Design Principles:
Visuals

Introduction

Your design should be visually appealing to your audience and should complement the overall message of your project, but ultimately it’s up to you to decide what looks best. This section on visuals includes some tips to consider for your overall design.

What's on this page?

Visuals and Overall Design

Visuals and Overall Design

It is good to consider the overall design and visuals for your project to make choices that will help you convey your message. We will touch on a few ideas, but specifically colour, font, contrast, images, and layout.

Colour

Colour Psychology

Colour is one of the easiest ways to make your video or project stand out, and a good use of colour is a great way to create meaning in a subtle way.

There are a lot of articles online about the psychology of colour in marketing. Cool colours tend to be calming and friendly; warm colours may be welcoming and positive. Bold colours can be passionate, while lighter tones convey thoughtfulness. When choosing colours, consider using these hidden meanings to your advantage.

How Do You Choose a Palette?

With colour, the important thing is to keep it consistent.

Sticking to a colour palette will help make your work stand out and will keep your message on track.

You can choose colours you like, or use the colour wheel to choose similar or opposite colours. If you have an image you really want to use, you could pick colours from the image. There are a lot of choices you can make!

If you are not sure what colours look good together, many tools, including PowerPoint, offer themes and colour variants that you can choose from. There are also free tools that offer colour palette suggestions.

If you are not confident in your design skills, choose between two and five colours for your palette and designate one as your main colour and one as your secondary colour. These will be the colours you use most. Any others you choose should be used sparingly to add interest.

Watch

Beginning Graphic Design: Color

This short video talks about the basics of colour theory and dives into simple colour schemes and the message colours may convey.

Font

In general, sans serif fonts are preferred over serif fonts (think Calibri vs. Times New Roman), but you can use any font you like. Try not to overuse fun or complex fonts; your viewers will get tired of them quickly.

Limit yourself to no more than two or three fonts and be consistent in their use; e.g. one for headings, one for body text, and one for emphasis or notes.

Watch

Beginning Graphic Design: Typography

Learn about the different types of fonts and how to choose fonts for your project. This video also talks about common typography terms, and fonts to avoid.

Contrast

If a background colour and the text or images on top are too similar, they may blend into one another and will be harder to see.

You want your content to stand out, and that is where contrast comes in.

One general rule is that when using light coloured content use a dark background and when using dark coloured content use a light background (straightforward, right?). If you are adding text and you do not want to change your background, consider using shapes or gradients behind it to make it more legible.

Remember that contrast is not just for text. Using contrast between your graphics or images, and your background will help your visuals stand out.

Watch

How to pick colors for your design (a little lesson in contrast)

This video discusses colour contrast and how it can help your design stand out. Knowing how to create visually accessible content will help your entire audience see your message.

Images and Graphics

Studies have shown that using images can help your audience retain information, so you will want to use them to help keep your content memorable and interesting.

Choose images or icons that:

Relate to your message.
Are consistent in look and feel.
Are a higher resolution (if file size isn't an issue) so they look good at any size you use them.

Remember that too many images can create clutter, and distract your audience. If you are not sure why you are including an image, consider leaving it out. It is ok to have white space.

As for filetype, look for .jpg or .png file types as they will be suited to most projects. Animated .gif files may not work as intended, in all software.

Watch

Beginning Graphic Design: Images

This video offers a basic overview of choosing and using images for your design projects.

Layout

Direct Your Audience

When working on building out your content, consider how your audience will see each slide or scene. The most important content should be clearly visible, and ideally your audience will see that important content before they see everything else.

When looking at your layout, ask yourself:

Where do your eyes go first?
Will your audience read your text in the right order?
Do you see the images before you even notice the text?
Is there just too much content? If there is, what can be removed or simplified?

The Rule of Thirds

If you are not sure where to place content, use the rule of thirds.

To use this rule, imagine your work in a 3x3 grid. The points where those grid lines intersect are where our eyes tend to go naturally, so are ideal spots to add content.

You will usually only need to add content near one of those spots to make an effective slide.

Watch

Understanding the Rule of Thirds

Watch this quick overview of the Rule of Thirds and why it works. Using this simple rule can boost your design and composition skills.

White Space is a Good Thing

You do not need to visually fill your slides. Your job is to help your audience understand your topic, and too much content in one spot might overwhelm your viewers and muddy your message.

Use very simple or even blank slides to your advantage. Occasional visual pauses give your viewers a break and encourages them to listen to your voice or audio.

Variety in Layouts

It is a good idea to have a variety of different slide or scene layouts so your audience does not get bored. If each slide looks the same, your audience may miss content not realizing you have moved ahead in your topic. Scroll through the example below to see the same content designed in different ways:

If you are not a natural when it comes to slide design, the Designer tool in PowerPoint 365 may help. Other software may also offer straightforward layout options that you can easily vary.

Take a closer look at 5 Ways to Design the Same Slide for inspiration.

Watch

Beginning Graphic Design: Layout & Composition

Discover the basics of layout and composition. Topics covered include the five basic principles: proximity, white space, alignment, contrast, and repetition.