Speak Our Language

This is a guide to design elements and principles for people who are not professional graphic designers.

Why Professional Design is for Good for Business

Design is good for business

Quality graphic design, also known as communication design, improves your company image to your target market in many ways:

  • A well-designed piece with a unified message, whether that piece is printed or digital, will support and enhance your message using visual language and gain consumer trust.
  • Enhancement of the readability of your materials. They will select colors, typefaces, sizes of text, and imagery, then lay out these materials to guide the readers eye through the messages utilizing their master skills that they have years of experience and education in.
  • Professional graphic designers take consideration of audience, usage, demographics, and budget, et cetera…and apply them to your communication needs and goals to create appropriate and sophisticated final products.

Layout

Layout

One of the fundamentals of design is layout. Everyone has probably heard that word, but few understand the meaning as it is to a designer. The layout of a composition is the precise placement of individual content that gives the overall piece a structure and results in an optimal design according to the message needing to be conveyed. Slapping pieces of content down onto a page is not layout. It is one way of organizing things, but a designer usually takes a more methodical approach.

Royalty-Free versus Rights Managed Photography

Apples to apples

It may seem like comparing apples to apples, but there are some significant differences in how each kind measures up.

The Basics of Typography

Typography

Years of study as a universities are one reason why graphic designers are an important tool for communication. When it comes to typesetting—there is more than meets the eye. Too much for a non-designer, really. However, there are a few basics that can get everyone on the right, and more legible, track.

The Basics of Color Theory

Color Basics

In graphic design there are a few color systems that we use. CMYK and PMS for printed material and RGB for digital material. CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and black.