Working Smarter : Graphic Design

Basic Design Principles With Jose (Part 2)

Laurence — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 11:11:00 GMT

Even a little bit of design know-how can go a long way toward making your project look like it was created by a professional. JM, the Art Director at SmartDraw, contributed his expertise to highlight these simple, yet effective techniques.

2. Alignment

Alignment can help elements seem unified and connected.

You may not feel as if you are placing items on the page randomly, but unless you are consciously aligning each new element with something on the page, that’s exactly what you are doing.

As with grouping, alignment helps the reader digest information. The imaginary line that connects aligned items reinforces their connection and pleases the eye. Different alignments elicit different reactions so experiment with left or right alignment for something more dramatic than the traditional centered look.

3. Visual Unity

Picking colors that harmonize with each other is the first step to a decent design. Repeating those colors, logos, icons, or shapes throughout your project creates a sense of unity-the feeling that this document, whether a one-page flyer or an entire book, is “one piece”. Pick a visual theme and carry it through. Your project will feel like a unified whole.

Part 1 of this series can be found here.

Help! I think I need a graphic designer

Laurence — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 17:50:00 GMT

The do-it-yourself mentality has its upsides in the business world (your sagging plywood conference table notwithstanding). Indeed, the proliferation of productivity software has enabled the most motivated among us to handle finances, analytics, product management, and, of course, business graphics on their own (we're talking REALLY motivated). But when do you step aside and let a professional graphic designer handle your graphics needs?

1. Your logo. This thing appears everywhere from your website to your business cards. Unless you have a strong background in design and marketing, please steer clear.

2. Your website. Think about what you want first. If you don't agree upfront on exactly what you want, you could end up with higher costs down the road when you need to change something. Don't overdo it though. One graphic designer (remaining nameless by request) says "I hate it when people come in with mock-ups. It means they have given all this thought to something and will be much harder to deal with. It is good to come in with some general requirements, but if I had it my way the first mock-ups would be done during our first meeting with the client."

3. True cost. Graphic designers are expensive but consider the services they provide. They help create the look and feel, the visual theme, for your company. Consider paying for a style guide to apply to all of your future projects. Combined with the right software and proper templates, all of your business documents and graphics can share the same professional look and be done in-house. Also, weigh your time. If you spend six hours designing a UI mockup (and you aren't a designer), you probably need to consider outsourcing to a professional. The designer gets paid to design. You probably don't.

4. Inside v. Outside. If the design or graphic is only ever going to be shown within your organization (most of the time) there's probably no need to have it professionally done. That company BBQ flyer is probably not a good reason to hire a designer. On the other hand, if you want to create a print advertisement that will appear in highly circulated publications, go to a professional.

Remember, there's nothing wrong with trying something out on your own. It's probably not worth paying $500/hr for some basic presentation graphics. Productivity is all about your tools and automating routine tasks. However, streamlining a process may mean outsourcing to a professional.

Basic Design Principles With Jose (Part 1)

Laurence — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:00:00 GMT

Even a little bit of design know-how can go a long way toward making your project look like it was created by a professional. JM, the Art Director at SmartDraw, contributes his expertise to highlight these simple, yet effective techniques.

1. Group Related Elements

Visually group related elements on the page. Scattered elements are visually confusing. The reader’s eye doesn’t know where to settle, or which pieces of information are related to each other. When you group related elements, the reader will take in each part as intended. Don’t make the reader work to see your intention. Make it obvious.

Organize your information into small, manageable chunks. If a headline and subhead are related, put them together. If your address appears on the page, put it in a tight block, and put some white space between that block and other elements.

The corollary principle is that unrelated information should be separated by white space, lines, and borders.

Take, for example, the flyer advertising the car for sale. The car’s features can be listed close to each other in a bulleted list. Their proximity indicates that they are related. Don’t, however, include your contact information in the same list. Instead, group that information in a separate block, set off by white space from the features list.