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In every design, some elements should be connected, or similar to one another, to show a clear relationship, while other elements should remain separated to stand out or signal different meanings and actions. The solid execution of this principle plays a major role in the overall success of any design.

Separation and Contrast

As human beings, we are all distinctly wired to detect contrast. It is a trait our ancestors developed to rapidly differentiate friends from things that wanted to eat them. The power of contrast and separation in design is directly related to this innate ability.

Contrast catches the eye and draws immediate attention. Many professional designers agree that it is the most effective tool for establishing points of emphasis in a design. However, it also serves as a great way to separate different elements.

Consider the difference between normal, bold and italicised text. Each type stands out as different from the rest. An article with randomly mixed bold, italicised and normal text would flow terribly, but when these contrasting features are used correctly, they can improve the readability of a design.

Connection and Similarity

The survival trait that allows humans to quickly determine contrast and separation also allows us to promptly group connected and similar elements. In turn, this ability represents the key to why humans are so exceptional at finding patterns, which offer context in the world around us and speed up our learning process.

When two elements are visually similar in a design, the viewer assumes that they are connected. The importance of one element signals the equal importance of the similar element. This principle shows why it is so easy for viewers to instantly distinguish and utilise links within blocks of text. While visual contrast separates the links from the other text, visual similarity connects their meaning to all the other links the viewer has clicked in the past.

The connection created by the use of similarity adds consistency and familiarity to a design. By making the process of grouping information as simple as possible, similarity makes the overall design more readable and aids in clearly communicating the intended message.

The Relationship between Connection and Separation

No matter how hard a designer might try, nothing can have meaning in isolation. Every element relies on context to communicate its message. Every technique or principle that applies to the connection of elements also applies to the separation of elements. These two design basics simply represent opposite ends of the scale of similarity.

Too much connection within a design makes it dull and unappealing, while too much separation creates information overload and general noise. Professional designers use a careful mix of these two principles to clearly convey the intended message to the target audience.

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1. Contrast

Although the importance of contrast is fairly well known among designers, the addition of extra contrast continues to be overlooked and under-used in many design projects around the world. Thin, high-contrast lines can be an excellent tool to help viewers easily identify the different sections of a page. This technique does not need to standout in the design. A single, lightly-coloured, 1-pixel line can be placed next to a dark, 1-pixel line will do the trick!

Professional designers also use stark contrasts in colour to make certain elements stand out. For example, with a serene blue and grey colour scheme, a link filled with a carefully-selected red tone will draw attention to that link without hindering the overall appeal of the design.

2. Kerning

Kerning refers to the distance between letters in a design. This technique can greatly impact the effectiveness of logos, headlines, paragraphs and any other text-based element. Most designs do not require extravagant text features and techniques. However, many professional designers use alterations in kerning to match the purpose of their designs. For example, less letter spacing can make short statements seem more powerful and concise.

While kerning may not seem like an important step to great design, poor letter spacing can mean the difference between and effective piece and a complete failure. When first learning to make kerning alterations, most designers are surprised by the huge difference it makes.

3. UPPERCASE vs. lowercase

Since the changing of case is such a simple step, many designers overlook the potential advantage of careful case use. The use of all uppercase with an element not only provides an excellent tool for grabbing viewer attention, but it also allows the designer to maintain legibility in very small buttons or other applications. This technique should only be used on the most important elements of the design, since the impact of all uppercase text decreases every time it is used.

4. Gradients

Due to recent advancements in technology, the ability to create gradients is available to almost anyone. However, this technique can cause an array of design problems when used improperly. Moderation, subtlety and focus are all keys to the successful use of gradients. In most cases, complex gradients should only be used on a few select elements that need to grab the attention of the viewer. Any other elements should feature very subtle gradients if any.

While an experienced designer can find adventurous ways to utilise different gradients throughout a design, the resulting lack of consistency often hinders the overall appeal.

Although these four techniques represent just a few of the many simple ways to improve a design, learning how to use them effectively can make a huge difference on the effectiveness of the final project.

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1. Building a brand

A company’s brand serves as the primary identifier for consumers and other stakeholders. It is essential to the long-term success of your business and begins with an effective logo design. Although some small start-up companies use generic templates to create their logo on their own, smart business owners and marketers understand that the logo design is far too important to complete without the help of a professional designer.

Your brand should expand to all aspects within your business. The overall design should focus on communicating in a functional, professional and attractive way to your intended audience. It should offer an immediate connection to the exceptional products and services provided by your company.

2. A Symbol for your entire company

No matter how you run your workplace, your employees are likely buried behind publications, stationary, business web pages and other standards of the firm. Studies have shown that employees are happier when working with designs that consistently represent the company’s brand and mission. A corporate identity does wonders for building morale and productivity within a business, as long as the employees are truly attached and committed to the brand. Professional graphic design drives that sense of attachment and commitment.

