Building a brand is more about the visual aspects than the words you select. Think about it… when you see the golden arches with a bright red background you know instantly what the brand is you don’t need to see the menu.

Understand the Purpose

Consider what you are trying to achieve:

• Are you trying to attract more customers or just capture attention?
• Do you want to create intrigue to draw people in?
• Communicate something specific like a discount coupon?
• Communicate your company values?
• Find Employees that fit into your organization?

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Determine a Metric

Determining a metric sounds more difficult than it is. All you need to do is identify how you will determine if your campaign has been a success. Ask yourself:

• Is an ad that cost $20 and brings in $500 in additional sales worth the cost?
• Did your intriguing ad boost your Facebook post reach by more than 200%?
• Did your discount coupon increase your sales during the period by more than 10%?
• Did a follow-up survey of employee satisfaction improve?
• Did your job interviewee’s better fit your organization profile?

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Determine the priority of your design elements

Words, Pictures, “Calls to Action” & Links. Evaluate how they each compare in terms of their importance and their ability to help you accomplish your goal. Don’t try to do too much. Keeping it simple is usually the preferred path. Good design shouldn’t be obvious.

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Ensure it is legible

If your audience can’t read your message then you can’t communicate. Some simple rules to keep in mind:

• Don’t place light text on a light background or dark text on a dark background
• Don’t write too much. Keep it simple (once again).

A simple rule to follow:

[su_quote cite=”Steve Krug” url=”http://www.sensible.com/”]Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left[/su_quote]

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Give your content space

Creating negative space is a very dramatic method to increase the importance of a subject, whether it be an image, text or other element.

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Align your elements

Positioning your elements in a balanced relation to one another is one of the most important rules. If your visual will be shown on Facebook, for example, make sure your images are the correct size (Facebook images usually display best at 1.5 : 1 ratio). Some guidelines to follow:

• Justify your paragraphs so the words are contained within a box
• Make sure descriptions align properly with the image they describe
• Ensure that your content will fit appropriately to the media you will be using
• But don’t forget to be creative

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Be considerate of color combinations

What feeling do you want to solicit? Here are some simple guidelines:

• Professional: Use cool colors – Purple, Blue or Green
• Passion, Happiness, Enthusiasm, and Energy: Use warm colors – Red, Yellow, Orange

[su_quote cite=”Cameron Chapman” url=”http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/01/28/color-theory-for-designers-part-1-the-meaning-of-color/”]In design, red can be a powerful accent color. It can have an overwhelming effect if it’s used too much in designs, especially in its purest form. Red can be very versatile, though, with brighter versions being more energetic and darker shades being more powerful and elegant.[/su_quote]

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Cameron Chapman of Smashing Magazine has a great short tutorial ‘Color Theory for Designers‘ on the use of color.
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Consistent use of design elements

If two or more elements have the same purpose, make sure they look the same.

• Actionable items like links and calls to action should all be the same color
• Use the same fonts and font sizes for text of the same kind

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Consider Visual and Written content simultaneously

If you can identify where visual elements can replace words when you are coming up with the content it will serve you well. It can make your writing more memorable and take less time to write.

Most of all Have Fun and Be Creative!