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Not all design can be considered great, or even good for that matter. Great design must convey a message quickly and cleanly, with little guesswork. Your audience should never have to guess what it is you're trying to say. Some of the more popular tools used by graphic artists today are, the Adobe products (Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, InDesign), along with web applications such as Dreamweaver. Here are some tips you can use if you're just starting out in the graphic design field.

Too Many Fonts

You should strive to keep the number of fonts to no more than two. I typically prefer a serif font, which is a font that has "feet" if you will, such as Times, for body copy. Then I create my headlines with a san serif font such as Helvetica to distinguish paragraphs from one another. Too often, a novice designer will attempt to experiment with too many different fonts in the same piece. Keep it down to two if possible.

Too Many Design Elements

Another issue concerning novice designers is that they tend to cram in as many visuals as they can. All in a bid to display their design skills. It's important to remember that you are trying to convey a message and get the viewer to react to your design. You are not trying to show off your design skills because more often than not, you will create an eyesore and distract the viewer.

Colors

Like all of the other elements in your piece, you should control the amount of colors used. Generally, two complementing colors should be used, with a third color for accent. This is a general rule so you can be flexible. Just remember, keep it simple!

Keep It In The Family

It's important that all of the elements in your piece complement one another. Each image you use should relate to any other image in the piece, thereby creating a consistent theme to your piece.

I hope these guidelines can help you be a better designer. Keep in mind that you want to reel the user in so keep it simple, legible and attractive. If you can master this idea, you're on your way to a great career in graphic design.

About Author:
Steven Pepe has worked in the design field for over 15 years in both employee and freelancer roles. He has worked in many capacities from print to interactive media and is the founder of BuyLance.com. Mr. Pepe can be contacted by email at stevenpepe@buylance.com

Article provided by webmastertips.us

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So you've decided you want so have a website designed for your company. You've had a brainstorming meeting with your staff and are starting to think about what you consider to be the important aspects of the site; what colours to use, where you want your pictures to appear and whether or not your web designer should make your logo spin from right to left or from left to right. Stop! There are far more important considerations that need to be made and this article will tell you the main things that cannot be overlooked by a website designer if their intention is to build a successful business website that will deliver a return on your investment.

1. The Goal of the Website

The goal of the website needs to be carved in stone; well I suppose just writing it down would suffice! What do you want to achieve by having the website designed? This could be something as simple as publishing contact details on the internet. It could be something a lot more specific such as:

To have 500 users sign up to your newsletter in the first year. To sell £10000 worth of products over the internet in your first year. To achieve 10 sales enquiries per day through the website.

Whatever the goal of the website is, make sure that you are clear about what it is and that your web designer know exactly what this is and what the website should deliver. Your website will then be designed with this in mind and will have a measurable goal. Imagine building a house, putting the roof on and then telling the builder you wanted a double garage as well - this often happens to website designers!

2. Who Your Target Audience Is

It is very, very important to know who your target audience is. This needs to be very clear right from the very start. This will allow the designer to make the best possible web design decisions to make sure your site is as attractive and accessible as possible to your target audience. Your site after all need to be aimed directly at your target audience in order for them to do whatever it is that you want them to do when they arrive at your site.

3. What Kind Of Content / Keywords Are To Be Used

Your website designer needs to thoroughly understand the nature of your products and services and the things that potential customers will type into search engines to find them. I have had a few clients that have asked me why their products and services aren't listed in Google. One example that stands out in my mind is a lady that asked me why a search for 'coloured concrete' didn't display her site in the results. After I explained that she actually needed to tell search engines on the website that the company sold 'colored concrete' I built a search engine targeted webpage, which was listed in the search results.

Please try and bear in mind that web designers although they are trained to ask intelligent questions, they are not mind readers and know a lot less about your industry and your business than you do. The best thing you can do is to provide as much information and detail up front so that the designer organise your website in the best way possible.

Conclusion:

It's a sad fact that a lot of websites are designed badly and deliver bad results for good customers but by following the advice in this article, you can be sure of 3 things:

Your website project will have a clear, well defined and measurable goal
Your website will be correctly themed and aimed at your target audience
Provision will be made for your content and nothing will be missed out