need to imbibe the golden rules of the job.
15 Golden Rules of Graphic Design
Do you want to be at the top of your game as a graphic designer? If you do, then this post provides golden rules you need to maintain.
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Although many people don’t realize it, every nook and cranny of the world we live in is full of graphic design. It can be found everywhere, right before our eyes.
As a result of this, there is a weighty responsibility for graphic designers to create mind-blowing designs.
To achieve this, they would have to follow some basic rules to ensure their designs are distinct and unique.
Here are some golden rules and guides to follow when creating your designs:
- Less is more
- Never disregard legibility for aesthetic reasons
- Avoid the use of too many colors
- Keep line lengths short
- Be careful with your use of effects
- Ensure that your image proportions are scaled correctly
- Create your signature
- Always use a grid
- Your design elements should be properly aligned
- Create white space in your designs
- Ensure you have a consistent font palette
- Abstain from raster-based images
- Establish a visual hierarchy in your designs
- Pay attention to your spelling, grammar, and punctuation
- Break the rules of graphic design
Top 15 Golden Rules of Graphic Design
- Less is more
As a graphic designer, it is crucial to leave only key elements to your graphic solutions and simplify your work.
One thing that is prominent among inexperienced graphic designers is how they mix multiple fonts and cuts in one design.
Being simple doesn’t mean utter minimalism. It means you should try and stick to one dimension of purity in other to elevate your graphic expression.
- Never disregard legibility for aesthetic reasons
One primary aim of a design is communication. So, legibility and readability is a top priority.
If there is low contrast between the background and the text, it becomes challenging to read what is written in your designs so, ensure that your contrast is high.
Moreover, it is also essential to consider your audience when choosing your type size. Always ensure it is clear and legible enough.
- Avoid the use of too many colors
It is essential to use suitable colors for your designs, but when it becomes too much, it becomes a disaster.
Always ensure to compile a simple and consistent color palette for your projects so that your message isn’t distracting but well understood.
- Keep line lengths short
When the line length of any written piece is poorly structured, it can make it seem boring or cause readers to lose interest.
As a designer, it is crucial to ensure that your line length has a minimum of six words per line with not more than 30-40 characters, including the spaces on each line.
- Be careful with your use of effects
Almost all graphic software comes with many powerful effects and filters you can use on your designs.
If you overuse it with too many special effects like tint gradients or shadows, you’ll move towards an aesthetically muted and bloated image.
Keep your use of effects unique and straightforward.
- Ensure that your image proportions are scaled correctly
As a graphic designer, you can always experiment with image scales and sizes, but be careful not to stretch logos or photos, so they don’t look untidy in print or online.
When the headshots or landscapes in your photos are distorted, it could make them appear unprofessional.
- Create your signature
It is commonly said that coming up with something new as a graphic artist might be impossible since all designs have been done already.
However, it’s not entirely true because not all ideas or variations have been seen or discovered.
Graphic design is a broad concept, and as a designer, you can create something entirely new and distinct.
- Always use a grid
Developing some basic grid skills should be one of the first steps a fledging designer should undertake.
A well-structured grid can transform an average design into something clear, clean, and effective.
Grids come in various sizes and shapes, so; you can build them to be flexible enough to suit whatever design you want them to.
- Your design elements should be properly aligned
When design elements are randomly scattered on a page, it becomes an eyesore.
No one would be comfortable reading a disorganized or messy flyer or advert.
Ensure that your design elements are aligned in such a manner that they attract the attention of readers.
- Create white space in your designs
It is essential to create white space in your designs. White space in your designs means little or no clutter, and it also gives readers a chance to rest their eyes and brains.
Creating white space in your designs helps it breathe and take in its surroundings.
- Ensure you have a consistent font palette
You should have a carefully selected palette for your fonts. Like some colors, some fonts have certain ’emotions’ or ‘moods’ associated with them.
For instance, it would be unprofessional to use Curlz MT for a law firm branding.
Always ensure that you consider the brand of your design before choosing a font palette.
- Abstain from raster-based images
Newcomers to graphic design often use raster-based images in their design.
Whenever they try to reduce or enlarge the size of such images, they wind up the pixilation.
Subsequently, this mistake can be avoided by using larger images with higher resolutions; this can help to keep them crisp even after they are scaled.
- Establish a visual hierarchy in your designs
This is very important for pages that have different items of text. There are some essential items that you should highlight using color and size to draw viewers’ attention.
- Pay attention to your spelling, grammar, and punctuation
As a graphic designer, you can severe your relationship with a potential client by making grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.
It’s normal to make a few typo errors sometimes, but a bunch of mistakes could rid you of good clients, so; always make sure to check for mistakes and proofread.
- Break the rules of graphic design
One thing you must understand as a graphic designer is that rules are made to be broken.
So, it’s okay to break some rules to create exceptional trends.
However, you must make sure you understand all the rules properly before going ahead to break them.
Conclusion
This page has provided some of the important golden rules of graphic designing; applying all these rules to your designs will keep you at the top of your game and win you prominent clients.
Therefore, you should try as much as possible to adhere to them.