Graphic Design Basics

So you need to create an invitation for an event. What’s the first thing you do?

Stare at a blank page and panic?

Let’s start by gathering some inspiration, explore possibilities and let our creative minds run wild.

Mood board magic.

There’s no rules to mood boards.

It’s just, when you look at the mood board, when you look at the board itself and you realize: “that’s exactly what I want to nail.”
That’s when you have an excellent mood board.

Or when you show it to someone, like, I’m thinking of something like this.
And when they see that, you get a smile, or a frown, or like an emotional reaction.

You’re like: okay, okay. You like it or you don’t like it?
Is it too stark? Is it too… You know.

If someone just gives you the flat expression, that’s probably because you only have images from Instagram, there.

There are plenty of ways to come up with ideas.
You can brainstorm, sketch or create a mood board.

What’s a mood board?
Well, it’s a magical collage of inspiration. It will give you a clear visual direction for your design project.

It can include photos, colors, descriptive words – just about anything!

So take a page and fill it up.

You can find inspiration everywhere from art to nature, on Pinterest or down the supermarket aisle.

Just make sure that images you choose compliment, not confuse what you’re communicating.

Once you have a magical mood board to guide and inspire you, it’s time to open up that designer’s toolbox.

Now that you’re clear on what you aim to communicate, it’s time to bring all your design elements together on the page.
You could just drop them all in there and hope for the best. Or… you could learn a few tips to master the art of layout!

Practise proximity.

The top tip I would have is:
Don’t be afraid to make lots of different versions of your design.

You don’t have to be super precious and super precise with the one design you’re making.

You can save out different versions and usually, what I say is, if you really can’t figure out how to nail a layout, just try to make different versions of it. And if you have, like, five versions of a design, you’ll be able to identify one of them that you like the most.

And then, maybe pick apart that one that you like the most and try to understand why that layout is more effective than the other four designs.

Say you’ve launched a new business and you’re designing the flyer for your opening day.
First of all, congratulations!

Tip one: practice proximity. Proximity sounds fancy but it’s actually pretty simple to achieve.
Take the elements that are related to each other and group them together.

So, for your opening day flyer, give the title its own space, then group the details like time and location together.
And what about the rest of your page?

Fill it with more stuff? No.

Tip two:
Embrace the negative space. The empty space around your elements helps the viewer to focus on them without distraction and gives balance to your design.

So, remember practice proximity and embrace the negative space.
You’ll master the art of layout in no time!

Imagine walking into your kitchen and finding flour all over the counter, pots and pans all over the floor.
Sounds stressful right?

This feeling applies in design, too.

When the elements of your page are all over the place, it feels a bit stressful.
But when they are aligned, it feels just right.

Ace alignment.

Elements on your page shouldn’t really feel like they’re floating freeform on the design.
Usually, you kind of want to anchor them to each other, and, even if some designs you see might seem like they’re floating, it’s usually a designer has really considered how it actually anchors to a grid, which is like an invisible grid on the design.

So yeah, usually, I try to say to my designers: hey just try to, you know, move this a little bit to the left, anchor it to that shape, or, you know, that person’s face, or the edge of this photo. And it usually just polishes it up a little bit.

Alignment is actually something you deal with every day.
Whenever you type an email, the text is aligned to the left automatically.

You can choose to align everything to the left, to the right, or straight down the center.
Whichever way you choose, keep it consistent.

Imagine an invisible line across your page that protects your elements from going astray.
Like a force field. Use this to align the edge of one element with another.

If your design is simple like a social post, one line should do.
If you have a lot of content, try using a grid.

A grid is alignment’s best friend. It creates an underlying structure that helps arrange all of your design elements.
Alignment is all about attention to detail.

Ace it and your stressed-out layout will becomes zen in no time!

How often do you open the font menu in Canva and think: what the font do I choose?
It comes back to what you aim to communicate.

Ask yourself: does this complement the purpose of my design?

The best font choices do just that.

What the font!?

I think about the message first, before trying to pick any fonts, because there’s so many out there.
So first, define what is the message of your design, and then try to pick fonts that match that message.

So, if it’s like a fun design, or you want to put out a fun message, you try to find a fun font.
And usually, what I do is try to categorize the fonts that I find into different areas.

What I do is I set up a cheat sheet for myself so that I have a list of fonts that are my favorite fonts, that I come
back to.

There are three font categories you need to know about: Serif, Sans Serif and Display.

