If you're calling isn't in the design medium, yet you still want a little background, you're in luck! It's common for people who don't have design experience or training to make simple mistakes. Below are some helpful tips for non-designers to still be successful AND professional with any template or layout they're constructing.
1. Sometimes Less is a Little More
-This statement is in regards to all aspects of a design- type, graphics and clutter. A piece such as a resume, poster, business card, letterhead, banner, billboard ad, etc...will be more successful with controlled variety.
-Keep fonts to a minimum. Unless you're aware and can utilize several fonts, sticking to 2 or 3 is necessary for a non-designers.
-Color can be used for impact, but it doesn't have to look like a bag of skittles. Color can create contrast if utilized correctly, and minimizing to a few will do wonders and make that piece pop. (Kuler is an online website that offers fantastic color palettes!)
2. Centering Paragraphs? Just don't.
-Let's just be straight-forward and say that centering paragraphs looks cheezy, unprofessional, and just bad. Not only this, but it's also hard to read as well. Keep the centering aligning to headings, subheadings or professionals in general!
3. Font Caps
-Decorative font can add a lot to a piece, but let's not get to out of hand here people. Script fonts (Ex: Edwardian Script) in all capitals looks tacky and difficult to read. Font that's larger in size to the other text on the poster obviously states it's more primary information, so you don't need to add it all in caps to make the audience aware.
4. White Space
-This blog site can't stress enough on how important composition is. The white space (negative space) in any design is just as important as the graphics or text as well. White space has a form and shape too, so utilize it! Non-designers have a tendancy to cram as much information onto a layout as possible. Refer back to tip #1 please and say it with me- "Sometimes less is more". One sentence or graphic can often have the same meaning as 10. Be selective and separate out primary, secondary and tertiary information.
5. Proofread. Proofread. Proofread!
-Spellcheck doesn't always cut it. There's a little more to design than that. If you go to the character tablet in any program you're working with, you can change things like leading and word spacing which can really enhance the body copy in your work!
-If have any text on the layout you're designing, read through it yourself to not only catch grammatical errors, but if it makes sense and SOUNDS professional! Read it out loud in fact...lol...but really, I promise it will help and you will catch even more errors this way as well.
Here are some not-so-great examples of design pieces. Can you see identify the mistakes after reading some of these tips?
Below are some books for non-designers to further assist knowledge in the adobe programs. You can search for these books and look at the ratings...Looks like a good find to me!!
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