Create graphics for your site like a pro with a shoestring budget
If you want a well-branded site, read our tutorial for creating graphics for your website as a professional. You don't need to be a designer to make it happen.
You don't need to be an artist professional to create art.
In order to become a professional artist, it is enough to create art.
A word to say: Yes.
In a few more words It's true, however you must follow the correct guidelines and employ the appropriate tools for achieving success.
And, best of all it's inexpensive to create. So let's get started, starting with designing an appropriate logo for a company.
Did you know that you can build your website for free by using Create stunning graphics and customize however you like with 's intuitive website builder.
5 easy ways to design web-based graphic assets
#1. Utilize tools that are free of tech to create your company's logo
There's a reason why this is the first step to take your logo. It's a graphic representation of your business and the first thing someone sees (and judges)for identifying your business's identity.
It takes around 10 seconds for people to form the first impression they get of your brand's logo. It takes around 5-7 seconds before they can be able to recognize your logo (or everything else associated with your business) which is why it's vital to create your logo carefully.
There's certainly a lot riding on your logo the process of creating it won't take very much, if at all, work if you have the right tools.
There is no need to employ an expert to design your logo if you use sites such as Shopify's Hatchful , which lets you utilize hundreds of templates in order to design a unique logo for your business.
Another choice could be Logaster A tool which creates instant sample versions of your logo, as soon as you enter your company's name on their site.
The mockups are even displayed of business and letterhead cards, so you can see the way your logo will look like on collateral samples.
Cool, isn't it?
If you want to take a more interactive personalized approach, use sites like Ucraft , which lets you explore the various types of icons, text shapes, and color combinations using their open editor tool.
When you are testing the various elements of design when creating your logo, make sure you use a program that lets you play around using colors.
Why? It's important to consider including two colors and consider using blue.
After all, it's what the top brands in their field do. A whopping 95% of top brands employ two different colors for their logos, and 35% of them use blue.
If your logo follows the format of a wordmark -- as many do -- it could be an issue, as words, just like logos come with their own special considerations.
Do not fret. You're covered in the following section.
#2. Choose the right fonts for your brand
Just like your logo, your fonts send visual messages to the people who read about your company's image. Put another way, fonts have perceptual traits that your viewers can pick up.
In other words, a serif vs. a sans-serif sends a different message. Light fonts also send distinct messages than the bold fonts, round fonts differ from angular fonts and so on.
Another way to review the fonts you are using is to look at the psychology behind fonts, and then group the fonts into five font categories :
Serif evokes classic, reliable, and comfortable emotions
Sans-serif - Hearkens to objectivity, stability and hygiene
It evokes emotions of love, elegance and imagination
Modern - Calls to mind positive, forward-thinking, and chic emotions
Display - evokes emotions of warmth, originality and excitement
Regardless of the subject you pick, be sure to keep in mind that picking the appropriate font will give you another opportunity to communicate to your audience what your brand stands for.
This is important since it can make some difference to the message you're trying send to your customers and here's the proof:
An ad for a cell phone which emphasizes the "slim" nature of the phone that "takes only a tiny pockets" with a condensed San-serif font performs 27% better than the same advertisement copy and image that uses script font.
Use the same photo and test typeface, but modify the text to highlight the way in which the phone "feels" in the hand as an "privilege to hold" What changes? The script font performs 32 percent more effectively.
Choose and apply your fonts wisely everywhere on your site -- even graphics that are removed from your website in download form, which is our next issue.
#3. Design an ebook like a pro designer
When you've settled upon a logo that is branded and fonts, you're ready to work on incorporating images into your product. Digital downloads are a fantastic start.
If you want to design your ebook as the pros, start with a stunning book cover.
There are free design sites like Canva , which has several designs for book covers and even lets you choose from an array of genres.
Simply drag and drop, then enter the elements you want to replace in the template.
You can also use a site such as Venngage and is full of ebook templates. These include plug-and-play book covers and page layouts.
A different way of designing your ebook to look like a professional is to incorporate images in order for breaking up the text. This will help readers digest your material more quickly.
After all, it just takes just 13 milliseconds for your brain to process an image.
Similar to creating easily digestible and visual content, format your ebook, in a way that it is easily scannable.
One method to make your book accessible is to add large headlines, subheads, images, icons, and other symbols.
Learn more about how Marketo integrates all of these elements to create their 8 Biggest Mistakes Email Marketers Avoid ebooks that are easy to read.
Sure, you're not putting in all this work in order to produce an ebook that will allow people to quickly scan the content. I get it. (Believe me. I do.)
But, the 80percent of the people who read your content glances at your text instead of actually reading it, so it's essential to be attentive to the requirements of their readers.
#4. Follow simple rules of making use of iconography
You will find a variety of icons for free on sites such as Flaticon Like the one in this business icon pack .
