Whether you’re working on a new marketing campaign or looking to promote an event or product, you’re likely to require some form of graphic design. Typically, you’ll know everything that you need to know about what you’re looking to promote, but your audience may not. And this is where graphic design comes in; and why it’s so important.

Graphic design should communicate messages in a way that is both clear and appealing to your audience – after all, what’s the point of designing something that your target audience won’t read just because they don’t like the way it looks?

If you’re putting together a design brief or creating a piece of graphic design yourself, there are a few key steps that you’ll need to think about.

Start with the basics

The best place to start is with the copy, the text elements that are going to get your message across. Begin with the key message, the reason why you’re creating this piece of design. Then move to the supporting copy, the text that will back up your key message. And don’t forget a call to action. There’s no point creating a flyer, brochure, landing page or social post if your target audience looks at your beautiful design but it doesn’t tell them what they should do next!

Add personality

Once you know what text you’d like to use, you can start to think about additional design elements. The bits and bobs that are going to add personality to your design. Think about what imagery you will use. Will you be using photos or illustrations to back up your message? And what style typeface should you use?

When it comes to photos and illustrations, it’s always great to use your own but creating a bank of images to use within your marketing collateral can be quite costly. If your budget allows though, having your own set of photos or illustrations will mean that you are using imagery that is unique to your business and there is no risk of your competitors using the same images for their campaigns.

For those who might not have the budget for this though, or the photography or illustrator skills to do it themselves, stock images could be a good option. Websites such as iStock have tonnes of great quality photos available for a relatively low cost, and there are free sites such as Unsplash and Pixabay as well. You do get what you pay for though. You’ll notice that the range on sites that offer free stock images is nowhere near as expansive as more premium stock image websites, so it may prove to be more difficult to find the perfect image for your project.

When it comes to typography, each font style will have its own personality, so you must choose the right one for your design.

Serif fonts (the ones with the little flicky bits) are perfect if you’re going for a classic, traditional look.

Sans-serif fonts create a more contemporary feel - creating a professional, corporate look for your design.

If you’d like to add some flair or give your design a more human or creative look, a script-style font may be the way to go. Be warned though, use these fonts sparingly. They’re great for headings but a full paragraph set in a script typeface will be very difficult to read!   

If you’re new to creating designs or have never worked with a graphic designer before, the whole process may feel a little daunting. But by keeping things simple and prioritising the points mentioned above, you and your designer should be able to work together to create eye-catching designs that don’t just look good but achieve great results too.

If you’d like help with your next design project, feel free to get in touch.