A serif font has little feet called serifs attached to each letter – a classic style of design for books – the little feet guide your eye along lines of text.

Sans is French for without, so a Sans Serif font is without serifs – a modern style designed to look clean on digital screens.

Display fonts are designed for headlines. They can be bold, cute, elegant or downright, quirky. Because they have so much personality, you’re best to use them in small doses.

And my top tips: create a go-to list of your favorite fonts, from each category. Ones that are beautiful and a breeze to read. That way, when you ask what the font do I choose, the answer will come a whole lot easier.

So, how do you find the right match when you’re pairing two fonts?
Not by swiping right or left.

But I do have a few tips to help you find the perfect pair.

Opposites attract.

I pick fonts that are contrasting and complementary.
So, for example, you could pick a really bold sans-serif font and then pair it with a really light sans-serif font.

Or, alternatively you might mix serif and sans-serif together or, you know, you can pick something that’s like round and sort of match it with something tall, so that they’re kind of two voices that feel very different in your design.

If they’re too similar, it can feel a little bit uncomfortable, because you’re trying to figure out what the difference is between the fonts.

And also, making sure that the fonts have the same sort of message, so it feels really clear in your design.

In design much like in life, you want to avoid conflict.
When you pair two fonts that are similar, you can’t create contrast.

Instead of looking like they belong together, it just feels a bit off.

The easiest way to pair fonts is to use one font family.
Pick a font with different weights, like light, medium and bold, and you can create contrast and comfort, knowing your fonts were meant to be together.

Or try a super family.
What makes them so super?

These families cross classifications, but have been crafted to work together in harmony. Like Noto Sans and Noto Serif.
If you’re feeling brave, try pairing two different fonts.

Remember the saying: opposites attract!
Fonts that are opposite create contrast, not conflict.

Peer expressive with neutral, tall with short, or serif with sans serif.
Follow these tips and you’ll be well on your way to finding the perfect match.

When people say a design pops, what do they mean?
A design that pops, grabs your attention.

You know where to look first and what’s most important.
There’s a focal point that jumps out of the page and into your memory.

Make it pop!

Sometimes, it’s can be like, limiting the colors and repetition.
If you look at this, it’s repetition. I’ve got clouds, I’ve got the blue and white stripes.
I’ve got a giraffe and I’ve got leaves.

There’s four elements in there and I’ve just repeated them, and repeated, and so repetition can really make a design pop.

Limiting your colors can really make it pop and, what I’ve done is, I used bright colors, like pastel colors, because they really contrast with my black lines.

To create a design that pops, you need contrast.
Contrast simply means difference.

Light and dark, big and small, bold and subtle, the key here is: don’t be a wimp.
Brown with black won’t create contrast. Neither will a size ten font with a size 14.

Be brave and play up those differences.
Once you’re clear on contrast, you can use it to create hierarchy.

Visual hierarchy helps the viewer know the importance of each element in your design in relation to the rest.

Imagine your audience only has a few seconds to see your design.
What’s the most important thing they need to take away?

Make this the biggest, boldest or brightest.
Remember, when everything stands out, nothing stands out.

So be brave, push for contrast and hierarchy in your design, and you’ll surely make it pop!

Color, my favorite subject!
There’s so much to cover on this topic.

But let’s start with a refresher on the basics.
The color wheel helps us to visualize the relationships between colors.

So we can see which look good together and which don’t.

Color harmony.

So, what I want to try to do is match the message. Because colors have inherent meaning in them.
Whether we know it or not, it’s really imbued into our culture what colors mean.

So really understanding the meaning behind each color is really helpful.
It also means different things in other cultures as well, so that’s really good to know.

Then identifying the hero color for the design, so picking a main color.

If I’m designing a Valentine’s Day card, I might want to go with a classic pink, a magenta color.
I want it to be really energetic so I’m gonna tone up the saturation a little bit and make it really bright.

Then, secondly, I want to find complementary colors to match that hero color.

Remember learning about primary colors at school?
Primary colors are mixed to make secondary colors.
Secondary are mixed to make tertiary colors.

And all together they form the wonderful color wheel.

Here is where color harmony steps in.

It uses the wheel to illustrate harmonious combos with funky names like analogous, complimentary and triad.
Analogous colors sit next to each other on the wheel.
Complementary colors sit opposite each other on the wheel.
If contrast is what you’re after, so you can’t go wrong with this approach.

If you’re feeling bold, branch out further and try a split complementary, or triadic.

