Useful Graphic Design Tips Explained With Beautiful, Inspiring Graphics

Posted by Arena Animation Kankurgachi on November 22nd, 2019

If you’re designing images for blog posts, social media or online ads, you just need to wrap your head around some best practices.  We have put together a handy list of design tips complemented by beautiful images with inspiring quotes. From typography and layout to image editing and color usage, the list covers some crucial aspects of design that both newbie's and professionals will appreciate.

 If you follow them, you’ll be well on your way to producing awesome graphics for all of your online needs.  Check them out below.

1. Start with a great color palette

Ever notice that the best designs tend to have beautiful colors? That’s no accident. Choosing a great color palette is one of the keys to a great design.

Now before you cringe at the thought of choosing your own colors, you don’t have to. Using a site like Colour Lovers will give you access to millions of beautiful color palettes. Just find a hex code you like, and use it in your design.

 Here are some great resources for finding color palettes:

ColourLovers

Coolors

Adobe Color

 2. Don’t get carried away with fonts

Ideally, you want to limit yourself to 1 or 2 fonts. This keeps you from having to worry about tons of combinations. If you’re going to use multiple fonts, use one for the header and another for the body.

 3. Have a “Swipe File”

This term comes from the copywriting world, but it’s equally applicable here. A “Swipe File” refers to instances of good copy that copywriters see. In our case, it’ll mean instances of good design that you see.

Take those examples, store them somewhere (your computer, dropbox, etc.) and then bring them back when the time’s right. Provided you don’t rip off someone else in their entirety, there’s no shame in borrowing a little design brilliance.

If you’re designing images for Facebook ads, you might want to check out the AdEspresso Facebook Ad Gallery. You can also checkout design sites like Dribbble and Behance.

 4. Don’t be afraid to blank out

No, not blank out in the sense of spacing out. Rather, don’t be afraid to leave blank, white space in your design. Sometimes, as they say, less really is more.

Often designs get so cluttered that some white space with nothing occupying it will actually enhance the design. This may call for a bit of a mental adjustment on your part. But with the right change, you can use this simple concept to jump past seemingly “expert” designers.

If you want a lesson in how to utilize white space, look at any marketing image created by Apple.

 5. Align your objects

This helps to keep design elements in a presentable order, regardless of their differing sizes. Proper alignment is an easy way to give your images a sophisticated and professional look.

When dragging items in Graphic Softwares, grid lines will automatically appear making it super easy to line up objects.

 6. Use icons to support your message

Icons are like black pepper. They can be sprinkled on top of whatever design you’re cooking up. And the icons will add extra spice to your design, ensuring that it “tastes” great.

We use icons quite extensively to reinforce the content of our site content.

 7. Rinse and repeat

If you’re working with multiple designs across an ad campaign, website, or other project – it may be easiest for you to just rinse and repeat. That is, copy your design and then just swap out the elements you need changed. That ensures the format is the same, even as you change the content.

 8. Use font variants

You can add plenty of variety, while still keeping things feeling consistent. The key is to use text from a single font “family”.

An example of a font “family” would be Arial which has the basic Arial font, along with variants like Arial Black, Arial Narrow, and Arial Rounded MT Bold. These fonts all look different. Yet there is enough of a common thread between them that it will give a sense of consistency when used together in designs.

 9. Take full advantage of contrasts

Using contrasts helps to add “attitude” to your design, as well as make certain elements stand out. There are plenty of ways to generate contrasts too. You could use contrasting colors, fonts, or even contrast amounts of space between items in your design.

Think about it in a real world context too and you’ll see why this makes sense. A seven foot tall person (wrestler Andre the Giant, for example, or basketball player Yao Ming) get attention because they contrast with the general population. The same holds for contrasting elements in your design.

If you want to identify which colors contrast, use a color wheel like Adobe Color.

 10. Use a line (or two) to create a sense of order

Lines help to anchor items in an image and create the sense that there is an overall order. Use lines in your image by putting them around blocks of text – there by anchoring the text.

You can also put lines as “separators” between various elements in the image. In this latter case, the sense of elements being separated furthers the feeling of planning and coordination in the design. 

 11. Plan your design

We put this tip mid-way through the list of tips to mirror where planning usually falls in most people’s graphic design process.

Rather than having planning as the first essential step, the average designer only begins to think seriously about their plans for a design AFTER they’re well into the design process.

If you know what you want to accomplish before you start designing, you’ll get things done much quicker.

 12. Add text over images by adjusting brightness levels

When your design involves putting text over images, adjust the brightness level of the background image or add a color overlay. This way the background image will offset the color of the text, causing the text to be readable and the design to still look clean and clear.

13. Think about who you’re designing for

Unless this is purely for your own personal enjoyment, you’re probably designing for a specific audience. Never forget that “who” that you’re designing for. This ensures you create something that the intended audience for your design actually wants to see and something they’ll react favorably to.

Context matters here. A dark, dingy, even creepy looking design – for example – wouldn’t be the sort of thing that you’d want to have on a website for an upscale, expensive product. The same would be true for example, with a design that feels too “childish” (in its light colors, use of squiggly lines, cartoons, etc.) for a mature adult audience. 

14. Keep it simple

With your design, If you overdo it with too many special effects like shadows and tint gradients, you’ll quickly move toward a bloated and aesthetically muted image.

You can still use some design “special effects”. But sprinkle them by the handful onto your design. Too many special effects and it negates the rest of your design.

 And Above All

It's important just to get started. It's easy to be intimidated by the sheer amount of learning associated with graphic design course in Kolkata, but remind yourself that even the most talented designers were newbies once, too.

What makes the creative field so special is that everyone's journey is unique -- there's no one way to approach DIY design. You'll find your own means to discern what you want and need to learn.

Design is an iterative process, so keep reworking your ideas and projects. As you progress, you'll develop your own workflow and one day that design that took you all day will only take you an hour.