If you are interested in designing, either you are trying to create digital designs to sell online or you are a crafter but still design for your clients, you may need some ” help” with creating more compelling and eye-catching designs.
So here are a few quick tips I can give you:
- Invest in contrast. Big vs small. Thin vs Thick. Typical vs handwritten. You see contrast does create an interest to the human eye on its own> example combine small text with big Text.
- With contrast comes hierarchy. And either you create a flyer for example or a birthday invitation you want your title “the main subject to stand out”. So escape from a flat design but giving each section the importancy that it needs and leading your audience or reader to read from the more important to the less important: Like a pyramid.
- Think of pattern or rythme: this is more like a background element that can repeat itself over time to tie elements together. But it is also necessary to establish a mood. “Pattern” does not necessary mean a background with flowers: “pattern” I mean it here more like a theme. A color pallete but also design elements like dots, patterns, small graphics that repeat themselves so your audience sees a unified style throughout your design. It is also called repetition.
- Take advantage of space. A space can be empty or full of information. Apparently you want the information that go together to be together and this is also called “proximity”. When you are leaving too much space between elements they do exactly what you do with them: separate themselves.
Contrast, Repetition, Alignment (which for me is not so important, not as much as Hierarchy is), and Proximity are the four fundamental design values known as CRAP (LOL). And what distinguishes a professional from an amateur is that Crap for the first group is always there in their designs because for them is like second nature. They won’t start a design without thinking or seeking information that can help them add all these four elements into their design.