That’s your basic rainbow covered. More on color in our next episode!

Have you ever wondered if you should use a warm or a cool color in your design?
And why are they called that anyway?

Let’s dive a little deeper into color theory and find out.

Tints and shades.

Using colors that are on other sides of the color wheel, I think.
So you got pink and blue, yellow and blue, orange and blue looking really good together.

And light colors, like pastel colors. What I find is: make sure they’re bright, don’t try to mix your colors.
If you try to make a green out of mixing blue and yellow, it can be like a kaki green. Kaki is not so good. I don’t like kaki, I like brighter colors.

A lot of the times, I get like a green and then mix white with it. Orange? Mix white with it.

Let’s return to our color wheel.
If you draw a little down the middle, you’ll separate warm colors from cool colors.

In design, warm colors are energizing and stand out. And cool colors are calming and recede.
So if there’s something you want to draw attention to in your design, making it red or yellow might do the trick.

Diving into colors beyond what we see on the wheel, we find tints and shades.
Start with a colour and make it lighter. Now, you have a tint. Start again and make it darker, now you have a shade.

Tints and shades add richness and variety to your color palette, as well as contrast.
So broaden you palette and experiment with warm and cool, tints and shades.

Your design will thank you for it.

Now that we’ve got the basics covered, are you ready to pick a color palette for your design?
With a world of color to choose from, it could still get a bit overwhelming.

But don’t panic, we’ve got a few tips for creating amazing color combos.

Choose you color.

I’m doing a children’s book. You learn the theory of color, you learn about complementary colors, and shades of colors, and tints, and you look around and you see that the sky is not always blue, at night. You know the sky can be a dark purple and sometimes it’s pink. And sometimes it’s orange.

We’ve been taught that the sky is blue and the sea is blue and the grass is green.
But take a look around you and you’ll realize that it’s not.

Colors have an amazing ability to attract attention and trigger emotion.
Every hue has something to say. So when you’re creating a palette, remember what you’re aiming to communicate.

Are you opening a yoga studio? Perhaps work with cool and calming colors.
Are you promoting an exciting event? Warm and vibrant colors will make it pop.

The more colors you use, the harder it is to balance them.

My tip: use three or four colors max. Some vibrant colors and some neutrals to give contrast to your design.

Once you sharpen your eye for color, you’ll find inspiration everywhere.
An Andy Warhol painting, a book cover, tonight’s sunset.

I look forward to seeing what color palettes you create!

I love photos, you love photos, we all love photos.
Our brains process imagery way faster than words.

So before anyone reads the text in your design, they’ve probably decided if they care, based on the image you’ve chosen.
Photos are your chance at a good first impression.

Photo love.

If I’m a brand around experiences, I might choose photography because I really want to get people to understand the specifics of that experience.
Photography is this wide in terms of what you go down in: black and white, colorm vibrant all of this. Studio shot, on-location.

An image can communicate your idea in an instant and, since design is all about communication, it’s an easy win.
The right photo can transform your design into something special.
But it’s not as easy as adding a cute puppy pic.

Here’s three things to consider:

One, avoid cheesy and cliche. Broaden your search and look for results that are relevant but also unique in some way.
Two, composition is key. Use scale to zoom in on a focal point and crop to remove distractions. Or try composing with the rule of thirds.
Three, give contrast to your text. If you’re adding text of your image, look for options with lots of negative space, or any transparent layer to provide contrast.

Follow these tips and you’ll create a design worth a thousand words.

So you’ve created an amazing design. Yes!
As we’ve discovered in this series, design is all about communicating so it would be a shame to keep your design all to yourself.

The time has come to share it with the world.

Share and publish.

By the time anything goes out to the public, is printed, gets published online, we’ve gone through like ten rounds of feedback. Internally, externally, with clients. good users, with babies.
So I don’t think of feedback as the end result and even more so. Share it! The sooner the better.

Before sharing your design with the world, get a fresh perspective. Ask a few people for feedback.
Feedback is like your worst best friend. It can be hard to hear, but it can also make a design so much better.

Now, time to publish.
From Canva, you can post straight to Facebook, or present straight to the boardroom.
If you’re downloading your design, there’s a few formats to know about.

JPEGs are good if you need a small file size.
PNGs are good if you need to download your design with a transparent background. Handy for things like logos.
And PDFs are great for packaging a multi-page design into one file.

Thanks for watching Canva Design School.

I look forward to seeing what you can create.