3. All about first impressions

It is a well-known fact that first impressions matter. Whether you are attending an interview for your dream job or representing your company to an important prospective client, the type of initial impression you make can mean the difference between success and failure. Cheap-looking graphic designs will not provide the impression you need. In fact, consumers often perceive poor designs as a signal of poor quality and a lack of professionalism. By using professional graphic design, you show clients, vendors and other stakeholders that you value professionalism.

4. Professional designs actually save you money!

Although professional designs may require a higher initial investment, poor graphic design will most likely cost you more in the long run. In many cases, cheap designs lack flexibility and only look the way you want them to on digital screens. These designs will force you to spend additional funds in order to get them ready for print campaigns. Due to this increased production cost, they will be much more expensive than professional graphics that have been designed with multiple mediums in mind. Spending a significant piece of your marketing budget on designs that fail to transfer across all mediums is a very dangerous long-term decision for your business.

By ignoring the graphic design needs of your firm, you place the perceptions of all your stakeholders, including those of your best clients, at risk. Professional design can be used as a tool to improve all aspects of your company!

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So what is a Style Guide?

A style guide, typically constructed by a designer and business owner or manager, is a special document that lays out specific, clear guidelines for the presentation of a brand. It promotes consistency by defining rules regarding unique visual and language styles for your complete brand image. Style guides typically include distinct elements such as typefaces, vocabulary, colours, image characteristics, tone, document preferences and more.

Developing Your Brand Style Guide

The creation of your brand style guide is a complex process that should be organised and managed by a design professional. Even if you already have a great logo that you think represents your brand perfectly, there are many other important decisions to be made on everything from font, language and colour to tone, overall message and more.

Selecting Colours

Most businesses use between two and four primary colours across all company representations to promote consistency in the brand image. A professional designer’s experience with colour theory and application is invaluable during this process. Each colour should be carefully selected to create the exact emotional response your brand intends to portray. Once selected, these exact colours should be used across all of your webpages, print designs, letterheads and advertisements. Most designers ensure this exact colour match by noting the 6-digit hex code for every selected colour.

Typography

Although it may be necessary to use more than one font to portray your brand across all mediums, very few companies really need more than three font selections. The typography you choose should be versatile so that it can be easily implemented into logos, webpages, print designs and more. Professional designers may create font styles unique to your brand to help it stand out among the competition.

Tone

When all of your brand’s design elements and other content are combined, they should depict one consistent tone geared towards your intended audience. Whether your brand embodies a fun, energetic spirit with playful and upbeat tones or a more serious and authoritative tone works best, your writers and designers should be on the same page when creating content. Tone inconsistencies can be very damaging to the potential power of your brand.

Although there are hundreds of other considerations to be made while developing a style guide for your brand, understanding the feelings and needs of your target customers is paramount to the entire process. Once you understand your customers and learn how to communicate the key information effectively, your designer can help you build the perfect brand image for reaching those customers. A brand style guide is equally important for businesses with a heavy focus on online presence and for companies who work mostly through print and other mediums. The style guide is the “rulebook” that keeps everyone involved with your company maintain the valuable brand image you have created.

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Think Outside the Material

Print designers always face the obvious constraint involving the size of the medium, or paper. However, if the main concept fits on the page, but hangs off slightly on the sides, it may not be the end of the world. The human brain actually fills in some gaps where things are missing, so the viewer will still be able to get the big picture you are aiming for. In fact, utilising the edges of the medium as a design tool is a great trick in print design.

Standards Are Not Law

The size of the paper is important in print design and paper size standards are useful for saving costs, communicating ideas and more. That doesn’t mean that they must be followed on all projects no matter what.

Sometimes, a slightly larger paper size can boost the readability of a design and help it to stand out among the competition. A smaller than standard paper size may be just what the client needs to create a more easily-handled promo. Stick to the standards when it makes sense, but don’t be afraid to do something different if the situation calls for it!

Don’t Forget Readability

Although many of the trends of the last few years have focused more on graphic elements than actual content, the most attractive and eye-catching print design of all time won’t go far without readability. When good designers work on print projects with textual content, they know to put an emphasis on that content. However, far too many designers forget about content and miss out on the power of good typography as a design element.

Typography may actually be the biggest difference between professional print design and a random group of elements and text on a page. If the setup of a designer’s typography is poor, there is no amount of great elements or lines that will fix it. The fonts used in a design create the voice for its entire feel or connection with the audience. Good print designers consider what voice their designs should utilise and select five or more fonts to try before finally making a decision.

Don’t Settle on Poor Photos

Print designers should never make the mistake of settling for a poor quality image just to prevent an uncomfortable conversation with a client. The image resolution and quality of the photos used makes a major difference in the final product. A good design can make a good photo great and a poor design can make any photo terrible. It works the same the other way around. Low quality images will, without a doubt, result in an unprofessional design.

