33 GRAPHIC DESIGN TIPS FOR BEGINNER DESIGNERS

Like many people on the Internet, I’m a self taught graphic designer. I’ve never taken a graphic design course in my life, and in my opinion, it’s a strength. Design is something you can definitely learn yourself, and there’s a wealth of information available on the Internet to do it.

 This collection of graphic design tips especially for a beginner designer, will shortcut a lot of learnings that I’ve picked up over the years through trial and error!
1. Never underestimate simplicity

A mistake many beginner designers make is to cram too much on their canvas. Too many colours, too many typefaces, too many elements. This creates a hectic feeling in their design and doesn’t allow the design to breathe on the page.

Regularly ask yourself: what would my work look like if I removed this element? Would it benefit? Of course you’d never do this with a key focus point for your design, but for background or supporting elements it’s good to always sense check.

2. Pair photography with colour blocks

Cue hipster photo.

Photography and design go hand in hand. It’s something I’ll be covering throughly throughout this post, discussing how best to pair text and photos to achieve a great composition.

One of my favourite effects to do this is to pair a colour block with a stunning shot. It’s simplistic, yet effective.

3. Stick to two typefaces…

And NEVER more than three per canvas.

If you’re working with text, one of the best ways to create a feeling of style and not of clutter, is to keep the amount of typefaces reduced to two. This is one of those examples where less definitely really is more.

4. … And make those typefaces fit like a glove

In the image example above, you can see that both the heading type and the supporting tagline both complement each other. Font pairing is a fantastic way to make your design ooze with class.

Play around with what fonts work with which, often you’ll find that a sans-serif body or supporting font will work well with a serif font for your header. It really is a case of trial and error.

Some resources on top notch typeface pairings:

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