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2.2. From clueless to expert:

graphic design crash course
“Styles come and go. Good design is a language, not a style.” - Massimo Vignello

As a social media manager, you will most likely be responsible for creating graphics
on your client’s social media.

Visual design is a massive field with graphic designers spending years to perfect this
skill.

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 A social media manager is NOT a graphic designer however, most clients do not
understand this so you will find them expecting you to know the basics of design.

I would recommend you stay away from job posts that are looking for a graphic
designer with experience with professional graphic design tools such as Adobe
Photoshop, InDesign etc. If they want this level of design then they need to hire a
graphic designer. In my experience, many of my clients had a dedicated graphic
designer.

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 Depending on the size of your organization, they may not have a graphic designer so
you will be responsible for creating graphics.

In the upcoming lessons, I will show you to create your own graphics using Canva
but before we do that, you need to understand the basics of design.

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 Visual Hierarchy in Graphic Design refers to arranging things in an image so that the
most important elements are seen first.

People usually look at a design for only 8 seconds, so it's important to set up the
picture in a way that quickly tells them what's important. This means putting the
important things in the design where people can see them first.

Example:

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 Remember: The whole point of following these principles is so that we create
graphics that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but that guide the viewer’s eye to
the most important content we want them to see.

1. Size and Scale

Size and scale are one of the core principles of graphic design, and they can affect
on the meaning of your design and it can help the viewer to identify easily the most
important elements from your design and focus on the main information.

Size is simply how small or big an element is in relation to other objects within a
design. Generally, we use size to make a particular element stand out or to give it
importance. However, size becomes a much more powerful design tool when it is
considered alongside scale.

Scale refers to the relative size of an element in a design when compared to

another element. It is responsible for creating a visual hierarchy among elements of
your creation

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 2. Color and Contrast

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 Color theory refers to the study of how colors are used, also called “color palettes” in
graphic design.

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 This is an advanced topic that is too broad to cover here but make time to research
color theory and color palettes.

E.g. Article about bad colour combinations

https://approval.studio/blog/worst-color-combinations/

Contrast

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 As a principle of art, contrast refers to the arrangement of opposite elements and
effects. For example, light and dark colors, smooth and rough textures, large
and small shapes.

Contrast causes the eye to be drawn to a particular area.

You can have contrast of colour, size, shape or typography.

An excess of contrast creates tension and confusion in a composition. The design

may come across as messy or too busy.

Let’s focus on contrast of color, as this often one of the biggest mistakes I see with
student designs.

Using colors with low contrast between the background and text can make it difficult
for users to read the content

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 More examples:

https://anchorpointegraphics.com/choosing-colors-for-signs/

Now that we have gone through this, you can help me anaylze some past student
submissions

Student submission #1

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 Student submission #2

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 3. Typographic Hierachy

Typographic hierarchy in graphic design is a system used to organize in a visual way

using typography the order of importance of the information shown in the design,
where the title will be the most important element, and it will be bigger than the body
text, and that will help the viewer to easily identify the main topic of the design.

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 4. Spacing

Spacing in the visual hierarchy is used to give all your graphic elements in design
more space and room to breathe, and this will make it easier for the viewer to identify
all objects in your design

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 5. Alignment

Alignment refers to the way the different elements in a design are lined up in
relation to each other or to a particular part of the page.

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 Student submission examples

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 Let’s Recap

Visual Hierarchy in Graphic Design refers to arranging things in an image so that the
most important elements are seen first.

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 When in doubt: KEEP IT SIMPLE

My best advice if you are new to design is to stick to Canva templates and try not to
make too many changes. The templates on Canva are designed by professionals so
they usually follow good design principles. We will learn how to use Canva in the
next lesson.

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