How to create powerful brand visuals

The Skinny

We all strive for the perfect visual appeal in every logo, web design, and storefront sign, but we can never seem to get it just right. The perfect visuals for every audience do not exist. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but those words speak differently to different audiences. So you may not be able to make the perfect visuals for everyone, but there are 5 ways to come pretty close.

The Fat

1. Balance

Tell your story through text AND visuals. Don’t have too much text, and don’t have too many graphics. It is all about balance. Start with a great lead image that will draw you your audience in. Then match that with an equally as powering lead in to what your webpage is going to be about.

2. Simplicity

You don’t need to do it all with the graphic. Whether designing on a budget or working as a professional, the struggle is doing too much.

If you try to add all the affects; the bold, underlined, drop shadow graphic featuring ten colors, your design will not look good. Keep it simple and make sure that whatever graphics you have online match the brand of your company.

A good rule of thumb: if it takes longer then a 30 seconds to explain then it is not helping your site.

3. Contrast

Say it with me,

“Light background, dark font. Dark background, light font.”

There is no point in having a graphic on your site if it is not readable. This is an easy concept that is often lost in the excitement of combining designs and writing. Contrast is key! Use contrast to pull people into your visual and highlight what is important.

4. White Space

Just because you have the whole page to work with, it doesn’t mean the whole page needs to be filled. Let your design have breathing room. Important aspects of your design should have space around it. Your branding is precious. Treat it with respect by having a clear space rule that makes sure your logo is never squished in the corner, or competing for space on your site.

5. Change

The perfect online visuals are always changing. As Lewis Howes points out in his latest podcast, we all can start with a rough depiction of what we would like to see in our designs, but as long as we keep improving, we can create something that we can really be proud of.

Making sure your designs are relevant and visually appealing while always being in brand with your company is also key. Knowing when to change and when it is okay to ignore the latest trend is probably the hardest part, but if you approach it as an ever-improving process, you may just wind up being one of the most well known brands in your space.

Don’t believe us? Just look at Pepsi’s logo changes over the years.