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Designing effective graphics
Creating a graphic from start to finish using Adobe Express.
What you’ll need
Practice in the app
Introduction
In this course, graphic designer, educator, and coach Mariah Althoff teaches us how to harness the foundations of graphic design to create successful graphics using Adobe Express.
But what does a successful design even look like? Fundamentally, a successful design (graphic or otherwise) effectively conveys information or elicits an action. In our time today, Mariah will walk us through a design from concept to creation.
At the very beginning of your design process, before even putting cursor to pixel, ask yourself, what is the goal of this graphic? For today’s example, Mariah is designing an event poster for a music festival with the goal of capturing interesting and selling tickets. She shows us how to:
Define the visuals needed
Choose fonts
Build a color palette
Create visual hierarchy
Refine the graphic
Let’s dive in.
Defining your visuals and audience
Before you begin designing it’s important to take a moment to define who you’re designing for. Brainstorm and identify who your audience is, so when you start designing you’re fully set up for success. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to start:
Who is your target audience?
What colors, shapes, design styles, etc. are going to appeal to or resonate with them most?
What’s the style, aesthetic, or vibe you want your graphic to convey?
Choosing fonts
While it can be tempting to use all your favorite fonts in your brand or design, limit yourself to the use of only two or three fonts in your graphic so it looks professional and is easy to understand. Mariah recommends you choose a font for each of the following:
a header text font
a body text font
and either, a sub-header OR an accent font
Keep in mind that your audience should be able to understand the text on your graphic with just a glance, so choose fonts that are legible. Also remember to keep the fonts distinct from each other so it’s clear which takes precedence. You can do this with hierarchy (which we’ll cover more later), but it’s also important to choose fonts that go together and feel like they’re a part of the same style family.
Building a color palette
When it comes to defining your colors, Mariah recommends you choose one of each:
A darker color
A lighter color
A brighter color
Additional colors can be used for accents, but choosing one color for each of these three categories will get you off to a great start.
Your colors should align with the overall aesthetic of your graphic and, if you’re not quite sure where to start with creating a color palette, Adobe Express has recommended color palettes so you don’t have to start from scratch.
Establishing visual hierarchy
We mentioned we’d come back to hierarchy, so let’s talk about it now. Visual hierarchy uses design elements to establish an order of importance. This helps to strategically move the viewer’s eye throughout a design and can help them to understand the most important information in a design. (Even subconsciously!)
Establishing visual hierarchy can be done with every element of a design; images, text, accent elements, etc. and through size, boldness, and color.
With text, for example; the header text should be the biggest and boldest, the subheader text is next, followed by the body text being the smallest.
Designing graphics in Adobe Express
In this section, Mariah walks us through bringing all her earlier tips to life from start to finish. She’ll pick and edit an image for the poster’s background, layout the text, and make final adjustments. We’re almost done!
Refining your work and conclusion
Mariah wraps up the graphic by ensuring proper spacing and alignment, adjusting colors slightly, and ensuring everything is just right. Thanks for joining us for this course and remember:
Define your audience and aesthetic before you begin
Choose 2-3 legible, distinct fonts and stick to them
Build a simple color palette by choosing a darker color, a lighter color, and a brighter color
Use visual hierarchy to organize the importance of information so viewers know how to read your design
What you’ll need
Practice in the app