You can also download this digital marketing kit .
The reason why you should use the same icon family is simple: it's cohesive to your branding. It takes around 5-7 seconds for a person to be able to identify your company, so all of your branding should look and feel consistent throughout your website and even the icons.
If you don't maintain a consistent branding the brand can be a hindrance to you and confuse your audience.
In reality, 71% of firms declare that the greatest negative consequence of an inconsistent brand is confusion for customers. The use of icons is another way for you to be in line with your branding.
In terms of uniformity It's equally important to ensure that all icons are at the same size.
Check out the ways MetaMusic uses circles on their icons to keep them equally sized.
In general, icons are created as square-shaped images to fit (without backgrounds) in circles with outlines of circles, the smallest size being 16x16 to display across Windows and Macs.
Look over this table from Visual Pharma for an understanding of what I am referring to:
Whatever size of the image, just make sure they are at the same dimensions and belong to the identical icon family.
Another good rule to follow is to choose contrast colors for icons when you incorporate them to your style. This increases your site's readability.
As an example, Equator Coffees makes use of their logo red and the white background of the iconography of their website.
For a quick check if your hues are sufficiently contrasted using a contrast tester similar to WebAIM which allows you to enter the hex codes for your foreground and background colors to receive a contrast ratio.
Any contrast ratio in the green box is returned as a pass. Otherwise, it's a contrast amount that you could improve.
To conclude our discussion this week, let's change the script a little. In the past, we've spoken about various components that can improve your branding such as logos, fonts graphic designs for product promotions, and icons, but what happens do you do if the branding doesn't work?
Sometimes, it is necessary to start from scratch and change your brand. The good news is that you don't need to lose the bank to do this.
#5. Rebrand your business and not spend a ton of money
This is a significant commitment when you've accumulated a large amount of assets. It's an excellent motive to make it happen, think about it.
A lot of them actually.
Among the most popular 10 reasons to rebrand your business is moving internationally, shifting your brand's positioning, and giving your outdated brand image a refresh.
If your company is expanding to go international You're in good company in terms of an incentive to change your brand.
58 percent of small-scale businesses have clients abroad, and 72% plan to expand their global audience and this could translate into a name change. When Twix expanded its reach across the globe, as an example the company rebranded itself by changing its name from Raider and then Twix.
Do you think that info-products can't go abroad? They're a lot more easily than candy bars. It could be by expanding their reach to a new language or creating new copy for customers from different countries, there are tons of possibilities for companies online to grow globally and reach new market.
However, you do not have to rebrand by changing an aspect as important as your name.
It is also possible to change your brand's messaging like Walmart did back in 2012, when they switched their brand's slogan (and the focus) from "Always low costs" in 2012 to "Save money. Living better."
It is also possible to refresh your branding with a fresh design and style as does the Tupperware brand . Here's a sampling of their collateral before rebranding.
and refreshed photos after the branding changes.
It is evident that following the change, their imagery is much more consistent, clear as well as fun and striking which is a marked difference in comparison to their old branding.
If you're updating your logo overall, be sure to update your logo also.
You can use free logo-making tools to play around with variations of your logo, and include elements of your original logo to your current logo, such as the color or the placement of specific image components.
Check out how Google has implemented small changes to the logo throughout six iterations.
Whatever your reasons for changing your brand, you can do this without spending an enormous amount of cash.
Based on our advice we suggest, you could do it at a cost of under 5-10 percentage of your overall marketing budget that's what it typically costs companies to change their brand.
All in all:
For a new brand identity without spending a fortune Use free and inexpensive tools for design that allow you to update your logo and other graphics and also review your primary message. The vital takeaway is to redesign your brand with the audience's image in mind.
Create your website using professional visual assets, without (officially) being a pro
It is possible to create an amazing web page without the need for a design background or even a mountain of cash flow. Just follow these five steps and you'll soon be on the way to creating a professional-looking website.
Let's summarize to you:
Select from a variety of tech-free logo-maker tools to design a logo that best represents the personality of your business. Think about using at minimum two colors, including a shade of blue, for your logo.
Select a font set which match your company's image and message. Learn about the psychology behind different fonts and aid you in your decision-making.
Create visually appealing eBooks and digital items that are enjoyable to consume with online tools that allow you to break up your content by using headlines, sub-heads and icons, and images.
If you use iconography make sure you follow the best practices, including using contrasting colors and similarly sized icons of similar families.
If your company is expanding to international scale, or repositioning your business or having outdated branding, redesign your company by re-examining the logo, graphics and message.
Your website is your blank canvas. This is especially true if it's running on a platform like , where you create your home page, landing pages, sales page, products pages and more.
(Not you yet? Get started for no cost today .)
What do you do with a blank canvas? Paint on it, of course. So go out there and let your imagination flow.