A Graphic Design Tip to Live By

What one graphic design tip can make or break your entire marketing campaign?

Copy reigns supreme.

That's right. You may be in love with all the design tricks out there, but if you muddy the waters of your message with all those gimmicks, guess what? The message is not going to get through.

That doesn't mean design isn't important. It is! But your designs need to be clean and neat and readable, not fancy and colorful and cutting-edge.

How do you do that?

You read the message first. Understand it. Think about who the prospect is. Who's going to be reading this message? Are they conservative? Young and hip? Blue collar worker or office executive?

Then match your design both to the message and the audience. Use a font that exudes elegance if you're selling something high-priced and exclusive. Use a font that says down-to-earth if you're selling to those blue collar workers.

Fancy fonts or not?

Don't use fancy fonts for the main text, either way. No calligraphy, no grunge fonts that are hard to read in small type.

If the message is going out in print, use a serif font; one with the small glyphs on the ends. If your message is going out via internet, use a sans serif font, like this one. No extra lines to decipher onscreen.

Is it tidy?

Keep the layout neat. Don't overuse rules or boxes. Leave plenty of white space between lines and paragraphs and around the borders of the message. Places to rest the eyes. Places that keep the message from looking like a dark, forbidding place no one wants to go to read.

If graphics are to be included, keep them in line with the message. Don't let the graphics shout while the text whispers. You'll kill the sales message.

To really understand design, you need more than this one design tip. So check out the other pages on design and you'll be an expert in no time!

If you want more graphic design tips, sign up for my free newsletter, Through the Marketing Maze , and you'll get monthly tips on graphic design, writing copy, and marketing.

If you need more in depth help, call me at 970-946-6005 to get on my schedule. Or contact me with this link to let me know what you need.

Thanks for your interest!


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