You've probably heard the popular quote "creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes." Or perhaps you've heard "mistakes are proof that you are trying" or "every mistake can create a beautiful solution." While there is an element of truth in each of those sayings, it's wise to be well-informed and intentional about design if you're a blogger or a business owner. Visual mistakes have the potential to make you appear unprofessional and untrustworthy to your audience.
Today I rounded up my top 10 design mistakes that everyone should be aware of. While some of these rules have been broken and the result wasn't terrible, it's best to be educated on why these mistakes are bad and make them on purpose instead of by accident.
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1 | Comic Sans
This is the number one no-no among graphic designers. Comic Sans is never ever ever a good idea. Why? Read this entertaining article.
2 | Too many typefaces
Using too many typefaces in a logo, website, etc. can make a design appear busy, non-cohesive, and unprofessional. Play it safe and stick to the KISS principle on this one; settle on 2-3.
3 | Lack of hierarchy
Hierarchy determines which items you see first in an image. Designers pay attention to hierarchy and use it to their advantage by varying the size of their fonts (titles and headers should always be more prominent than body text), using color wisely (pops of color draw attention to text and images that should stand out), and paying attention to shapes (which give a design movement and lead your eyes around the design). The use of several different fonts, colors, and shapes have the potential to mess with hierarchy, resulting in an image that is visually displeasing and complicated.
4 | No Contrast
Contrast also helps with hierarchy. A lack of contrast can alter legibility and make an image appear washed out and undefined. A mix of both light and dark colors creates balance.
5 | Dizzy color pairings
When objects with similar color values are placed near one another, it can sometimes have a dizzying, vibrating effect. Use contrast and be cautious of color pairings, especially when you are layering colors on top of each other.
6 | Lack of negative space
The negative space around an object is often just as important as the object itself; it provides a cushion and a place for your eye to rest. Avoid cramming objects and text into a design and be aware of the entire composition, not just the main components. Check out these 25 clever and creative uses of negative space!
7 | Centered paragraph text
Large amounts of text should never be center aligned. It alters legibility, making text harder and more frustrating to read.
8 | Failing to align objects/no grid system
Haphazardly placing objects on a page without rhyme or reason is never a good idea; it has the potential to make a design seem random and unintentional. Use a grid system and align objects to create order.
9 | Using display fonts as text fonts
Again, this is a legibility issue. Script, hand-drawn type, and other display fonts should be used for headers and small amounts of text. It's always a good idea to use a simple font for large groups of text.
10 | Upside down text
It's simply hard to read. Don't do it.
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It's your turn! What are some of your biggest design pet peeves?
We just wrapped up the 2019 Brand Challenge last week, and over 1,300 business owners took part to create a one-of-a-kind brand from start to finish!
Fonts, colors, logos, photos, icons - we left no stone unturned.
But creating a brand is really just the beginning. From here on out, your days will be spent implementing it.
Whether you took part in the challenge or not, every business owner who can’t delegate their design work is faced with the important task of choosing an app to help them create their graphics.
The two most popular options at the moment? Canva and Adobe Illustrator.
Both apps are helpful, but they aren’t created equal. So in today’s post, I’m highlighting the biggest differences between the two so you can figure out which program is the best fit for your design needs.
Did you miss out on the Brand Challenge? It’s never too late to jump in and take part! Visit this page to sign up and get started.
Congratulations! You’ve officially made it through Elle & Company’s Brand Challenge.
But before you start implementing your new brand on your website and collateral items, take some time to compile all of your hard work and create a beautiful reference for your brand by creating a brand style guide.
This post is part of Elle & Company’s 4-week Brand Challenge. Click here to see more details, sign up, and access the free workbook.
You can do a killer job on all of the steps we’ve covered over the past 3 weeks.
But if your photos are amateur or inconsistent with the rest of your brand, your brand will fall short. Every. Single. Time.
This post is part of Elle & Company’s 4-week Brand Challenge. Click here to see more details, sign up, and access the free workbook.
Just like icons, patterns are another fun way to add interest to your brand and make it more memorable.
When you create a custom pattern that’s unique to your brand alone, you have the opportunity to stand out from competitors, communicate the message of your brand, and add some flair to your stationery, packaging, designs, and website.
This post is part of Elle & Company’s 4-week Brand Challenge. Click here to see more details, sign up, and access the free workbook.
Differentiation is all in the details.
While borders and backgrounds may seem insignificant and small compared to logos and color palettes, they can have a large impact on the consistency and professionalism of your brand.
