving pictures life and dynamism is colour contrast. Perhaps more frequently than we know, warm and cool hues clash attractively.
- Keep your typography in check.
For non-designers, the practice of choosing fonts has a poor reputation in the field of design. The variety of fonts offered online might easily make one feel overawed. To create a unified and appealing design, you must understand how to combine fonts. Using tried-and-true pairings is a terrific way to save the stress of trying out a million combinations. Most of the time, professional designers only utilise a select few timeless typefaces, even though they also adore fresh and stunning new fonts.
Utilise a novelty font for headers and a conventional classic one for all the content if you want to make your matches with various fonts easier to follow. An excellent resource for saving time when pairing fonts is provided here, along with different tried-and-true combinations for multiple scenarios. Even using only one font family, you can couple up its various weights.
- Choose Consistent Photos
Make sure the picture quality you select is entirely consistent throughout your design. Throughout your procedure, these components should retain a constant rate, frame, style, proportion, and illumination. Your project’s visuals, digital business card diagrams, photos, and illustrations should perfectly enhance its message.
- Utilise social media templates to save time.
One of the channels where graphics must be constantly and frequently produced is social media. Utilising pre-made templates is the best method to save time. Social media managers must work across various channels with various screen sizes. Thank goodness there are templates for every size and medium. You can search for a social network, a type, or a topic to get the required templates. However, templates aren’t just for social media. Templates for presentations, CVs, infographics, reports, invites, and more are available.
- Give it Space
Always provide space between objects, letters, and sections in graphic design since the social distance is still significant. White or negative space is the void between design elements; however, it need not be white and is not always negative. To allow your design to breathe, white space is crucial. It rests the eye and helps focus attention on the appropriate objects. You can group or separate parts and describe how they connect by leaving the proper size of space between them. Negative space can be used creatively to convey a tale or a message in addition to its practical applications. Look at one of our logo templates with partially detached vertical lines to reveal the outline of a key inside.
- Be aware of the sort of file you require.
The sort of file to download after you’re finished must be known, just as you must understand the size of your graphics in advance. Do you require a PNG for a cut-out design with a translucent background or a JPEG for a web image, for instance? Or perhaps you require an animated, interactive HTML5 file. Before you begin, determine what you will need to be able to design appropriately. Then, download everything you require, along with any optional downloads you may require. A static JPEG version of an interactive infographic is required for Pinterest, but it looks fantastic in blog posts.
- Identify the proportions you require in advance.
Never begin a project without having a clear understanding of its required scale. Even if the size can be changed later, everything needs to be readjusted to meet the new size. For instance, don’t begin with a vertical infographic size while presenting. Make sure your Instagram posts are square, landscape or portrait and have the following ideal dimensions when producing a collection of them. There are two ways to quantify dimensions: the aspect ratio and the length and width in pixels. Both are crucial to understanding when designing.
The aspect ratio is the proportion of a design’s size to its width; it might have many numerical values but always takes on the same shape.
For instance, social media graphics must be made in precise aspect ratios, but the proportions can vary depending on how intricate your design is.
- Belief in the design process
The last piece of advice for beginners and non-designers in graphic design is to have faith in the creative process. This means that when designing something, don’t try to cut corners or jump through hoops. A successful design is more likely to be produced if you respect the design process.
Conclusion
There is no doubting the complexity and depth of graphic design. However, once you understand the foundations of a good strategy, you can learn to produce stunning designs and successfully communicate your ideas. Regardless if you have no prior knowledge, these ten graphic design pointers cover the fundamental concepts to get you started.
Pay close attention to the colour scheme you select, make an effort to stick to one balance text, font family, and visuals, and keep in mind that every element, no matter how big or tiny, must work together to create a solid, anchored design. We wish you luck! With the help of the above graphic design advice, beginners should be able to create attractive website designs.
