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The Valuable Custom Graphic Design Cheat Sheet

by David Paul Tweet - in Graphic Design

Custom Graphic Design

Last updated on January 29th, 2024

Businesses require some identity in their niche. And logos play an important identity through which people recognize businesses. Custom graphic design, therefore, becomes important for companies to build brand recognition. However, there is a certain process that professional graphic designers go through to create a logo, business card, brochure, and such other jobs.

A business, irrespective of its volume, needs a variety of graphic designs. Amongst them, logos, business cards, brochures, social media page design, leaflets, advertisements etc. are often used by companies for business promotion. In the modern digital age, mobile app design also falls into the category of graphic design.

Graphic design products hold a great significance for the growth of the business. For example, a memorable logo design can help build brand identity of a business and company. It helps to draw the attention of people towards a business, and then convert them into loyal customers.

A thoughtfully created brochure will present your products or services related information nicely. A strategically designed website will help you retain your customers with your business, and so on.

However, you need to be extra careful while creating a graphic designing. One of the main purposes of the designs is to send out right signals to the target audience. This requires the designer to prepare well before setting out to create the designs.

Here Are Some Key Points To Consider When Creating Your Custom Graphic Designs

01. Pay Attention To The Design Brief

When a client approaches you with a job offer to create any masterpiece of graphic design, the first thing to consider is design brief. This is the first stage of graphic design process. Since you cannot read the mind of the client, extract as much business related information as you can from the client. But do not depend on whatever design brief the client has provided. Most clients do not give adequate information in their written or verbal brief.

So, sit down with your client and start a nice conversation. Find out as much as you can about the company, its business history, target customers, their profile, target market, future business plans, and the client’s ambitions.

Design Brief

A quick personal meeting with the client will also let you know if he is serious about the project. Take along with you some samples of your design style. Ask the client to choose one of the styles, which will let you know what the client has in mind.

After the meeting is over, send an email to the client requesting a written brief. Make sure that you have everything in writing in Word or PDF documents and not in just a simple email.

It would be good that you provide the client with a design brief form to fill in. This way, you get the required information of the project. Make sure that the brief contains some details about simple brand elements such as fonts and a color palette in graphic design services.

02. Do Research

A written brief from your client should be with you. But do not solely depend on it. You should do some online research to have an insight into client’s competitors and industry. Find out the colors your client’s competitors are using in their marketing campaigns. Have a good look at their logos, brochures, web design, marketing elements etc.

Do Research

Know which brand elements they frequently use and which design traits they have in common. Such details obtained from the research are a great help in creating a unique graphic design that stands out. The research will also save you from creating duplicate logo designs.

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03. Sketching

First, draw some sketches of the designs that you’re intend to create. Some half dozen of pencil sketches should be drawn in quick succession. Your creative mind suggests you something unique through these sketches.

Sketching

Moreover, when you are away from the computer screen and drawing the sketches by hand, your brain becomes more active. You can then explore new design ideas.

04. Refine Your Concept

Revisit the sketches after sometimes. You will find that two to three of them are much better than the rest. You should now focus your attention on refining these design ideas. Take these sketches to your client. Discuss the importance of those concepts with the client.

graphic design

It may be that client will approve one of the sketches for its further development into a graphic design. Then, create simplified vector versions of the selected graphic designs in Illustrator. You can also draft the layouts in design.

05. Presentation To The Client

When you take your choice of graphic design ideas to your client, its approval will depend on how much you are able to impress the client. Many designers do not like it when clients criticize the work. But understand that your client knows his or her business inside and out.

Clients know what is best for their business. They know what things have worked fine in the past for their business. So, do not ignore their point of view on your graphic designs. Many professional graphic designers have a strong attachment to their works. But you can still compel your client to like our work.

graphic designer

You can present your designs in such a way that your client sees the purpose of the design. Your presentation should have a lasting impression. Your client will appreciate if you present your work in a great way as both the parties want an effective outcome to the work.

Know also that there is always a room for improvement. So, it is prudent that you should be always willing to consider the client’s or any expert’s suggestion to improve the design. It may be that there is a need to improve some kerning aspect of the design. It may also be that some of your color choices need to be evaluated.

