With so many great tools and a short learning curve, most business owners and entrepreneurs are confident in their design skills. Design is an important part of your brand. It touches every part from your website to your social media. Every time you post a blog or create a landing page, design is just as important as the content. But if you’re not a professional, bad design could be hurting your brand.
So while you may be a subject matter expert in your field or be full of creative ideas, you’re not a designer. And it may be showing; and worse even, it could be hurting your credibility.
What designers know that you don’t:
- The value of white space: White space or negative space is just as important as the parts of the layout with design elements. There has to be a balance. Balance isn’t literal in terms of symmetry, it simply means that all parts of the layout are in proportion. Experienced designers understand this almost innately. It comes with many years of creating designs for many mediums.
- The power of a great palette: Designers understand which colors look best together. It’s not based on a guess or personal opinion, they are experts in how colors work together.
- Font pairing: Mixing fonts is a great way to add texture to a design. But it’s a science as well. Some fonts naturally complement each other. If you are inexperienced in this design application, your font choices may look dated and amateurish.
- Mastering alignment: Design pros optimize alignment in that each part of the design, whether it be text, logos or images. Alignment partners with the concepts of white space. When parts of the design or “off” or not aligned, it may attract viewers to focus on that rather than your great message.
- Contrast counts: Using contrast in design, presents a division between elements, which makes it easier to distinguish between sections. Think of a home page. Homepages of a website are packed with information that may include icons, hero images, forms and text. Using contrast creates clear separation within the design.
- Consistency: One of the most important parts of a brand is to be consistent in design. That means that your website, social media profiles, collateral and everything else need to have the same look. It’s not just about colors and font choice. It’s the type of imagery, the filters used and the perspective created.
These are just a few basic design principles, which are mastered with experience and practice. Think about this, every time you post your content on social media, and it’s accompanied by a less-than-stellar graphic, users keep scrolling. They won’t share your content or click on it. You’ve got a few seconds to get their attention. So even if you develop great, relevant content, no one is going to see it.
You should also consider the value of your time. What it may take you hours to create, a professional designer can develop in half the time. And don’t think that professional design isn’t budget-friendly. If you work with the right professional designer, you’ll be able to reap the return on that investment with better branding and higher conversions and engagements.
