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Time To Read: 4 minutes

5 Graphic Design Tips For Your Marketing Strategy

The thing about graphic design is that it either captures your attention or it barely holds a quick glance. As a business owner or marketing director, you’ll have instances where you have to create designs. We know it’s easy to see a professional graphic and think, “I can do that,” but then get overwhelmed when you actually sit down to create it. To help you be successful, we interviewed our Graphic Designer, Chad Boyd, to provide graphic design tips for your business marketing strategy.

1. GRAPHIC DESIGN IS ABOUT PROBLEM-SOLVING

It is said that “design fulfills a need or solves a problem. So as a designer, you are the problem solver.” The first thing you must understand before creating a visual is that graphic designing is communicating. A graphic’s point is to communicate something, whether it is directions, a sale, information about a product, etc. For this reason, a graphic must be crystal clear. Chad states, “Less is more. You have a short amount of time to grab your audience’s attention. If it’s overwhelming, they will not continue to read it. Aim for clear, to the point, and not over complicate.” A 15-second rule states you have 15 seconds to capture your audience’s attention, whether it is a website, magazine ad, brochure, social media ad, etc. We encourage you to simplify information through visuals and content. Boil down to the highlights that are clear to the viewer. Your audience should not be confused after they see your graphic design. Strive for a visually pleasing, simplistic, and minimalistic execution of the project for a successful impact. Find a balance of what you provide between services/products, photography, and include a call-to-action for each channel.

2. MOBILE-FIRST DESIGN

Move from desktop-first thinking to mobile-first thinking. Ensure the graphics and images are saved in high resolution since phones have the capability to present high-resolution images. This is true for organic social media posts, paid social media, websites, and anything else that falls under the digital marketing umbrella. Chad also suggests keeping consistency across all channels, stating, “People need to be able to recognize your brand, your business.” Verify that your brand (logo, colors, fonts, voice & tone) are consistent throughout all graphics.

3. EMBRACE WHITESPACE

According to a Visme designer, Daniela Verduga, “overloading your design or trying to fill every space is a common mistake for non-designers or clients.” Be intentional with negative space so the project can provide aesthetic appeal, make it understandable, and keep from cluttering. As Chad puts it, “Have a good balance between whitespace and content. Avoid the need to fill every space.” Whitespace is typically thought of for visual appeal, but it also makes your message stand out. Research confirms that whitespace can increase comprehension by up to 20%. Let the graphic visually communicate the simplified information your business is trying to convey to the audience.

4. DESIGN FOR YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

This may sound like a simple tip, but as the Creative Director of Edge of the Web, Sam Orchard, notes, “This happens a lot with people new to the industry. Instead of thinking about the target audience and their preferences, they rely on their own tastes or current trends. You end up seeing promotional material for the local bookstore that looks like a flyer for a night club. While everyone wants their work to be right on trend, if that style doesn’t resonate with your target audience, you’re not doing your client any favors.” This goes back to branding. Identify who your target audience is and who you are marketing to. This doesn’t mean you can’t stay on trend; we highly recommend you stay on-trend, simply make sure it resonates with your target audience. As our graphic designer puts it, “Stay with what is trending within your business industry.”

5. ADAPT AND EVOLVE

Avoid stagnate graphics by adapting and evolving. Seek out and implement trends that are current for your industry. Consider using graphic creator apps and platforms that will elevate your graphics and photos. If you need graphics to display information for your business, we recommend using a drag-and-drop, easy-to-use graphic builders, like Adobe Spark and Canva. You will be tempted to use many templates, use all different logos, and colors that will steer you away from your brand. Refrain from this! Keep your graphics on brand. To keep your graphics on brand, you can subscribe for a monthly fee to upload your brand and make branded graphics, so your pages don’t look all scattered. There may be projects where you don’t have the photography needed to complete it or rather use photos than graphics. We recommended using stock photos, like Freepik and Unsplash.

Bottom Line

Our graphic designer, Chad, shares, “For me as a designer, something I am constantly trying to fight is not to overcomplicate it.” We understand that there is a struggle when creating graphics for your business, but you will successfully create professional visuals if you provide simplistic information to your audience, make it mobile-friendly, refrain from over-cluttering through embracing whitespace, and evolve with your business industry trends.

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