With computer graphics so readily available, everyone has become a designer — or so it seems. Fancy borders, a variety of typefaces, styles, clip art, borders, and drop shadows come right out of the computer into your marketing materials.
The ease of accessibility of these design elements often brings with it the temptation to use everything available.
Yielding to this temptation is fine — as long as you don’t try to use it all on one marketing piece or message. Follow this very simple, effective design strategy called “Choose one!”
- Choose one typeface style for your headlines.
- Choose one typeface style (the same or an alternate style) for your body copy.
- Choose one style of border.
- Choose one thickness of line for boxes or rules.
- Choose one style of clip art, photographs, or graphics.
Then, stick with what you choose!
If you decide to use Garamond for your headline, stick with Garamond for all your headlines and subheads. You may use Garamond Extra Bold for the main headline, Garamond Bold italic for callouts, and Garamond Medium in all caps for headlines, and so forth.
Then, keep all of your main headlines in the same type size. Do the same for your bold italic callouts. Avoid bouncing around with many different design elements — be consistent.
Many of the best designers are the best simply because they show restraint and discipline by applying this principle.
The beauty of this approach is that it’s so simple. Try it the next time you design something on your own and see how it gives you a more professional look.
