Want to know the recipe for eye-catching visual design? Here’s what you need to know.
Designing type, logos and color palettes for your brand doesn’t have to be difficult, but it’s not as easy as slapping your logo and some words on a page and calling it a day, either! You want your branding to jump off the page and reflect your brand identity, and that means carefully selecting colors, logo placement and text layout that creates a cohesive, clear design. Here’s what our design professionals at Virginia Creative Group say are the top three things to consider when designing your brand.
The Fundamentals of Good Design: Type, Logo and Color
Designing a brand is, first and foremost, an artistic feat. You develop the style, colors and general mood of your brand based on how you want your audience to feel, which is a subjective art in many ways. However, there are underlying elements of skill that can skyrocket your brand above the rest, namely the way your design implements type, logo and color.
Type Tidbits
The words you use to communicate with your audience are important, and so is the format in which you convey that information! You may have heard about font selection in print and web design, but impromptu designers should understand how important line length and spacing are to your content’s readability.
Here are our tips to help you ensure that your print is easy to read and visually appealing to your readers:
Line Length
Whenever possible, we recommend you keep your line length over 30 characters long including spaces and punctuation. This allows the reader more time to scan and absorb the information on one line before jumping to the next.
Hyphenation
Avoid hyphenation when you can! Apart from instances where hyphens are grammatically necessary, try to exclude them from your copy wherever possible. Hyphens can make your copy more difficult to read, and they stick out like a sore thumb against the rest of your polished text.
Hierarchy
Think of where you want the reader’s eyes to go first. Hierarchy is important, and the best way to demonstrate that visually is to add an extra flair to the titles and headings you want to draw the reader’s focus. Play around with font, color and size to add extra focus to what’s most important.
Texture
Create texture with type design. By varying the visual footprint of your text through size, weight and typeface, you can design a print or web page that feels dynamic and alive! Be sure to use your brand’s designated fonts and color palette to avoid making the text too busy.
White Space
Don’t leave your words hanging. Avoid leaving single words as the last line of a paragraph or a single line of text as the beginning or end of a column or page. This is a purely cosmetic eyesore that can leave large sections of empty white space and may leave readers with the feeling that the information is incomplete.
Logo No No’s
Your logo is one of the most important aspects of your branding. Your logo needs to convey your brand identity to your audience, and it should also be visible, legible and well-placed within your branding materials on and off-line. The rules for logos are flexible because they’re a creative reflection of your brand. However, there are some basic things to consider when placing your logo in a design or image.
Color
Always keep your background in mind when placing your logo in your design. If you’re placing it on a dark-toned color, pattern or photograph, using a dark-toned color for your logo will leave your branding feeling muddy or hard to read. For a dark background, use white or a similarly bright color to make your logo pop. For a light background, keep the logo dark.
Design
You’ll want to use your logo on a variety of colors, textures, backgrounds and patterns. Your logo will need to be adaptable enough to work just as well in print as it does embroidered on fabric. To make sure your logo will pair nicely with all those fun options, you’ll need to make sure your logo design is readable, eye-catching and not too busy. Here are some logo design no-no’s that make your logo less adaptable:
- Gradients or strokes
- Pictures or photos
- Designs that can’t sustain being set in a single color
Here are some questions to ask yourself when placing your logo into your design:
- Can you see this logo at a glance? Is it readable?
- Does it “pop” off the screen/page?
- Have you placed your logo with purpose?
- Does this logo work in a single color? If not, can you create a version of the logo that does?
- Is it readable when sized down to an inch?
- Do the colors of your logo match the PMS colors from the rest of your branding?
- Have your logos been built in vector format (Illustrator)?
- Does it resemble a competitor’s logo?
Use these questions to help you understand the best possible style and placement for your logo. The most important thing is to make sure the branding is clear, cohesive and eye-catching!
Color Considerations
If you’ve dipped your toes into creative design, you probably already know that there are a variety of different color formats, and it can be hard to figure out which format goes where. This can get particularly confusing when you are trying to keep colors consistent across multiple platforms. Here is our quick-reference guide to which color format to use for different design platforms.
Pantone Colors
Pantone colors are color codes that stand for a specific shade. The formula developed by Pantone is a spot color, meaning the color is created from a palette of eighteen basic colors as opposed to screens or dots. This makes Pantone colors ideal for print collateral, including logos, business cards and so on.
CMYK
CMYK colors are determined by their amounts of cyan, magenta, yellow and black. These four colors are used in combination to create your specific color and shade. This color format is also ideal for print collateral like flyers, postcards and so on. It is also great for any design that needs to be printed on fabric, like a t-shirt.
Hex Codes
Hexadecimal Codes are a way for us humans to understand binary-coded values for color. This is what makes them so great for web design, as they work within the same parameters as the rest of the code that goes into making a website or online platform. As such, Hex Codes are best used for screen display such as web design, apps, social media and so on.
RGB
RGB colors are determined by their amounts of red, green and blue. This is a similar idea to CMYK in print but optimized for digital spaces. RGB colors are also great for screen displays, including web design, email e-blasts and other digital media.
Bonus Tip: Placing with Purpose
We’ve discussed at length the ways in which type, logo, and color selections can make or break your brand’s design. These three things are essential for creating great design, but there’s one last thing you need a keen eye for if you want to create a compelling brand identity and design: purpose.
Every part of your design should be made with the express purpose of accomplishing some goal you have for your business, practice or brand. Here are a few questions to ask yourself to ensure your design is crafted professionally and purposefully.
- Does the design address exactly what your audience needs it to say in a concise and visually appealing way?
- What is your specific target audience for this design? Is this particular work intended for patients, clients, parents, families, professional peers or some other group entirely?
- Is the content of the design appropriate for the specified audience?
- Does the design accurately represent the services, products or clients you are highlighting?
Even the most visually stunning design can be rendered useless if the information and placement of the design have no purpose. Type, logo, and color design will highlight your intended content and make it shine for your audience. If these decisions are made with purpose and skill, you will be well on your way to creating great design.
Good Design: Let’s Talk!
And there you have it! A basic guide to good design for the impromptu designer. We’ve created a complimentary download here to help you with your design needs. Feeling overwhelmed by developing a professional, creative brand identity? Don’t worry. Virginia Creative Group can help, let’s talk.