You already determined your graphic style last week, so considering your borders and backgrounds should be a fairly easy task.
This post is part of Elle & Company’s 4-week Brand Challenge. Click here to see more details, sign up, and access the free workbook.
Your logo is taken care of, your fonts and colors are good to go.
Next up: graphics.
Something as simple as an icon or a border can make your brand distinct and memorable. Much of branding is considering and accounting for the small details.
But before you create fun brand assets like icons, patterns, and borders, you need to consider the overall style of your graphics.
This post is part of Elle & Company’s 4-week Brand Challenge. Click here to see more details, sign up, and access the free workbook.
Your colors are all set! Now it’s time to dive into fonts.
But finding, choosing, and pairing fonts for your brand isn’t as simple as grabbing Comic Sans and Baskerville from the list of included fonts on your computer and calling it a day.
Actually, please don’t use Comic Sans as a brand font. Ever.
Today’s action step and blog post will walk you through what to consider and how to go about choosing fonts for your one-of-a-kind brand.
This post is part of Elle & Company’s 4-week Brand Challenge. Click here to see more details, sign up, and access the free workbook.
Remember those black and white primary logo and alternative logos you refined/created last week?
It’s finally time to add some color to them.
(And now that you’ve already outlined your color system, this step should be easy!)
This post is part of Elle & Company’s 4-week Brand Challenge. Click here to see more details, sign up, and access the free workbook.
Now that you’ve determined your color palette, it’s time to create your color system.
I know what you’re thinking, “What in the world is a color system?”
Let me explain.
Your whole brand should be viewed as a system.
It’s sort of like an equation; you plug in the values to the framework and you get the right answer.
This post is part of Elle & Company’s 4-week Brand Challenge. Click here to see more details, sign up, and access the free workbook.
Color is a great way to distinguish your brand and create recognition.
In fact, color increases brand recognition by up to 80%.
Think about Home Depot, Target, and T-Mobile. Did their brand colors (orange, red, and pink) automatically pop into your mind? Of course they did!
The same should be true for your brand.
This post is part of Elle & Company’s 4-week Brand Challenge. Click here to see more details, sign up, and access the free workbook.
Whenever I’m designing a logo, I’m constantly thinking about how each element (like fonts, colors, and illustrations) can be pulled apart and used elsewhere in the brand to create consistency.
Especially for logo variations.
Chances are, the logo you just created/refined in Day 9 either fits well in a horizontal format or a perfect circle; but not both.
And that’s where today’s action step comes in.
This post is part of Elle & Company’s 4-week Brand Challenge. Click here to see more details, sign up, and access the free workbook.
Now that you’ve rounded up some visual inspiration, it’s time to clean it up a bit and compile your images onto an inspiration board.
An inspiration board is simply a graphic compiled of photos, colors, and patterns that provide visual direction for a design project (in this case, your brand).
You’ll come back to this board in the coming weeks for visual reference.
As you build out your brand, you’ll be able to weigh all of the visuals (like your logo, color palette, patterns, fonts, icons, etc.) against this board to ensure that every component stays consistent.
This post is part of Elle & Company’s 4-week Brand Challenge. Click here to see more details, sign up, and access the free workbook.
Now that you’ve considered some non-visual aspects of your brand, it’s time to take all of the work you’ve done up to this point and create some visuals.
But here’s the thing: It can be difficult to create visuals for a brand solely off keywords and a mission statement.
What does “vibrant, authentic, refreshing, and bold” actually look like?
Well, it can look like a lot of things. And that’s why it’s helpful to have a visual starting point.
This post is part of Elle & Company’s 4-week Brand Challenge. Click here to see more details, sign up, and access the free workbook.
I know, I know. I promised to help you come up with a visual direction for your brand this week.
But before we get into inspiration boards and logo designs, remember that your brand isn’t simply a logo and a color palette; it’s an experience.
There are two key components to a brand: tangibles and intangibles.
We often think about the tangible components, like logos, color palettes, and fonts.
But intangible components, like the words you use in your social media captions and the names of your products, can have a big impact on how your brand is perceived.
This post is part of Elle & Company’s 4-week Brand Challenge. Click here to see more details, sign up, and access the free workbook.
So much of branding has to do with communication.
In fact, while I often tell people that I majored in graphic design in college, my real degree was in “Visual Communication Design.”
Because the visuals in every design are always communicating something to people.
That’s why it’s important to make sure that the design of your brand is saying the right things to potential clients and customers.
And that’s why we’ve been spending so much time on this “groundwork” stage of the branding process. Through your future goals, mission statement, client profile, and the 5 adjectives you’ll come up with to summarize your brand in today’s action step, you’re determining what needs to be communicated.
