How to Win at Graphic Design 5 Creative Tips

Want to know how to win at graphic design, these 5 Creative Graphic Design Tips for Better Aesthetics will set you apart.

How to Win at Graphic Design

Photo by Kumpan Electric on Unsplash

You already know that appealing visuals help drive better results in digital marketing. As a graphic designer it’s your job to give an impressive brand image so your clients can stand ahead of the competition. There are a lot of ‘creatives’ out there — sometimes even the best designer needs some creative tips to give themselves an edge.

If you want to know how to win at graphic design moving into 2022, you need to understand how you can best serve a client across media platforms.

It is a well-known fact that UI UX development services emphasize the need for visual assets on a website and also in social media posts to improve brand image. Aesthetics are a big part of creating designs that engage. 

Research says, text content blended with immaculate graphic design increases customer conversion by 65%.

Savvy marketers understand the value that creating aesthetically accurate graphic design brings to a marketing campaign. Knowing how to deliver this value to any marketing team is going to make you a necessary design asset.

To that end, this post is going to cover 5 Creative Design Tips focused on the user experience. If you want to know how to win at graphic design this year, check out these tips to start delivering added value to your design deliverables.

 

 

Top 5 CreativeDesign Tips to Help You Win at Graphic Design

User experience isn’t isolated to a UX development company, as a graphic designer you must be in a position to advise and implement a clean and well-thought out content delivery approach for your clients. Let’s take a look at how we can use creative graphic design to better engage the audience.

 

1. Align the Design with the Brand

Graphic design should add value to any business or brand.

Taking value a step further as a graphic designer it’s your job to help shape the value proposition.

What’s a value proposition? A value proposition can be described as how your product or service benefits your target audience. Also, the features that make your solutions better than your competitors?

To explain the concept in a more detailed manner, a value proposition can be described as the reasons and aspects that make you a better choice for your customer in comparison to your competitors.

A value proposition is usually concise, straightforward, and user-directed, depicting the benefits and services they would get if they choose your services over your competitors.  

Although it is a service, it is usually expressed in a text block, as a headline, or even an image, video, or graphical representation.

Now, just in case you do not confuse the concept with anything else, let’s also have a look at things that a value proposition is not.

Having a clear understanding of your clients’ brand is pivotal. You need to know how their brand is different from others. You also need to know how to deliver their mission statement and values in graphic communication. Don’t just have a general idea of these aspects in your mind- put these thoughts on paper and put the final version in your brand book.

If you really want to win at graphic design, understand your clients’ business, goals and audience. This critical first step will allow you to stay at the subconscious level of the customer with your creative designs and ultimately motivate the right action. 

2. Clarity and Simplicity leads to Power

We live in a digital era where we deal with countless ads every day, besides emails, messages, alerts, app notifications, and more.

Sometimes it’s tough to focus, and the irritation we experience from over-designing makes it difficult to take in the message.

Graphic designers need to know how to make the user experience for any communication smooth and simple. Otherwise, potential customers simply may not engage.

Simple designs have the advantage over the more complicated ones in that the brain is able to process them far quicker and more efficiently and once the brain is processes something, the emotions tend to take the wheel. So, the easier your graphic designs are to process and prompt the emotional response, the higher the chances of people remembering the brand and recognizing it the next time they see it.

Keep it simple — the more time your brain needs to spend on the processing phase, the less time there is for the emotional part to kick in.

3. Color Psychology

Believe it or not, using the right colors in your design can guarantee success. In fact, the use of color in graphic design is so important in connecting message to emotions that when used correctly it motivates an immediate reaction. 

Color psychology is how different colors have an impact on people’s moods and how they feel. Moreover, the colors also influence the decisions that people make every day. You would want to choose the colors which would be more attractive for people and make them choose your product/service. As a graphic designer, it is important to understand the way colors are perceived by different people, because it’s definitely going to impact the users’ experience.

Make sure the colors you use reflect the personality of the brand you’re designing for. Don’t be so caught up in being unique that you disregard the true meaning of the brand. The colors of a brand should be able to associate a strong emotional connection with the audience and their customers.

Remember, you’re trying to build a relationship based on loyalty and consistency.

 

4. Prune All Fundamental Mistakes

Creating a design for your brand requires thought and action and does not come without research. As a graphic designer you need to allow the research to sink in. This will be essential for helping you present your ideas to other team members. This research can help you identify openings in the market and help you see things you could do better.

In addition to market research, you need to also do user/target market research. You need to learn what your target audience likes, what they relate to, and the problems they encounter in life. You need to fine-tune your brand so it resonates well with all who may become customers. The better your brand can relate to and engage with your audience and customers, the more success you will find.

Understanding what your brand needs to communicate and what your audience needs to take in will allow you to prune any unnecessary information that will clutter the message delivery. Often these can be simple and easily overlooked items such as;

  1. Too many fonts and make the image too complicated to even understand – Remember point 1 – be clear and simple
  2. The spacing must be consistent all through the image. Be it the header or the footer, do not neglect any part of the visual image.
  3. Poor resolution images or images that do not serve the purpose. 

A big part of understanding how to win at graphic design is understanding where to trim the fat.

5. Be Hungry For the Feedback

This is a trait and any graphic designer must learn. Have you ever heard the phrase, “you can’t design in a bubble”? 

If not, this could be the best bit of advice to take away from this post. Creative graphic design can only happen through research, discovery and feedback. Input from other team members, stakeholders in the company and test customers in your demographic are essential. 

When you’re aiming for streamlined collaborations between developers, writers, designers, marketers, and other project stakeholders, you have to start off by creating a team charter. The team charter should outline the goals of the project and what role each member has. Ideally, design thinking teams will always be cross-functional, consisting of members with a mix of specializations.

By establishing effective and clear lines of communication, you can have a widespread and powerful impact on your marketing efforts. From customer relationship management to major future-focused innovation, communication in marketing has an instrumental role in both a company’s ongoing success and its longevity.

 

Summary

To highlight how valuable graphic design is, it is worth knowing that there are a plethora of clients who fork out large chunks of money to get quality designs. If you’re wondering how to win at graphic design the tips mentioned above will get you on track. If you’re hungry for more creative tips on design for audience engagement, come back and visit this blog.