What do I know about Graphic Design?
It has been about 3 years now since I made my first website and since then I have learned many tips and tricks in terms of editing and processing images. I have learned about wire frames and static page designs. I have learned various techniques in Photoshop and Fireworks. And of course a little about grid based design. I have learned a little about colour schemes and what I know about typography could be written on the back of a postage stamp. But with no formal graphic design training and no previous appreciation of the visual arts, I still get by. How?
Any trained or experienced graphic designer will balk at what I’m going to say, but I’m putting out my two pennies worth anyway. Hopefully I’ll get a few pointers from the masters. A thumbs up for what I say is true and caution where I state something that is untrue.
My opening paragraph sums up pretty much what I know, but I’ll put them into a list. Just looking at the way some people divide up their stylesheets I can see that designing visually for the web comprises of three main areas.
- Layout
- Colour Schemes
- Typography
I’ll copy and paste from the back of my postage stamp on each of the above.
Layout
Use grid based design to play it safe so that you know that it’s going to work. Paint by numbers if you like. Choose your width and then divide by 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc. to get your columns and gutters. Use css to position content areas. Use the widths of the columns or multiples to get image widths. Plenty of whitespace to stop it getting too cluttered.
Colour Schemes
Start with a base colour and use a colour scheme tool to get a colour palette. Something like Color Schemer Studio or the various free online colour scheme tools. It’s not imaginative or creative but I know that it would work. Pick as many web safe colours as possible without ruining the palette. Make sure that there is plenty of contrast between the background and the text.
Typography
How many safe fonts are there? About 20 according to my last Google search. You could do different style sheets depending on browser I guess, if you have the time. But it still depends on the users machine. And the wider your audience the safer the font needs to be. There’s no point beavering away in Photoshop on a static layout only to find that users can’t view it. Start with a safe font in the first place.
Make sure it’s easy to read. That usually means font size. Nobody wants to squint. Make it bigger and get to the point, so you don’t have to write as much. And only use one font. Two at the most. Perhaps a different one for headings.
Design elements I keep seeing on websites
If the above is not enough to keep me on the straight and narrow, then here is another list of current trends seen all over the web. These have been around for a couple of years, which is a long time in terms of the web.
- Rounded corners
- Drop shadows
- Gradients
- One pixel borders
- Use of white space
- Reflection effect
All current at the time of writing so if you use any of the above effects, you’re not going to stick out like a sore thumb but blend into the background. Stylish and hip and something that’s acceptable. It will work and both your clients and users will be happy, at least until the real pioneers of graphic design push the boat out and create some new effects that take off.
So does that make me a graphic designer? I say no. I’m not a graphic artist, but more of a graphic craftsman. I know how to use the tools and put together something acceptable and usable. I play it safe so it will work. I copy others and steal their ideas. But who knows, these ideas have to come from somewhere and one day I may even come up with a few of my own. 