While this small sample of tips only provides a quick glance into great print design, it shows how the process is inherently more complex than it seems. Anyone can throw some words, colours and elements on a page, but very few can create a print design worthy of representing your business!

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Logo design is even more important in today’s fast-paced, online world. The need to stand out among the others is bigger than ever. These tips and tricks from professional designers provide some insight into great logo creation, but remember, these points only represent the tip of the iceberg in a very complex process.

Learning the Basics

Before one can even begin creating good logo designs, he must learn all the basics behind this process. Among other qualities, most successful logos are practical, graphic, distinctive, appropriate to the subject matter and simple in form.

Simple designs offer easy recognition and versatility in the logo world. Great logos include a unique or unexpected element without becoming overly complicated. Logos must also be memorable. One of the basic goals of logo design is to help customers and other parties to remember the company.

It is also important to focus on longevity when designing a logo. Once a company has established its brand and logo, the costs of switching to another one are high. For this reason, a good logo designer ensures that his logo will remain effective for many years.

Good logo also work effectively across many different applications and mediums. For example, a good logo design looks great on a billboard and on a mobile-friendly website. Even after meeting all these criteria, a logo cannot reach its full potential if it is not appropriate to its subject matter.

Avoid Clichés

When brainstorming, there are many elements that always come into mine for almost any purpose. For example, a designer trying to create an element to represent an “idea” will almost always think of a light bulb. One trying to portray an “international” symbol may think of a globe symbol.

However, these types of symbols are the first to come to mind for a reason, they are common. For a logo designer, common is not a good thing. A logo cannot stand out among the competition with basic, common elements. Designers must stay away from these visual clichés and use creativity to come up with a different element.

Research and Communication

Although some may believe it, logo design is about much more than creating something “pretty.” Professional logo designers understand that they are playing an important role in the development of an entire brand. They know that in-depth research is essential to success and communicate regularly with their clients throughout the process.

Communication between the designer and the company is especially important during the early stages of the process. It can be easy to misinterpret the direction or message a company needs in their logo, and a logo that doesn’t fulfil its true intended purpose is a complete failure. Clear, open communication in the beginning helps eliminate these problems.

While there are many more professional logo design tips out there, understanding the true importance and complexity of logo design is the true key. It is very rare that a great logo is created without the help of a professional designer, and a business with a sub-par or even average logo is simply missing opportunities for sales and value growth.

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The ancient pyramids and temples represent some of the first examples of mathematical theories and principles. Today, architectural design continues to rely on maths. Even if you spent your college calculus class daydreaming about the girl across the hall, these designs will leave you in awe.

The Tetrahedral Church

Technically, this design is a convex polyhedron with four triangular faces. For the sake of our sanity, we’ll call it a complex pyramid. A famous architect named Walter Netsch applied this geometric principle to the Cadet Chapel at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, in Colorado, USA. This astonishing example of modernist architecture consists of 17 spires and stands over 150 feet above its foundation. Built in the early 1960s, the project cost approximately $3,500,000 USD.

The Experimental Pavilion

Patrons at the 1958 World’s Fair were blown away by this incredible construction. The Philips Pavilion was the focus of the first Expo following World War II. Its creators wanted to show the world how much technological progress the country had made since the war began. Philips Electronics Company worked with an array of famous artists, composers and architects to design the pavilion. This bizarre structure utilises steel cables to support asymmetric hyperbolic paraboloids. If you don’t quite understand what that means, don’t worry about it. Just enjoy the view!

Algorithm Architecture

Using mathematical algorithms to alter the geometry of a cubic structure, the designers of Barcelona’s Endesa Pavilion created a truly eye-catching building. The algorithms are based on the orientation of the building and solar inclination. With the help of complex computer programs, algorithms can actually be used to create the perfect design for any location. Before designing the Endesa Pavilion, the architect tracked the movement of the sun from the exact proposed building location. Almost all of the planning and calculating was then done by the algorithm itself.

The Magical Gherkin

Many refer to London’s most famous skyscraper as “The Gherkin.” Although its namesake may make it be a simple vegetable, this 41-floor tower is about as complex as buildings get. Architects designed the 591-foot modern tower with parametric modelling and mathematical formulas in an attempt to minimise winds at its base. The final design maximises ventilation through its bulging centre and tapering top. Foster and Partners, the architectural firm credited for the building, receives continued praise for the buildings extremely energy-efficient design. “The Gherkin” uses only about half of the energy of similarly sized towers in the area.

Remember that day you rudely asked your maths teacher when you would EVER use maths in the REAL world…. Well, here’s your answer. The world of design often relies on mathematical principles to create naturally eye-catching elements. Although maths can look boring at first glance, the subject is far from dull. The best designers know how to use maths to catch the eye of viewers and establish consistency and patterns within their designs.

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