CrazyLeaf Editorial Pick your favorite holiday and tell us what comes to mind. Unless you have aphantasia, you were probably able to quickly think of images like Halloween pumpkins, Christmas trees, or Valentine candy hearts.
The reason you most likely saw images instead of written words is because humans work best with visuals. We can remember up to 2,000 pictures with almost 100% accuracy.
You know why your blog needs great graphic design. Now we’re going to show you how with our nine tips to the best graphic design for your new blog — take notes!
1. Basic Skills
Photoshop is a great tool in a graphic designer’s arsenal. It’s not the only one, though.
No matter what program you use, you’re going to need these basic skills to make great graphics:
- Layering: stacking design elements on top of each other to get the look right
- Importing graphics: understanding what kind and what resolution you need
- Creating shapes: essential for making images with impact
- Cropping and resizing: manipulating design images on a basic level
There are tools like Canva or Crello that aren’t as tech-intensive as Photoshop. Still, you need to master these skills before you can move forward.
2. Brand Colors
Color is so powerful, it can define your brand. Think of big names like Coke and Pepsi and you’ll think of red and blue respectively.
Our assessments of products are almost 100% based on color. Think about what you want your brand colors to be and incorporate them into your graphics.
Here’s a list of colors and impressions:
- Black: Authority, luxury
- White: Safety, purity, cleanliness
- Orange: Cheerfulness, caution
- Yellow: Happiness, alertness
- Blue: Peace, relaxation, calm
- Purple: Royalty, exotic, creativity
- Green: Health, power, natural
Once you have a primary color, choose secondary and accent colors for variety. Remember: color has a strong emotional effect on people so spend time picking yours out.
3. Font Choice
Font choice is another important step to creating excellent images. Your choice of font can convey a lot of information about your brand.
Think of a scrolling font with lots of loops and you probably conjure up something fancy or old-fashioned. A big, bold font makes a big, bold impression.
There are two types of fonts: serif and sans-serif. Serifs are the tiny edges that hang off the edge of letters; sans-serif obviously doesn’t have those.
When creating a graphic, make sure your font choice is always legible. In the body of your blog, play around by making the heading one font and the body another.
4. Stock Photos
There are times when you can take tons of pics of whatever you want to write about. Your products, your life, your adventures — no matter what your blog topic is, a photo is always helpful.
What if you don’t have time to take pics? What if you need photos but don’t have the cash to pay for a pro photographer?
That’s where stock photo sites, like Pexels or Pixabay, come in. Using free stock photos is simple, easy, and gets the results you need — fast.
5. Create Your Style Guide
Keeping your images consistent builds brand recognition. Brand recognition, in turn, builds engagement, conversions, and boosts your SEO.
Play around until you find a look that you like. Once you find a style of graphics you think fits your vision, use it as your style guide.
There’s no shame in using templates to make graphic design easier on yourself. Set up a few with your new style guide perimeters including font size, design elements, and graphic size.
6. Keep Your Design Simple
You don’t want your readers to feel visually overwhelmed. Add too many design elements and your images look cluttered and confusing.
Make sure your fonts are always legible. Keep any images in your graphics simple or use an overlay or filter to tone them down.
Contrasting colors or even white space helps your graphics look professional and attractive.
7. Remember Your Audience
While you’re having fun creating your graphics, don’t forget who your blog is for — your audience.
You have something you want to say and you hope it resonates with someone. Who are your ideal readers? You can learn all of the best graphic design 2019 tips and tricks but it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t speak to your readers.
Always remember your audience. Know what will catch their eye and you’ll draw in more readers.
8. Keep Up With the Best Graphic Design Blogs
Think that because you’ve got your style guide, templates, and branding in place that you’re all done? Think again!
Never stop learning and never stop searching for inspiration. Look at a few of these design blogs to break through a creative block:
- Adobe’s Create Magazine: Adobe is the creator of Photoshop so it’s safe to say they’ve got some good ideas
- Identity Designed: Here you’ll find great graphics from around the world
- Creative Overflow: They’ve got advice as well as inspiration on a wide variety of topics
Those are just a few to get you started. Don’t let your visuals get stale — keep in touch with the latest graphic design info.
9. Challenge Yourself
You’ve mastered the basic skills and know where to go for inspiration. Don’t stop there — challenge yourself to create great graphics every day.
Here’s a beginner’s exercise for creating a simple graphic:
- Start with a background image
- Layer a solid-colored square over it and drop the opacity until you can see your image through it
- Add a shape in the center of your image and drop the opacity if you think it works for your graphic
- Pick two fonts, write a heading using one and a subheading using the other
- Add the heading and subheading in the shape at the center of your image
Now that you’ve created a basic image, play around with it. Change the solid-colored layered square over your graphic or put the heading and subheading on the right instead of the center.
Great Graphic Design Made Easy
Now you know how to make your blog stand out from the rest with these great graphic design tips. It gets easier the more you do it so practice, practice, practice!
Looking for more tutorials? Check out our extensive list of free how-to courses and level up your skills!
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