5 Graphic Design Tips Revealed By The Expert

5 Graphic Design Tips Revealed By The Expert

By Patricia Tamborino – Purplefruit’s Design & Web Chief

The design of your marketing efforts speak loudly about your brand as a whole. Designs that are poor in the way they look can often appear cheap and sloppy. However, a design that is good, creative and eye catching can provide your brand with credibility, value and an overall positive image.

Purplefruit understand that not every business has the time or thoughts to hire their very own graphic designer, and those who hire ones from other sources often don’t know what to look for in a great design as they simply follow the workmanship and ideas from their peers or adhere to the designers ideas.

I have taken the time to share a few graphic design tips from myself that will help you improve your own designs, or that of the person you have outsourced and trusted with your all important brand – (very important stuff!)

1. Research Your Audience

The first step to achieving great design is to research and get to know your target audience. It is absolutely crucial that you know who you are designing for before you can create something that will be appealing to them. For example, if you are designing an advert to appeal to teenagers buying new trainers, they would not be drawn into an image of an elderly couple in the same trainers. Moreover, never assume things about your target audience without having the facts and figures to support it. Graphic design should not be taken light heartedly because it can be absolutely detrimental to your brand is done incorrectly, so you need to ensure you are aiming your ads and designs to the relevant audience.

2. Ensure Your Message Is Readable

Whether your target audience is male or female, elderly or a child, you must ensure your message can be read easily. An important fact to note when it comes to readability is to use contrast. Using a dark background on light text will enable the text to stand out so that it is easy to read. As tempting as crazy and fun fonts may be, you need to steer clear from fonts that take extra concentration to read. If you really want to use a fun font then at least use it for the header and use simple fonts for the areas with longer text. Also, it is important to limit the number of fonts you use in each ad to either two or three and ensure they are large enough to read.

3. Colour Co-ordinate

Colour usage is extremely important as it should match your brand colours. As you can see our colour theme for Purplefruit is purple and white and I have kept this colour theme in every aspect of design such as our web design, brochures and emails. When it comes to choosing your colour scheme I would suggest that you refrain from too many whacky colours and you keep it simple with 3 main colours.

4. Keep Your Photos Simple

Many clients that come to us have often got carried away with the endless amounts of Photoshop effects. However, my advice to you all is that you should keep your photo edits to an absolute bare minimum. Too many effects or strange cropped photos can appear tacky and cheap. Instead, use high quality photos that will complement the text and overall look of your ad or post.

5. Love Your White Spaces

White spaces are otherwise known as the areas that are left blank such as, no photos, texts etc… White space is used to keep elements in a design separate or to emphasize text or images, and can really help boost the overall look and feel of an ad. A fantastic example of a company that really loves their white space in their advertisements is Apple.

The overall design of your marketing materials can influence people’s feelings about your brand, so ensure your design efforts are creative and most of all positive. If you follow my top 5 design tips then you should be on your way to creating a professional brand representation.

Need Help With Your Graphic Design Efforts?

PurpleFruit specialise in Design and Branding and have a strong track record of creating stunning results.

Many clients come to us asking us to “Build them a brand with a new logo” however; branding is much more complex than simply creating a logo. In order to create a successful brand, it’s imperative that we understand the demand of product from your customers and their aspirations. PurpleFruit achieve this by integrating a brand strategy through your company at every point of contact with your target market.

The aim of PurpleFruit’s Branding is to:

– Evidently deliver a clear message
– Reinforce credibility
– Connect your target values emotionally
– Encourages and motivates the customer
– Withstands a sense of strong user loyalty

Give your graphic design a boost today and contact PurpleFruit! We would be more than happy to discuss your brand’s presentation.