Necessity is the mother of all invention… Simple designs and eco-friendly packaging solutions also happen to be budget friendly. In today’s marketplace designing on a budget is part of every graphic designer’s business. The great news is that a limited budget doesn’t mean ugly design. On the contrary some of the best graphic designs are the ones that are the most simple.
The best way to limit costs in all printed materials is to limit the number of colors that are used and stick to standardized sizes. In the packaging world, fewer colors and recycled materials can translate into budget friendly designs and happy consumers.
During the last year there has been a shortage in Cyan ink so check with your printers before you and your client become very blue indeed!
An added bonus to one or two color graphic designs is that you can translate these same designs into exceptionally fast web pages. Google uses speed as a factor in their SEO ranking algorithm and upload speed is dramatically impacted by what type of images you use. By limiting your color scheme you can avoid using JPG and stick to GIF and PNG 8 images and graphics that have much smaller files. GIF and PNG8 files can be slimmed down even further by pulling unused colors out of the color pallet. Looking constantly at the sizes of your image files will ensure that your upload speeds remain fast and you get the best SEO rank on speed possible.
30 great budget friendly graphic designs follow to provide inspiration and ideas about how to do more with less in your own designs.
Season Program Cover, Association de Musique Ancienne de Nancy by Hugo Roussel with Punkat
The Future of Newspaper by David Ortiz
Man Can Candle Packaging by Hart (who started this in his mother’s kitchen)
Blood For Life by Hoon-Dong Chung, Industrial Designer, South Korea
Lady Gaga Fame Monster Cover (NOT by Hedi Slimani)
The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Sculpture Park III by Noviki Designs
Playground magazine, the SOS Issueby J. Hales
Mortorman Chocolate Lager by Freshthrills
Concentric With the Universe by Louis Ni
La Nevateria Packaging Design by Bizgrafic
28 Days Later Silver Screen Society Poster by Adam Hanson
Flavia de Maio by Debora De Maio
Day on the Internet by Diego Mir
WeEco DVD Packaging by WeEco Designs
Cassany Designe Nuit by MarinDsgn
Woman’s Arm Wrestling by Holdsnowater
City-club Cover by Drew Marshall
Benefit Walk-Run Postcard by Crispin Finn with Inkd.com
DIY Dress Design by Dornob
Virgil’s Fine Soaps Packaging by Fuelhaus
Warwick Business School by Morse-Brown Design
Philip Porter Landscape Design by CleanCanvas
Zoo Jute Tote by GoPromotional
MOMA Musuem Information Cards by James Kuo
Concrete Poetry by Gozde Ture
Dahesh Museum of Art Packaging by Poulin and Morris
Animal Abuse by Lailani Albano
Prayer reproduced by Genus Designs
I do by Intouch Labels
Super8 Magazine Cover by Gabz (Grzegorz Domaradzki)
