APPROACHING GRAPHIC DESIGN
jamie russ - Aurora Design
11th May, 2005
Graphic Design is not simply an art, but rather employs some quite structured principles which can make the design process far easier to achieve…
Basic design elements such as the rule of thirds, graphical composition and the weight of these graphical components is very important. On top of that, throw colour into the equation and things can start to get very tricky.
Logo Design : Does it have an effect ?
Does a logo have an effect on your business?
We like to use this analogy. If you were to go down to the bank for a loan would you wear your best suit, or your weekend singlet, shorts and thongs? Obviously you would want to look your best, as we all know too well that first impressions are everything.
This impression also applies to your business and quite often your business' first impression is represented by a logo on a business card or website. A well designed logo also facilitates the process of professionally designed stationery, signage, web sites, television, brochures, etc.
If you have a poorly designed logo or you don't even have a logo, human nature tells people that you may not be doing so well and therefore not worth doing business with. Sounds extreme, but I have found this to be true when clients finally come to me for a logo design and tell me their stories.
A logo design costs you upfront, but this cost is a one time only cost and is minimal in comparison to actually losing business in the first place, simply because you did not have a logo or your current logo looks like it was pasted from clip art in some popular word formatting program.
What to keep in mind with logo design.
Whether you are designing a logo yourself or getting someone else to do it, make sure that you allow for the following:
- Ensure that you can fax the logo to someone and still read it; try this on a dummy letterhead.
- Consider what the logo may be applied to: paper, clothing, signage, vehicles. This can effect the way the logo is designed, whether it should be simple block colour, or complicated with small type, which may not transfer to t-shirts well. I recommend trying to keep all logo designs as simple as possible allowing for any types of transfer to any material. I like to use a program called Adobe Illustrator which produces the logo in vector artwork (line art).
- Don't use more than 2 or 3 colours, unless you absolutely have to have more. This will give your logo a clean, sharp look.
Colours and Fonts - Industry Types
How does a colour and font style change according to industry type?
Colour and font style for certain industries is very difficult to determine. It is rather subjective, where personal choice of colour for any particular business lies with the client. There are some basic rules of design that I have found to be effective. As a bold example, you should never associate green with food industries. Green as a colour is not suited to food industries because it evokes an emotional response in association with the food: green means that it has gone off!
The two main colours that work well with food are red and yellow, which is why you see many restaurants using red on their walls and in their logo. In particular, some of the world's major fast food suppliers are a great example: MacDonalds, Burger King/Hungry Jacks, and Pizza Hut all use red and yellow, and KFC uses red.
In a nutshell colours are emotional. As a quick example:
- red means aggressive, hunger, fight or flight effect, arousal, bold, dominant;
- blue means calm, cool; and
- green means peaceful, tranquil
Having said all that, if green means peaceful or tranquil, why does it not work with food? Well, mainly because it does not evoke the appropriate emotional response to it, where red does: it gets your blood flowing, therefore hunger sets in.
Let's look at another example. If you were designing for a sales based company in telecommunications, look at Telstra and Optus who use green and blue. You may not want to use red for their corporate look as red provokes a more aggressive reaction, therefore blue or green might be more appropriate as it has a calming effect. If a customer is calm, they are more likely to think more clearly and make better decisions. Blue may also apply to other industries that must use a hard sell to survive.
Fonts are another issue altogether. Too many people just use the first font they like, or worse, every font they like, without considering the impact on their corporate image. Fonts are not as subjective as you might think as the basics design rules for fonts are more rigid than colour. Don't use too many different font types in any document, whether it is a web site, brochure, logo or corporate stationery.
I find choosing font styles for industry types very easy. If you are designing for a flora company then use a flowery font, but only use flowery fonts for headings as they are too hard to read in small type. If you are designing for a mining company, use a bold font for headings. If you are designing for a law or accountancy firm, use a clean, easy to read font that look prestigious.
In conclusion, fonts should be taken much more seriously in your design: choose the right font in the first place and work with what you have chosen.
Web Sites and Brochures
Which should you design first and why ?
In my opinion, you should always design a web site first. Why? Because a brochure is designed to promote your products and services. Most people look for a web site address for further information on your products or services and the web site is the base in which your customers feel comfortable with knowing that you are serious about what you do.
The web site becomes the hub for all your promotional materials. You can convert your printed brochure into a PDF which can be downloaded from the website.
Printed brochures are standard. People like the feel of something real, something tangible, and the brochure (should you need one) should always be done after a web site is completed.
Consistency in design for marketing and branding
How do you achieve a consistent marketing feel with your customers ? The foundation for keeping all your branding consistent is to get it right from the very start.
First, sit down with your designer and get to know them. Tell them as much as you can about your business and where you want to go. This is the most important step to branding.
Second, find out what the competition is doing and get a feel for the type of colours and branding techniques they are using. Often you will want to do the opposite should this be permitted. Finding out what the competition looks like is helpful because you don't want to look like them, and while this is sometimes tricky to do, that's what you employ us designers to do!
Third, this is the formula we use once the first two steps have been achieved:
- If you don't have a logo, design one first before you do anything else as all of your design work will flow from this logo design.
- Design your corporate stationery (business cards, letterheads, with compliments slips) next
- Design the web site based on the look and feel of the logo and corporate stationery
- Now it gets easier... design the brochures or whatever else you require, based on the first three steps.
We would also recommend creating a corporate style guide which will help both parties identify any design issues should they arise.
If you stick to the steps above, keep all your fonts and colours consistent, and resist the temptation to add other fonts or colours, all your design work will be consistent.
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