8 DESIGN

PRINCIPLES
THAT WILL HAVE YOU
LOOKING LIKE A PRO
1. FONTS MATTER
Clarity and readability is arguably THE most
important element of graphic design. Don’t restrict
your designs to only one font – but on the same hand
no more than 3 should be used. There is nothing more
confusing than a design that uses too many fonts and
styles.

Try to experiment with different font styles and

weights. For example – for a modern stylish and easy
to read design piece, use a sans serif font for body
copy and for headers or pull out quotes or things you
want to emphasise, consider using a serif font that
suits the subject matter.

EXPERIMENT WITH
DIFFERENT FONT STYLES
AND WEIGHTS

2. COLOURS TO
GIVE "POP"
In order to POP, use high impact colours and dynamic
images. High contrasting palettes like
magenta/white/grey or red/burnt orange/black
along with dynamic (subject suitable image/s) work
really well. Always maintain the cohesiveness of your
design and always aim to impress.

Adobe InDesign has a tutorial

https://helpx.adobe.com/au/indesign/how-
to/color-theme-tool.html that will teach you how to
create a complimentary colour palette from your
chosen image to make it easier for you to produce an
awesome, compliment inducing design.
3. DON'T BE AFRAID OF SPACE
Repeat after ME “Space is a Good. SPACE is goooood”. Space is so imperative to allow a reader to
clearly and easily comprehend a piece of design. The simplicity and awesomeness of a well-
spaced design is best displayed by brands such as Apple, VW and Sony. These brands allow the
image to do the talking. They use minimal, refined copy and in some cases… humor.
 3. IMAGES TO MAKE
IT, NOT BREAK IT
Ensure that the quality of images is always high
resolution, at least 300dpi, and consistent
throughout your design. For print purposes,
your image should be CMYK and for online it
should be RGB (and 72DPI – low res images
should ONLY be used online, never in printing).

You must also have the rights to use the

image… taking an image from google is not
only illegal and poor form but they are low
resolution. The best sites to purchase rights
free or rights managed high resolution imagery
are iStock, Shutterstock and Adobe imagery.

The quality, framing, style, proportions, and

lighting of those elements should all stay
consistent if you want a cohesive design. Icons,
diagrams and illustrations should be
meaningful and consistent also. A good free for
use website for finding icons and vector images
is Vecteezy and IconFinder but make sure to
credit the author appropriately according to
their T&Cs.

4. ALIGNMENT & FLOW

Alignment is determined usually by the image and the content. Allows allow ample spacing around
logos, icons, images and tables (remember do not be afraid of white space).

IMPORTANT TIP – there is such a thing as reading gravity. In most cultures you view a page from top
left to bottom right – meaning in most cases the most important things should be the first and last
thing the viewer sees, aside from the imagery of course – which stands out on its own.
5. CHARACTER &
PARAGRAPHY
STYLES
If you want to save yourself some time and sanity,
always set character and paragraph styles when
creating long documents. A good tutorial for how to
do this in InDesign can be found here -
https://helpx.adobe.com/au/indesign/how-to/text-
formatting-overview.html.

7. ITALICS IN
SMALL DOSES
When using italics font, use it carefully. It should
enhance your design, not confuse your viewer. It
should respectfully emphasis things like a quote or
footnote.

Italics should be used in small sentences only, avoid

using it at all in long sentences and paragraphs as it
is very difficult to read in large blocks and can throw
a design out.

8. BALANCE, BALANCE, BALANCE

If you want to be a stellar graphic designer, you need to learn about symmetry, balance and respect
the design process.

Ensure that the balance of a page is consistent. That it flows and respectfully incorporates space. The
document you’re working on should be evenly loaded on the left and right, up and down. It should
stand on its own and be the best example of BALANCE that it can be.
 THE
BRAND
ARCHITECT
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