One of the most important brand elements for an organization is its logo. This is what customers learn to associate with the brand in addition to other brand elements like corporate colors. The logo becomes an important part of the company’s trademark. This is important information for a graphics designer to be aware of when they are designing a corporate logo so that they can treat it with the importance it requires.

A designer therefore needs to pay closer attention when designing a logo to ensure that it’s symmetrical, and well represents the brand. One of the ways of achieving this is by making use of grids when designing. This is applicable for both experienced and amateur designers.

Below are 3 reasons why you should use grids during logo design.

#1 Grids help in keeping your work more organized

When using grids during logo design, they give you a clear picture of the actual space the logo will occupy. When you’re conscious about this, you are better placed to keep your work more organized as you will be able to use the correct spacing between the logo and the tagline, ensure things are well aligned, among other things. This will even help you do your design work much faster.

#2 Grids help you experiment more with your creativity

As mentioned above, grids help you have a clear picture of the space the logo will occupy. When you are able to visualize this you find it easier to experiment with creativity as ideas flow in your head about how to make good use of the space around the logo.

#3 Grids help in ensuring consistency, proportion, and harmony

When you use grids while doing the logo design, it will become much easier to ensure consistency, proportion and harmony in your work. This is because grids provide you a guide on how and where to place the different components of your logo and because grids in their nature are perfectly calculated and balanced, they ensure your logo has perfect structural harmony.

If you’re new to design, grids are good and they have tremendous value to the design process. It’s however important to also know that you can still do your design perfectly without having to use grids but, they still are pretty useful design tools that you should make a point of using as frequently as you can. They will make the design process pretty easy and rewarding.

Many newbies in graphics design often find themselves prioritizing their design skills assuming that’s all they will need in order to be successful in their design career. This however is a misconception. You may be the best designer out there but this is not sufficient to guarantee you success in your design career. There are additional personal attributes that you need to focus on developing much in the same way you have focused on developing your design skills.

Here are 3 characteristics of a successful graphics designer.

#1 You must be open to criticism

For you to succeed in the design industry you must learn to be open to criticism and this will require you to develop thick skin. You are guaranteed to come across people who will criticize your work and this is perfectly normal. People may not see things the same way you do and this is perfectly fine. Don’t let criticism weigh you down, take it positively and let it help you grow. This is a quality you will strengthen over time as it doesn’t come overnight.

#2 You must have self-honesty

For a designer to have a successful career, they must learn to be honest with themselves. In the course of producing work for your clients, you need to always assess yourself and find out whether you are doing your best work. Many designers tend to get comfortable when they are not being challenged enough and may resort to producing design work that is just ok for the task but not the best. It’s important to be honest with yourself as to whether you have done or are doing everything possible to ensure you are the best version of yourself both professionally and personally.

#3 You must be a logical thinker

For a designer to be successful in their careers they must be logical thinkers. In fact this is one of the main differences between an average designer and a great designer. The way you approach your clients’ jobs has to be logical and well thought out. Each project needs to be approached keeping the end user in mind. This will make you know the best software design program to work with, as well as other design considerations. Logical thinking will also apply in other areas such as your career progression and the skills you focus on strengthening.

There are of course other skills like good communication which are rather too obvious so we won’t get into that. All in all take your time and hone the above skills and you can be assured of a successful design career.

Every budding graphics designer desires to be the best. They look at other professionals who have made it in the design industry and wish they could enjoy such success. This is very possible if they are willing to learn. No designer is born knowing everything. It took time to hone their skills. Beginners in design therefore have the advantage of learning from those who have been around before them so that they can able to avoid some of the mistakes made by amateurs.

Here are 6 basic tips from a professional designer.

1 The minimum line height to use is 1.6 inches

When adding text to your design, many beginners in design have always wondered what the best line height is. Well, you must ensure that whatever line height you choose to use, the minimum must be at least 1.6 inches. This will ensure your text doesn’t appear too crowded.

2 Restrict yourself to two font types

You may have an arsenal of fonts in your design studio but it’s unnecessary to use them all in your design work. As a rule of thumb, try to restrict yourself to two font types and ensure they combine well. Ideally, one type should be for your headings and the other for the body.

3 Short paragraphs are better than long ones

When incorporating text in graphics design, the idea is to use them as a way of enhancing your communication. Therefore, you must learn to use short and concise paragraphs that the audience will quickly read and understand. As a rule, your lines should have 58 characters max.

4 Limit yourself to two font colors

You may be tempted to use colors to make your design appear more vibrant but it’s advisable to restrict yourself to two colors for your fonts which blend well and are part of what you’re trying to communicate. For instance, you can use one color for user-action phrases and another color for branding items.

5 It’s OK to borrow ideas from others

Copying in design is a huge NO! But borrowing ideas is perfectly fine. You can therefore lift an idea you have seen a designer use in another website but don’t copy the entire website. Part of developing ideas is improving on other people’s already existing ideas.

6 Spacing between text is important

When using text in design, don’t forget to space in between lines of text. A space after a line for instance between the heading and body enables the reader to see the distinction. Failure to include space will create the impression that it’s a continuous paragraph.

These are things that a designer will learn to perfect over time therefore you shouldn’t pressure yourself into figuring things out quick. As long as you have the willingness to learn, you should be ok.

Color is probably the most essential element in graphic design as it’s potentially the first thing that your audience will notice. It’s therefore important to get the colors right and through them, you get to express non-verbal cues such as the mood and tone of your message, as well as other feelings that you intend to elicit from your audience.

As a designer, it’s therefore very important for you to master the art of ensuring that the colors you choose to use in your design are in perfect harmony. This will ensure that your audience has a good visual experience as their eyes are the first point of contact with your design.

Let’s take a look at the 3 basic ways of achieving color harmony in your design.

#1 Grouping similar colors together

Every designer must be familiar with the color wheel and have a pretty good idea where the different colors they use fall on this wheel. Similar colors are placed close to each other on the color wheel as an indication that they can be used together to provide the right contrast, elicit or strengthen a certain emotional response, and also ensure there is proper transition between different sections of your design. Colors don’t just mix randomly. There must be some form of order which will be dictated by the grouping the colors fall under.

#2 Taking the monochromatic approach

In some instances in graphic design, less is more. This means that the best way to bring out your design is using as little color varieties as possible. This is when you can consider the monochromatic approach which simply involves using different shades and tones of a single color in your design. Many designers actually see this as a safer option as at it helps prevent some of the mistakes many of them make while trying to achieve color harmony. To simplify this a bit, as an example you may opt to use different shades of green in your design to achieve color harmony.

#3 The complementary approach

The complementary approach is another common method that designers use, and this will mostly be applied by experienced designers as well as those who enjoy thinking outside the box and taking a bit of risks in their design work. This method involves using colors that are literally opposites to achieve color harmony. It will involve blending a warm color with a cool color, or a bright color with a dull color. The trick is to ensure that the two or more colors perfectly blend in order to bring out your desired feel.

As designers, it’s important to know that taking risks in design is good, but it has to be done within the confines of the basic rules. The rules of color harmony must always be taken into consideration. All in all, you must be bold and willing to experiment. After all, whoever came up with these rules must have done plenty of trial and error therefore, who are you not to.