06. Pay Attention To Printing Also

The printing method of your graphic design is also a significant aspect of creating custom graphic designs. Most of the designers cannot do printing on their own. Many of them have to search online to find out local print shops or high-end print labs.

quality graphic design

While high-end labs are more suitable for high-quality graphic design work for magazine, photography printing, and exhibition materials, you need to shop for a suitable print material that is affordable. So find out the right print options as per your budgetary and other needs.

You might also send your image or content file to your printer. But the file should preserve the image and text quality when the printer downloads it. So, ensure you convert PDF to word professionally before sending the file to your printer.

07. Test Your Design

When you contact your printer, it would be good to create mock-ups. You need to work closely with your print service provider. Request a pre-print proof, which you can use to evaluate the impression of colors used in the design. If you are creating a website or mobile app design, it would be good to first test the design before launching it.

Your Design

If you create a website, take help from our web developer for testing your web design. Note that your clients expect that your website design should be functioning very well on all browsers and all the devices including mobile devices. By testing your website across all browsers and devices, you can ensure that your graphic design is optimized for all the users.

08. Make Sure It Is Scalable

Another key point to consider is that your custom graphic design must be scalable. Graphic designs such as a logo particularly are used on different advertisement hoardings. These hoardings such as billboards usually display logos at a high scale.

In that case, your logo should not look an odd design when it appears along with your client’s billboard design for advertisement. On the other hand, if the logo or any other design is printed on a small surface, it’s all the elements should still be visible clearly.

Scalable

For example, if your client wants to print a logo on a promotional item such as a pen, the surface will be very tiny. The logo on such a small surface will be shrunk down to a small size but it must be visible clearly.

To make your graphic design scalable, use graphic design grids. The grids allow you to design each element such as line, shape, symbol, fonts, etc in a proportional manner. So, when such a design is stretched to the greatest scale, the design elements still do not lose their sense of proportion.

09. It Should Look Impressive Without Colours

Your client will be publishing graphic designs on various advertisement mediums. Newspapers, magazines, billboards, etc generally publish advertisements in black and white. Or, a business may deliberately use black and white ads for impact.

Logo Colours

So, a custom graphic design should look as impressive in black and white as it looks in colors. Moreover, most of the documents received through fax and photocopies are without colors. Logo designs appear in their color version in these documents.

Therefore, make sure that the design appears impressive in its colorless version as well. A tip to create such a remarkable design is to first see that it looks good in black and white. Once you and your client are satisfied with it, then you can think of using brand colors in the design.

10. It Must Have A Purpose

A hallmark of memorable custom graphic design is that it has a purpose. This means that it must be conveying some message of the company’s brand to the target audience. Without such a purpose, the design is a directionless piece of works that serves no purpose.

Purpose logo

Make sure that you know a mission statement and message of your client’s business and company. Then, each element used in the design should be conveying that message. This means that the colors, fonts, lines, shape etc. elements should aim at reflecting that purpose or message.

11. Ensure That It Is A Simple But Unique Design

Whichever design trend you may be following, your custom graphic design should be a simple work. Remember that all the global logos such as Apple’s and Nike’s can be recognized immediately by anyone. This is because these company logos have a simple design.

Unique Design

So, these are the considerations that you must pay attention while creating your custom graphic designs. If you need many design ideas at one affordable price, it would be good to crowdsource your design work to Designhill.

It is a prominent online graphic design platform that has hundreds of talented graphic designers. They will work to win your design contest and you can then get a winning design for your business.

Are You Looking for a New Graphic Designer?If Yes, Call Us on +1-855-699-2851 [times for calling 9am to 6pm EST (US)] or Register for a Free Design Consultation

Conclusion

The custom graphic design is specially created for specific design needs of a company and its business. So, a lot of research on client’s business, target customers, and markets becomes essential. Right from sketching to the presentation and to printing, there are many aspects to consider in creating a custom design for a business.

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I am a freelance designer & blogger developing high-quality content for businesses. I have written for many well-known brands and start-ups to engage users and customers. Get in touch with me Facebook | Twitter

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