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Design Help > DIY
Graphic Design: Top 10 Tips
Graphic design is
not rocket science. For that matter, neither is designing a decent home
theater. But in both cases, it's pretty easy to spot an amateur's work.
But let's get real.
Sometimes you can't afford a professional designer. And sometimes you
just need to Do It Yourself. Herewith, Cebiz' Top 10 Tips for DIY
graphic designers:
1. Know your
purpose. You can lose track of the purpose of your creation if you
focus only on how good it looks and how well it reads. Don't forget
to ask: Does it work? Put yourself in the reader's place. Solicit comments
from colleagues and friends.
2. Limit the
number of typefaces. It's easy and fun to experiment with type.
But using more than, say, three different typefaces on the same page
is distracting to the reader.
3. Use traditional
typefaces. There are two basic categories of type: serif
and sans serif. Commonly used serif styles include Times and
Garamond. Commonly used sans serif styles include Helvetica and Arial
(like the type you're reading now). You can't go wrong with these and
others of similar appearance. You can experiment with type on headlines,
but elsewhere it's safest to stick with the proven typefaces.
4. Use a grid
layout. Divide your page into quadrants, for example, to help keep
various elements neatly aligned and balanced. Consider how the reader's
eyes will scan the page.
5. Learn to love
white space. Resist the temptation to fill every blank area. White
space provides eye relief and helps readers stay focused.
6. Develop a
top-down heirarchy. Make sure your most important points come first.
Here is an exception: Sometimes you can use a humorous or intriguing
headline, or an eye-catching photo, to initially capture the reader's
attention, even if it's only tangentially related to your message.
7. Keep things
in proportion. Just as information should flow from most to least
important, so should the visual layout. Resist the temptation to "shout"
every sentence or graphic equally loud.
8. Avoid wide
columns of text. On a letter-size sheet, a text column more than
about six inches wide can be a strain to read. If you want to use the
entire printable width of the page, make two columns.
9. Hire an editor.
If you are a good writer, more power to you! If you're not, hire an
editor to clean up your work. Editors are not expensive, and they're
almost always looking for work.
10. Cheat.
We've saved the best tip for last. Most word processing programs supply
a variety of pre-designed templates for things like business cards,
trifold brochures, postcard mailers, et al. Plus, you can find all sorts
of free designware on the Internet. Last but not least, use someone
else's design as inspiration — professional designers do it all
the time, they just don't admit it.
Visit
other Cebiz Print Design Help pages for articles related to print design
and printing techniques.
Printing
101: Know Your Options - Discussion of the different types of printing
options and the advantages and disadvantages of each
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