Transcription
Behold, not one, not two, not even three, but 15 tips that can make any beginning graphic designer look like a seasoned pro. [Applause] [Music]
Hello world, Mike Plogger here with my best friend, Vizme, and we want to share some tips for you beginning designers. If you're lacking experience and in need of some pointers, look no further. Yes, graphic design sounds scary, but if you consider the tips we provide throughout this video, you should feel confident enough to share your work with anyone. Shall we? [Music]
To begin, don't overthink it. As I mentioned, when you begin a design, you tend to think that you have to go overboard with your design elements, and your colors, and your icons, and content. And stop. There is no problem with simplicity in design. In fact, we actually encourage it. Get in touch with your inner minimalist. Rather than use as many elements as possible, see if you can create a balanced image with as few elements as possible. Check out our example. It has a single colorful background with a color slate over top, and then only the necessary text: what it is, when it is, where you can find it, and how you can find more information. It's appealing, clear, and effective.
While our last example had a background with dozens of colors, the main elements at the forefront maintained the same color palette. Using 17 different colors for 17 different graphics is a bad practice. Decide on a color palette of somewhere between three to five colors from the beginning and only stick to those colors throughout the entire design process. If you have an image you're including, pick out colors from that image. With Vizme's tools, it's easy to pick out exact colors and turn fonts, backgrounds, icons, and more into that specific color. And if you don't want to hang out with us, Adobe Color can help too.
Have you ever started to write a paper and when you went to choose your font, you ended up deeper in font choices than you ever imagined possible? In this day and age, there's millions of fonts available to designers, and man, it can be hard to settle on one. As difficult as it may be, you have to do it. But choose no more than two. You can choose one style for a header and a slightly different style for the content underneath. We even recommend just picking one font, but changing the face for different sections, like making the headers bold, subheaders italicized, and content regular. There's nothing wrong with a new font, just keep it readable and simple.
One of our biggest tips that you'll hear us say over and over again in our videos is to consider the visual hierarchy of your images. To put it simply, it's how your elements are organized and designed to signify importance in an image. For example, this is why headers are typically centered or in the largest font. Is there an important tip that you have? Well, bring attention to it by pairing it with an icon. Should one word stand out in a content block? Try making it bold or changing the color of it. Have any statistics? Turn them into infographics.
This is one of the most important tips to remember when it comes to creating balance. If you have something you're trying to share on social media, you can't just create one design and post it on all platforms. Why? Well, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, you name it, they all have different dimensions. Heck, Instagram has different dimensions for your story than it does for your feed. With the help of a tool like Vizme, changing the size of a design can be done with ease, and there's templates that can help. Content creation is a constant now, so make it easy on yourself with a template.
Going back to our first tip, one way to maintain a simple design is by properly using white space. This is the area of a design that allows it to breathe. Have you ever seen an image crammed with elements from border to border? Yeah, it's not okay. Keep in mind the mantra, "Less is more." I know you think you have a lot of pertinent information that needs to be included on a single graphic, but see if you can divide it into multiple graphics instead to make it seem less overwhelming. If you're saying to yourself, "I just feel like it needs more," you may be wrong. Empty space in a design is okay.
Our seventh tip is in reference to icons, images, colors, animations, really any graphic design element you're including in your project. Use cohesive design elements, or in other words, keep the style the same. While icons may be different, like a piece of paper to a computer, it should appear as if they're from the same artist. If one icon is sharp outlines, the rest should be sharp outlines. If one icon uses rounded edges, the rest should use rounded edges. There are times that you can break this, so long as you create cohesion elsewhere, like with color or fonts. However, I recommend saving that for once you have some experience.
I mentioned this about a half a second ago and I want to say it again: make sure your graphic is readable. Your font should match your message, and your font should have plenty of contrast over its background. Those are the two biggest factors. Don't change your font every five seconds and maintain color. Your goal is to make it as easy to read, or as even easy to scan, as possible.
How familiar are you with the rule of thirds? It's a design technique that helps you achieve proper balance in spacing. Divide your graphic into nine different equally sized sections, something like this grid here. If your elements aren't directly centered, you can place them at the four intersecting points of the grid that you just created. If you place an element in the upper left area and you need something to match in the lower right, same goes. If you put something in the top, then you need something adjacent at the bottom. Try using the grid yourself if you're questioning the overall balance of your composition.
One thing that we specialize in here at Vizme is infographics. We know as much about them as anyone and can help you create them. If you haven't already, sooner or later, you're going to need to create one yourself, and we'll be waiting for your call. In the meantime, one simple tip to keep in mind should you be using them: as they can be any size, short, tall, wide, circular, octagonal, you name it, you can create it. Just keep in mind where you'll be publishing. An email could be a good place for those long vertical infographics. A single social media graphic would be good for a square infographic. Just consider your platform before building.
When we discussed color palettes a little earlier, one thing I didn't mention, but still stands in this list, is the psychology of color. Colors have meanings. Colors have cultural and emotional representations. These need to be considered as you decide what colors to use. Start not by thinking of the color you want, but the emotions you want your audience to experience. Then the fun begins. Go to the color wheel. This color psychology guide provides all the positive and negative connotations with each color on the wheel. Red can mean power, but it can also mean danger. Yellow can signify friendliness, or it can also signify sickness. I want to note, this will take time to master, but I will also encourage you to check out our video on color psychology, as I'm certain it'll help you get started. Click the link above.
Our 12th tip is meant to save you time. Finalizing your dimensions before starting your design will save you from having to adjust every minor detail of your design. If you start with a square ratio of 1080 by 1080, but later decide to expand to 1080 by 1920, you'll have to make tons of adjustments to the elements in your graphic. Again, Instagram has different dimensions depending on if it's a story, feed post, profile photo, or an IGTV cover image. Start with a plan and stick to it.
Now, when you're saving your graphic and choosing a file type, don't just pick a random one from the drop-down menu. This is another thing that you need to have planned beforehand. For example, JPEG is recommended for projects with photos or mixed media. Meanwhile, a PNG file is meant for graphics with logos, illustrations, and charts. It also depends on the platform that you plan on sharing with. An interactive infographic downloaded in an HTML5 file will be great in a blog post, but you'll need a JPEG image for Pinterest. Are you following? Hopefully so, but if not, Vizme makes it easy for you when downloading the file directly from our website. [Music]
Okay, we are nearly to our final tip. This has been a lot to remember, I'm sure, and it'll be a challenge keeping a design in order as well. That's why our 14th tip is to encourage you to stay organized. Properly name your files, create folders, and then subfolders with the types of assets in order for your creativity to continuously flow throughout the design process. The simple things, like finding files, need to occur without thought. This is another area that Vizme can actually help with, as our platform has a folder arrangement and labeling, but if you're going your own route, just keep things organized as best as you can.
Lastly, trust the process. Hold your vision. Don't cut corners. Follow our tips, and your audience will soon be asking you how you became such an experienced designer. Literally, do they know this was your first venture in graphic design? You can either shrug it off and say, "Lots of practice," or you can refer them back to us. After all, Vizme is here to help designers of all walks of life. Check out our channel now to see for yourself. Just want to warn you, though, that you need some time, because you could end up in a spiral of watching hours of videos. Nonetheless, that's all 15 tips that we have for you beginner graphic designers. Thank you all so much for watching. If you learned even one thing in this video, please drop a like below. If you're eager to get started on your next project, we won't blame you. We'll just be waiting here for you next time. Good luck, everyone. Happy editing with Vizme. I'm Mike Plogger, helping you make information beautiful. [Music]