This post is part of Elle & Company’s 4-week Brand Challenge. Click here to see more details, sign up, and access the free workbook.
We’re on Day 4 of the Brand Challenge, and you might be surprised that we still haven’t jumped into any of the major visuals like fonts, colors, and logos.
I promise we’ll get to those soon!
But branding (and design, in general) is about much more than making things look good.
The purpose of branding is to catch the attention of potential clients and customers and build trust with them so that they’ll purchase your products and book your services.
In order to do that, you have to know:
Whether your current brand is effective
Where your business is headed
The mission of your business
And what type of clients you want to be working with
You’ve conducted a brand evaluation, set business goals, and written your mission statement in Days 1-3 of this challenge.
And today, you’re going to zero in on the type of clients and customers you want to be working with.
This post is part of Elle & Company’s 4-week Brand Challenge. Click here to see more details, sign up, and access the free workbook.
You wouldn’t drive across the country from California to New York without a map. And you shouldn’t operate your business without a mission statement.
A mission statement gives you a framework for evaluating opportunities and deciding whether they fit your core business model and strategy.
It can help you define your business and establish your brand, and it can help you (and your employees, contractors, etc.) focus their efforts and suggest ideas that fit with what you’re trying to do.
But what does your mission statement have to do with your branding?
This post is part of Elle & Company’s 4-week Brand Challenge. Click here to see more details, sign up, and access the free workbook.
Big decisions require future planning.
You wouldn’t major in political science if you eventually want to become an art professor.
You wouldn’t sell your van and buy a 2-door sedan if you’re expecting your fourth child.
You have to consider where you want to be in order to put the steps in place to get there.
The same is true for your brand.
This post is part of Elle & Company’s 4-week Brand Challenge. Click here to see more details, sign up, and access the free workbook.
My husband and I just finished renovating an old 1930’s bungalow in our small South Carolina town.
I remember the first time I laid eyes on it. It was dirty and dingy with dark paint, busted windows, and a caved-in kitchen floor. I hardly wanted to set foot in it, let alone live in it.
But beyond the grime, there were remnants of what the house looked like in its glory days. Large trim, built-in bookshelves, original hardwood floors, french doors. I knew that with a little creativity and a lot of elbow grease, we could restore the house to its former beauty.
We put an offer on the house early last year (the same day we brought our son home from the hospital) and excitedly started dreaming up plans for the renovation.
But before we were able to dive into the demo, we had to take an inventory of all the work that needed to be done.
The same is true when you “renovate” and revamp the design of your brand.
Before you can dive into the obvious details like fonts and colors, you have to evaluate what is and isn’t working with your current brand.
Last year I took on a grand total of zero design clients.
I had no idea what my work schedule would look like once my son was born in April, so I cleared my schedule until I could wrap my mind around client work again.
Thankfully I still had other income sources through courses, coaching clients, and the Elle & Company Library.
Now that I’ve found my footing, I’m itching to dive back into design work and help creative business owners with their brands and websites in 2019!
And while my 2-week process isn’t feasible during this season, I do have a streamlined 8-week process that I’m excited to implement this year.
Have you ever been scrolling through Instagram or Pinterest, come across some gorgeous business graphics (hello, Rifle Paper Company!), and thought to yourself: “I could never do that. I just don’t have the design eye”?
While most people may be able to spot good design and bad design, few know exactly what makes some graphics more visually appealing than others.
And for that reason, they don’t think they have a “design eye.”
But designing eye-catching graphics isn’t a guessing game!
There’s 7 simple design fundamentals that can instantly make your work look more professional (even if you didn’t go to design school), and I’m sharing about them in this blog post!
Regardless of your design experience, you’ll be able to take these 7 rules of thumb and implement them the next time you’re sitting in front of Illustrator or Canva, frustrated by the vision in your head not coming to life on the screen.
For most service-based businesses, a portfolio provides proof that you’re the right person for the job.
Whether you’re a graphic designer who’s showcasing brands and websites, a photographer who’s showcasing weddings and engagements, or a coach who helps entrepreneurs take their businesses to the next level, you need a portfolio to showcase your past work and build trust with potential clients.
But how do you create one?
You might have clicked on this post thinking I was going to talk about photos and layout. And while those are important to the overall look of your portfolio, I’m not going to cover that in this post.
Not only is that a no-brainer, but every other portfolio post puts the primary amount of attention on photos and many of you reading this offer non-visual services like coaching and consulting.
