I haven't been studying graphic design for long, but I have picked up a few things! Whether you're creating school projects, or designing something a little more professional, I have three design elements that will improve the appearance of any project, print or digital.
1. Hierarchy
Visual hierarchy helps us figure out what to read first. You read the title of this blog post first because it's in a big, bold, black font. It stood out, so it's where your attention went first. The font size, color, and grouping of elements can all affect where you look on a page. One of the biggest goals of design is to communicate a message clearly, and hierarchy makes it clear what information is important.
2. Contrast
Contrast helps your viewers distinguish what's important and it can affect readability and legibility. Dark colors on light backgrounds are always clearer and the safe option. Trying to read light text on a light background is very difficult and it's best to avoid that problem altogether. If you're matting paragraphs to put on a poster board (something I did many times in middle school and high school), light mats on dark poster boards and dark mats on light poster boards look so professional!
3. Alignment
Continuing with the poster board example, alignment also ups the professionalism of the project. Aligning elements of your project well keeps it clean and organized. Even space between elements and placing them in straight lines or columns makes a huge difference.
Do you have any design rules you live by? I'd love to hear them, drop a comment!
Thanks for reading!
xx, Hannah
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