Graphic Design Tips

Do you want to design your own graphics or hire a Graphic Designer?

When you have an online presence it’s important to develop a consistent look in the form of branding.  This helps people to recognize you.  When you choose your brand colors (typically three or more), what message do you want to communicate.  Yes, colors have meaning and feeling associated with them.  For example, blue = trust.  By looking at your graphics, the general public should be able to immediately know what type of business you’re in.

So what social media platforms will you be using?  Did you know that each of them have their own file size requirements and optimized sizes that look the best?  Not only that, they should be made slightly bigger so that they are clear and crisp. Here’s the best resource for determining what size you’ll need for your social media photos: https://louisem.com/2852/social-media-cheat-sheet-sizes

Here’s a list of what Graphics you might need to create or hire someone to create for you:

Logo – print version, black only version, white version, font-only version, transparent background (PNG file), square designs, horizontal designs and vertical designs.
Facebook Cover Photo for Facebook Page
Facebook Group Cover Photo for Facebook Groups
Facebook Profile Photo for Facebook Profile
Facebook Profile Photo for Facebook Page (should be different than profile)
Pinterest Profile Photo
Youtube/ Google Headers + Cover Photo
Email Marketing Banner
Etsy Cover Photo
Pinnable Images for Pinterest
Website Banner
Website Favicon

DIY Photo Editing

If you plan to design your own photos, make sure you do so using high quality images and make sure the fonts you use are very easy to read.  I like to test my fonts on my iphone, because if I can read them on a 3 inch screen, then I know I’ll be able to ready them on a computer.

Lightroom Photo Editing, there are many tutorials online as well as paid courses. I’ve not used this.
Corel Paint Shop Pro
PicMonkey – Free and Paid Versions
Pixlr – basically free version of Photoshop
Canva – Free and Paid Versions (my Canva training is here)
Photoshop

Stock Photos

I use free and paid for royalty-free image all the time but you’ll want to check the terms of service before using a purchased photo.  Always purchase and NEVER use photos you find online doing a Google search.

Unsplash.com -free
Pexels.com -free
Bigstock.com -paid
Etsy.com – paid
DeathtoStock.com – paid & free
Shutterstock.com – paid
istockphoto.com – paid
pixabay.com – free
canva.com – free & paid (my Canva training is here )

DIY Graphic Design

Here is a list of web tools for creating graphic designs:

PicMonkey – paid & free
Canva.com -paid & free versions (my canva training is here)
Piktochart
WordSwag App – for quotes photos

Hire a Designer

I have a list of designers in my resources page HERE.