I wrote this post with the hope that you would begin to think differently about your portfolio.
So instead, I’m sharing 5 ways to strategically build your portfolio that everyone else isn’t talking about… yet.
Online content libraries are a great way to bring in recurring passive income each month.
Subscribers join your library for a monthly fee, have ongoing access to all of the resources, and you receive a steady monthly payout - all without doing too much extra work, other than adding a couple new items each month.
Online libraries are also a fantastic incentive for people to subscribe to your list if you’re hoping to give the content away for free.
But as with any new digital offering, it can be a headache trying to figure out how to set up a new content library from scratch.
I remember all too well. Three years ago I setup my own online subscription library (creatively named The Library), and here’s exactly how I did it.
“I just don’t have an eye for that sort of stuff.”
“I am the last person you would want to design a logo.”
“I wish I could do that, but I’m not very creative.”
Whenever someone finds out I’m a graphic designer, I usually hear something similar to the responses above.
And while I agree that some people are more clued into design than others, I’ll be the first to tell you that you don’t have to have a design degree to implement great design.
Whether you’re a self-taught designer who’s just getting their feet wet with client work or you’re a business owner who’s faced with the task of designing graphics for their brand and website, you can absolutely create beautiful designs… You just have to be willing to learn and practice!
And with the help of these 9 resources and actions, you’ll improve your design skills in no time.
Designing a logo is much more difficult than it appears on the surface.
As with anything that looks easy, there are many tricks of the trade involved to make a logo look visually pleasing and appeal to the right audience.
You may have discovered this already, whether you’ve tried your hand at designing your own logo or you’ve designed logos for other business owners.
But over time, as you learn more about design and gain more experience, you start to pick up some tricks of the trade and learn to avoid some common logo mistakes.
Here are 7 that I come across fairly often (along with some easy ways to fix them!).
Have you ever been designing for a client when a sticky situation pops up?
Maybe they continue to ask for more revisions than you originally planned for.
Or they don’t provide enough information for the pages of their website.
Or they don’t have photos that compliment your designs.
How do you handle these situations?
Over the past 3 years, I’ve run into numerous unique challenges while working with clients, and I often figured them out through a series of trial and error.
But to spare you the trouble of having to figure things out all on your own, I’ve rounded up 14 tricky questions from my Freelance Academy course Q+A’s and I’m sharing the answers with you in today’s post.
How would your life be different if you were able to generate more sales?
Would you be able to quit your day job?
Spend more time with your kids?
Take that vacation that's been taking up space on your bucket list?
The key to making sales is trust, and building trust with your potential customers starts with making a killer first impression through visuals.
Your promotional photos, graphics, and videos should not only look amazing; they need to be intentionally designed using strategies that are proven to increase sales.
If the potential to build trust with your audience, create a killer first impression, and make more sales isn’t enough to convince you to step up your business’s visuals, the following stats might.
The key to every professional, easily recognizable brand is consistency.
When brands use the same colors, logos, fonts, patterns, and imagery over and over again, potential clients and customers begin to associate those visuals with their business.
Consider Chipotle.
You don’t have to see their logo to recognize their foil-wrapped burritos or white paper cups with brown hand lettering.
Because they’re consistent, you associate these visuals with their brand.
The same should be true for your business. And the best way you can brand create consistency is through your collateral items.
There are a couple designer secrets that aren’t often shared when it comes to choosing brand fonts.
The first: Steer clear of using your logo font throughout the rest of your brand (unless it’s a secondary font that you’ve used for your tagline). This makes the logo distinct and keeps it from getting lost among other text on your website and collateral items.
The second: Give each brand font a “job.” Choose one font for your headers, one font for your body text, and maybe one other accent font (maybe). This streamlines your brand by creating consistency.
But even after learning these secrets, you might still have some questions about brand fonts.
How do you go about finding, choosing and pairing fonts that will accurately represent your business and appeal to the right customers?
I’ve got you covered.
These past couple weeks I’ve been working with one of my first official freelance design clients, making small updates to the original brand and website I created for her 5 years ago.
As I’ve revisited fonts and tweaked colors, I’ve found myself subconsciously using designer tricks that I’ve learned both in design school and by experience.
I haven’t been shy in sharing these design secrets. In fact, you’ll find many of them scattered throughout past Elle & Company blog posts.
But I’ve never compiled them all in one place.
Whether you’ve designed your own brand, hired a designer to create the elements of your brand for you, or you’re a self-taught designer trying to improve your design skills, implementing these insider tricks will help you create a more cohesive, professional brand.