“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
– Steve Jobs.
A good design is one that takes into consideration the goals and wants of its users and incorporates them into its presentation in the simplest and most comprehensive way. The degree to which this level of simplicity is incorporated into your design is up to you, however, the easier it is to convey your message, the easier it is to sell your product and raise brand awareness. We’re going to cover the best ways to convey your message simply and effectively with your graphic design.
4) Stick to one font (two maximum)
Basically, more than a few fonts and it looks like a kid’s first PowerPoint presentation. If there are thousands of fonts jumping out, trying to catch viewers’ attention, you end up draining them, overwhelming them and then they ignore your whole message. Focus primarily on having one font for the header and one font for the information beneath. Let your audience breathe and take in the information like an unexpectedly warm day in the middle of winter. Aaah.
3) Condense information clearly.
Ensuring clarity allows your users to get to grips with what you’re trying to help them convey and what your brand is all about. If your design, whether it’s for a website, logo, Instagram page or a single snapchat, if your content has too much stuff going on, those viewing or visiting will struggle to identify concisely what on earth you’re going on about. They’ll become overwhelmed, annoyed and leave. And no-one wants that. Condense information down. Rather than listing all your services, consider a drop-down menu that contains all that information. Small, sleek and easy to digest, yet containing everything you need. Very much like an olive. Yum.
2) Stick to no more than two colours.
This is one of the main things in graphic design to get to grips with. Ensuring that your logo doesn’t incorporate more than two colours ensures that it doesn’t become over-complicated. There are exceptions to this rule of course that should be appreciated. Google for example incorporates multiple different colours within its branding, as does NBC. However, these are exceptions that prove the rule: if every logo did this, they wouldn’t stand out amongst the crowd. So unless you’ve got some very specific ideas and reasoning as to why there should be more colours, don’t worry about it.
1) Remember it’s an evolving process.
They say you never stop learning, and that applies heavily to the world of design. Every day, new trends take off and old trends die out., What worked 6 months ago may be completely out-dated now. This isn’t a bad thing. In fact it’s very good. You see, you’re constantly learning how to create new content, you’re applying old ideas to new ideas, using old knowledge, and mixing it with new knowledge. This is the key to simplicity: it takes a lot of work and knowledge. As a graphic designer, or UX designer, or web-dev, you’ve got to be constantly thinking about how to evolve your knowledge and make your content easily accessible to the user.
Our tips are designed to inspire food for thought and encourage creative thinking, it’s our hope that you’ll take this advice and use it for your own mischievous and creative ends. Now go. Go and do good.
Pioneer Creative Marketing 