photo by karen horton
Here are some excellent tips from Before and After magazine for the non-designer forced to play graphic designer due to a lack of budget or personnel. It’s a short post, but in a nutshell:
- Type, image and space are the three basic elements of design.
- Before you design anything, know what you’re trying to communicate.
- All design elements have a purpose and should related to one another.
- Consistency strengthens brand.
- Many designers don’t know their typography.
- Overuse of decorative type, gimmicky embellishments and an overall “sameness” to the page are sure signs of an amateur.
There’s more, so be sure to check it out. Before & After is a great resource for practical design tips, tutorials and templates that can help you learn to fake being a designer when your options are limited. You can subscribe either to the print or PDF edition, or even purchase individual articles.
I recently tweaked a newsletter template I got from B&A to produce my nonprofit’s annual report. Other than the photography and reprographic costs, my budget going this route was minimal since I wrote and produced it. In today’s tight times, this kind of resource is essential.
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{ 4 comments }
Aha! You got me: 1) using limited funds wisely by saving for the more important projects and 2) informed/educated clients are always better. Both are true, and then some.
Thanks for the blog; it’s going to be fun participating in this ongoing conversation with you…
Cheers,
Loren
Thank you for playing our game. You and I still need to get together for lunch. Let me know what looks good for you.
Hey, Dan. I love the pointers here, but, in this economy, there are tons of professional designers that will come at least halfway on price with you, and the benefits are numerous: #1 you get your time back — thereby gaining your company valuable resources, #2 you get a better product (most often), and #3 you look good to your superiors for #1 and #2. I know that I have quite a few friends (unfortunately with smaller business overhead than I have) who are doing beautiful bargain-basement design for clients out of their dining rooms, just to make ends meet.
But I second your endorsement of Before & After: even for designers, B&A has a wealth of resources that can “kick-start” the imagination and pull us out of a creative rut. I always enjoy browsing their site, for the same reason I like to visit the Getty or LACMA: creative juice.
And, since I cannot recommend my blog for this site, since I’m not involved in writing (but I am involved in communication! Okay, here it is: http://www.hearkencreative.com/category/blog ), I would like to recommend that you add “Made to Stick” to your blogroll: http://www.madetostick.com/blog/ — they (and their book of the same name) helped me understand one of the “x-factor” elements of communication that can be the difference between a successful message and a message disaster. Can’t recommend it enough.
Cheers,
Loren
You’re right of course; there are many excellent designers and great deals to be had in today’s economy. Even so, limited budgets mean there are times when you have to do it yourself. One consequence of getting their hands dirty might be that more design clients will develop a stronger understanding of the value of great design, the work that goes into it and the integral place it occupies in the communication process. And maybe they won’t try to bargain you down to ridiculous commodity-level prices. In the long run an informed client makes for a better working relationship.
I think you know me well enough to know that I value top-notch graphic design as much as anyone. But when I’m stretching limited budgets to build a communications program from scratch, I can live with being hands-on with some projects if it means ensuring I have sufficient dollars to use a real pro on the most important work.
As for Made to Stick, it’s on my short list of the great communication books. And now it’s on my blog roll. Thanks for the suggestion.
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