10 Graphic Design Hacks That Will Turn You Into a Pro Designer
Ever been designing an image and thought to yourself “Man… I wish I had the graphic design skills to make this image AMAZING!” Don’t worry! We’ve all been there.
If you want to become a better visual communicator, here are 10 graphic design hacks that will turn you into a pro designer.
1. Pair contrasting fonts
Which fonts look good together and which ones don’t? Pairing fonts is one of the most common areas that stumps people who are starting out with graphic design.
A great rule of thumb is to choose fonts with high contrast. This will help the fonts balance each other out, while still creating a feature in your design.
2. Match colours within your designs
Creating colour harmony is one of the most effective ways to make your designs stand out. One way to create harmony is to match the colours you use for your graphic elements — such as fonts or text holders — with a background image.
You can find the exact colour from an image using a colour picker tool, which will provide you with a hex code — the six digit code that identifies an exact colour on the colour wheel.
Hex codes are an important concept for graphic design newbies to learn. They’re what you’ll use to construct all the colour palettes for your designs.
3. Use grids for your images
Grids are a unique tool which help you layout and edit your images to create professional effects. Grids make for a quick and easy way to create your own world class layouts without using design templates.
4. Add transparent icons
Learning how to create backgrounds is where your creative juices really start to flow. Whether you’re using an image as a background or a series of coloured shapes, there are endless ways to experiment.
5. Illustrate information with shapes and icons
Many people are surprised at how much they can accomplish using shapes and icons. From creating informative infographics to a unique text holder, this is an important skill which helps you think outside the box and create original designs.
Shapes and icons are great tools to use when creating interesting and informative social media posts, or if you want to wow your boss during a company presentation.
6. Fix colour issues in your images
Making sure your images look their best is an essential part of the graphic design process. One way to do this is to increase or decrease the saturation of an image.
Saturation refers to the intensity of colour in an image. When a colour is fully saturated it appears vivid and bright. Increasing saturation will make the colours in your image appear richer, while decreasing it will made them look washed-out and muted.
7. Crop images to maximise copy space
Copy space refers to empty areas within images. When searching for background images, look for ones with ample copy space that you can use to overlay text. Or, to create more white space, try enlarging your images.
8. Choose consistent elements to enhance your branding
Consistency is one of the important skills brands must master when using colours, fonts, logos and images. This helps achieve visual recognition, which is an important element of your company’s communication with the world.
9. Design visual assets for social media
Along with posting regularly to social media, designing visual assets for elements, such as your profile picture and cover image, is essential.
Visual principles apply just as much to social media as they do everywhere else.
10. Design themed presentations
Great design can help your ideas stand out and read effectively, improving your ability to become a great communicator. Layout, use of fonts and photo filters need to be applied consistently.
SOURCE: Canva Design School
