This Isn’t Abstract Art!

One of the hardest things you learn as a Graphic Designer is to simplify. It’s easy to fill a page with information, colors, and graphical treatments. Anyone can do that. The first thing we learn in school is how to operate filters in Photoshop and create garish word art. While they might be fun school projects, most clients won’t pay for that cool psychedelic landscape you painfully created.

Now, simplicity doesn’t mean that the design was easy to create, by any means…but, what it does mean is that if the presentation is so busy or flashy that there is no reference to the focal point, or it’s hard to find the meaning behind the design because of complexity, there’s a big problem… This isn’t abstract art!

Restraint is a subtle skill, the more you use restraint, the more sophisticated your work will become. Study Swiss Design to master simplicity at it’s best. Practice organizing your content into a Swiss Grid system. There are many templates available online that you can use. While it might seem rigid and restrictive at first, you will soon find out that it is commercially and visually appealing to many people.

Think Of Your Page As A Fish Bowl

Organize text first and then add in your images last. This will keep you from falling into the trap of treating your text as secondary and designing around the image. You can always go in and coordinate and tweak after you have added your images. Organize your images to gravitate the eye to the important information. You should be able to almost draw a line directionally from one corner to the opposite corner without falling off of the page.

Pair down your font choices to one or two font families and treatments. Create a set of colors that you want to use, makes sure they are in harmony with the rest of your piece. And as always, leave plenty of negative space. Make sure your text breathes and has plenty space around it. Your logo and contact information should also have adequate spacing.

Think of your page as a fish bowl where everything is living in harmony. Would you prefer to see so many fish swimming around that they are suffocating together or just a few healthy, happy fish with plenty of space?

11. Contact Information

OK, so you have your initial assignment. You have probably received enough information to get a good start toward its completion, but where do you turn when you encounter unforeseen complications or questions?

Don’t be afraid to get more than just a name and e-mail address from someone. You never know what your situation will be like while working on a project, so you need to make sure you will be able to get in touch with someone if necessary.

If your client seems reluctant to offer up additional methods of contact, reassure them that you are only concerned with the successful execution of the project and will only contact them when absolutely necessary. It can help ease the situation if you offer them your contact information as well. A professional business card is best.

The power of E-mail and phone calls

E-mail and phone calls serve in different ways. Having the ability to call your client and either speak with them immediately, or leave a voice or text message that delivers an instant prompt, is essential when you are working on a project with a rapidly approaching deadline. When you need answers or clarification on a real-time basis, phone calls and voice and text messaging are crucial.

The advantage of e-mail is both in its ability to be re-referenced and to serve as a record of accord between you and your client. A written expression of conceptual agreement and terms of contract will help you to avoid the frustration of wasting time and resources through misunderstandings and disagreements about results and contractual expectations and obligations. Another use for e-mail is to iterate and register your phone conversations. It is a good idea to follow up all of your phone conversations with a brief e-mail outlining the topic of your discussion and the resultant decisions that were made.