12 Secrets Graphic Designers Don’t Want You To Know

Rick, the newly appointed social media manager, was holding for his head, distress rising with each Graphic Design for Beginners article he read. He was trying to learn graphic design to improve the reach of his company’s social posts.

Just hours before, in a company meeting, his boss was throwing Google Analytic reports around showing little to no growth of visitors coming to their new webpage. A webpage which they’ve spend thousands of dollars on, and Rick was the culprit.

He regretted taking his promotion as a social media manager.

And then, just before giving up…
BINGO!

This is what Rick has stumbled upon, and this is what improved his game by 1200%.

12 Secrets

Each great design ever made respects at least one of the following secrets. Even if you are not a graphic designer and you are only looking for graphic design ideas, or a how to create graphics, these secrets will help to steer you in the right direction.

1st secret: LINE

It is one of the plainest visual elements, but it certainly shouldn’t be underrated. The line can be a supportive or crucial design element. The line can add structure, frame or divide information, add hierarchy and emphasis, decorate and draw the eye to a specific point.

They can be straight, curved, solid, dashed, thick or thin.

2nd secret: COLOUR

It is a second key visual element. We divide colours into the following categories:

• primary colours
• secondary colours
• tertiary colours
• cold and warm colours

Depending on the impact we want to achieve, designers use mostly these colour schemes:

• monochromatic — balanced and comfortable for the eye
• analogous — also balanced but more interesting to the eye
• complimentary — high in contrast, exciting to the eye
• triadic — vibrant to the eye

3rd secret: SHAPE

They have two dimensions, and we measure them by their width and height. They can be defined by lines as their boundaries, colour as their fill and can be created using negative space.

Designers separate them into two distinctive groups:

• geometric shapes
• organic shapes

4th secret: TEXTURE

As with shapes, also textures are defined by lines, colour or negative space.

We know two types of textures:

• organic textures
• geometric textures

5th secret: SPACE

There is positive and negative space, and you can use proximity, overlap, opacity, light, shadow and perspective to create visual effects.

6th secret: FORM

Form has three dimensions and is in respect of shapes, also measured in depth.

The only way to define a form is the presence of shadows on surfaces or faces of an object.

As with shapes, you can classify form in two distinctive categories:

• organic forms
• geometric forms

7th secret: TYPOGRAPHY

Letters can have a functional or a decorative/creative role in design. Study well which font works best for the emotion you want to portray and use them wisely.

With time, designers developed a plethora of type categories:

• Sans Serif
• Serif
• Slab Serif
• Rounded
• Script
• Blackletter
• Decorative
• Abstract

8th secret: CONTRAST

It occurs when two or more visual elements in a composition are different. It is a great way, to make things stand out the way you want them.

9th secret: HIERARCHY

Visual hierarchy is an arrangement of elements in a way that implies importance. In other words, hierarchy influences the order in which our eye chooses to look at presented design elements.

Designers use:

• hierarchy in scale
• hierarchy in colour
• hierarchy in space
• hierarchy in perspective
• hierarchy in depth

10th secret: ALIGNMENT

A design principle which allows you to arrange elements in a way that matches how viewers scan the page. It also balances your design, so that is visually appealing, and creates a visual connection between related components.

We can align to the edge or to centre.

11th secret: BALANCE

As the title implies, this fundamental principle offers balance.

There are three types of balances:

• symmetrical balance (formal)
• asymmetrical balance (informal)
• radial balance

12th secret: PROXIMITY

When designers place shapes together, they create a relationship between them. Look at the examples below, and you will see, that with the right proximity, we created an entirely new element in negative space. But check what happens, if we move the elements just slightly.

Now go and try to incorporate at least 3–4 of the above principles into your next design. I would love to see how it turns out!

My digital unicorns would like to bring you some emails. 🦄
You love unicorns, don’t you?