Creating strong marketing materials for your target audience to consume almost always involves a level of graphic design. Whether it's a post on social media, a brochure, your website, sales sheets, business cards, event signage, or a billboard, you'll require some graphic design skills to get your message across effectively. We've compiled a list of 5 graphic design laws that can significantly improve the ROI on your marketing efforts.
1. Keep it simple: When it comes to graphic design, less is often more. Avoid cluttering your designs with too many words or images. Instead, focus on conveying your message clearly and concisely with a few keywords and one or two relevant images. Providing the consumer with only the information they need makes your content easier to digest and comprehend, which is crucial in converting viewers to customers.
2. Use high-quality images: High-quality images can make a significant impact on the overall look and feel of your marketing materials. Invest in professional photography or take your own photos and edit them to look like professional high-quality photos. Avoid using stock images if possible, and at a minimum, use high-resolution stock images.
3. Consistency is key: Consistent branding across all of your marketing materials is essential for building brand recognition. Use the same colour palette, fonts, and design elements to create a cohesive look and feel for your brand. This consistency is the key to successful branding. Think of McDonald’s: when you see the Golden Arches or a yellow and red building, you instantly recognize it's a McDonald’s restaurant. Quick brand recognition means viewers can spend more time thinking about what you can offer them rather than figuring out who you are.
4. Pay attention to typography: When thinking about the typography in your graphic designs, choose fonts that are easy to read and complement your overall brand aesthetic. You can also try experimenting with different font pairings to create visual interest. The best font pairings are often a serif and sans-serif. Why? The combination of these creates hierarchy amongst the design, telling the consumer the most important information/topic first in a bolder serif font and the secondary information in a sans serif font. An example of a brand that uses a serif and sans-serif font combination is Vogue Magazine.
There are three text tools that play an important role in your text's legibility, which are kerning, tracking, and leading. Kerning is the space between two letters. Good design ensures none of your letters are touching and none are too far apart. Pay special attention to ascenders and descenders (g, j, l, h, b) as they protrude further than the x-height and baseline of your text. Tracking, like kerning, adjusts the distance between letters. The only difference here is that tracking considers the space between all letters in a word rather than between two letters. Leading consists of the vertical spacing between lines of contiguous text. Big gaps between lines of text can make reading more difficult and disrupt the reader’s flow, so don’t go too crazy with leading! Adjusting spacing according to these guidelines will ensure smooth readability for your viewer.
5. White space is your friend: Don't be afraid of white space in your designs. White space helps to create a sense of balance, hierarchy, and allows your content to breathe. It can also draw attention to key elements of your design. Without white space, designs often become overwhelming to the viewer. Their mind cannot process where to begin, oftentimes leading them to feel overstimulated and scroll right past your content.
Using each of these graphic design laws will allow you to turn cluttered, low quality, inconsistent designs that don't accurately represent your brand into visually appealing and effective marketing materials that stand out and turn viewers into loyal customers. If you're feeling overwhelmed with improving your marketing and graphic design, we can help! At Exordia Creative, our team of experienced Graphic Designers will take care of all your marketing needs to help you reach your business' full potential.
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