Mediastreet
Tag

Graphic Design

Browsing
In News

10 uses for Adobe Stock you might not have thought of

No Comments

By

Are you making the most of Adobe Stock? Here are some extra ways it could save you time.

When you need a stock image for your graphic or web design, Adobe Stock is the place to turn. Integrated seamlessly into the Creative Cloud, it provides you with access to millions of high quality photographs and illustrations, not to mention templates, vectors, video footage and more.

But even if you’re already using Adobe Stock on a regular basis, you may well be missing a trick or two, that could save you a serious amount of time and energy.

Read on as we highlight some of the less-obvious uses for Adobe Stock that you may not have considered. And if they inspire you, then why not take out a one-month free trial to Adobe Stock?

01. Visual inspiration

Search results from Adobe Stock

Adobe Stock is a stride ahead Google Images when it comes to visual inspiration

(Image credit: Adobe Stock)

Right at the start of a project, when you’re still thinking loosely about concepts and ideas, it’s natural to go looking for inspiration. And for most people, Google Images is often the default.

But think about it: the images you’ll find there are going to vary hugely in quality, while on Adobe Stock there are millions of consistently high quality, professionally created photos, illustrations and videos to inspire you and give you fresh visual ideas. So you’re far better off using the sophisticated search filters provided by Adobe Stock, and seeking out visual inspiration there instead!

 02. Website mockups and wireframes

The main aim of a digital mockup or wireframe is to get the functionality right, and make sure that the site or app can fulfil the needs of the user in a fast and efficient manner.

For this reason, they’re often created as “bare bones” designs, with zero imagery, and that approach can be appropriate when you’re just working on things in-house. But once you get to getting sign-off from stakeholders and clients, it can be worth using some of the high quality stock photography or illustrations available on Adobe Stock to make it look a little nicer and more approachable.

Because however much you ask people to “see past” the lack of visuals, it’s often a psychological hurdle that non-designers find difficult to navigate.

And the best news is, if you don’t want to spend any money, you don’t have to. You can use watermarked versions of any Adobe Stock image in your designs, and you only have to pay once you’ve got sign-off. If you don’t use them, you don’t pay: simple!

03. Social media campaigns

Search results for 'frog' on Adobe Stock. filtered to only square images

Adobe Stock saves you time by letting you search for pics of a certain shape (in this case, square)

(Image credit: Adobe Stock)

From Facebook and Twitter to Instagram and Snapchat, there’s so much noise on social media these days that attracting people’s attention with a brand campaign is a tough ask.

But one thing’s for sure: the brain processes pictures far more quickly than words, and so powerful and eye-catching images are key to attracting those eyeballs.

A small investment in the high quality photography and illustrations that Adobe Stock can provide, then, will pay off handsomely when it comes to clicks and likes.

And not only are you free to crop the images you license to whatever shape and size you need, but you can even save yourself time by, for example, searching for only square, horizontal, vertical or panoramic images.

04. Moodboards

The moodboard is a time-honoured tool in conveying the mood and spirit of a proposed campaign, and getting approval from clients and stakeholders before you head too far down the wrong path.

To create one, many people often just scrape images from Google, because while this is technically copyright infringement, in practical terms they’re unlikely to ever get sued for it.

However, legal issues aside, it’s worth considering using images from Adobe Stock instead. After all, they’re available in high resolution, so will look much better blown up at size. Plus the millions of high quality images available, in combination with sophisticated search filters, means that you’ll be much more likely to find the right images to bring your moodboard to life.

05. Email newsletters

Image of Westminster overlaid with UK and EU flags

UK flag, EU flag and St. Paul Cathedral by erika8213

(Image credit: Adobe Stock)

The email newsletter seen a massive resurgence in recent years. Perhaps as a reaction to the amount of noise on social media, people seem to like like the idea of a regular, curated and above all, short summary of what they need to know about a certain subject.

In some cases, they’re even willing to pay for this service, and some people now make their living entirely based on producing a must-read email newsletter.

Whether your newsletter is paid-for or free, though, success isn’t guaranteed, though. You have to produce one kick-ass newsletter if you’re going to succeed in this busy marketplace.

And so here again is an arena where the right images can play a key role. Liven up your email newsletter with some high quality imagery from Adobe Stock, and – as long as the content is equally high quality – your sign-ups and open rates should soon start to climb.

06. Your blog

If you’re writing a personal blog or the official blog for your design studio, imagery is again a great way to lure people in.

Most of the time you’ll probably want to use killer images from your latest design work, but that may not always be possible. The client may not have given permission, for example. Or perhaps there aren’t great visuals from the work to show (if your work was in the field of strategy, or web development, for example).

In such cases, don’t just leave a blank, or post an uninspiring image. Think outside the box, and search Adobe Stock for images that represent the theme of the story instead. For example, if you’ve has been invited to sit on a government panel to discuss how the creative industry should respond to Brexit, you might want to use the image above to highlight your news.

07.  A/B testing

Two women in office pointing at a screen

Want variations on this pic? Click here, then scroll down to ‘More from this series’

(Image credit: Adobe Stock)

A/B testing is about serving up two versions of a web page, Facebook ad, etc, to your audience and seeing which one leads to the most conversions. Given the importance of imagery, it’s often useful to test different lead images, to see which one leads to the best results.

The good thing about Adobe Stock is that there are often images from the same photoshoot, which means you can choose between small variations on the same image. This makes Adobe Stock ideal for when you really want to nail down the perfect image to help your website conversion rate.

08. Your personal videos

Most video professionals will know about Adobe Stock’s motion design templates, which allow you to add cool effects, titles, transitions and more to your projects with very little effort. But they’re so simple to use that anyone can use them for their own personal videos too. Especially as many of them are free!

To see how easy it is to use Adobe Stock’s motion design templates without any training, check out our tutorial on how to add wow to your holiday videos.

09. Your wedding stationery

Wedding template

Watercolor and Foil Wedding Invitation 1 By The Wedding Shop

(Image credit: Adobe Stock)

Planning a wedding? Adobe Stock can help here, too! It has an amazing range of top quality templates for your wedding designs that are fully customisable within Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.

From designing your invitations and ‘save the date’ cards through to menu designs and thank-you notes, Adobe Stock has you covered: find out more in our article 5 ways Adobe stock templates can help with your wedding planning.

10. Your Christmas cards

Finally, Christmas is approaching, you’re a designer so why not design your own bespoke Christmas cards? It’s a great way to delight a client or potential client, and make sure they remember you. Or alternatively, you might just want to put a smile on the face of a friend or family member.

To find out how Adobe Stock can make this quick and easy, check out our tutorial on How to Design a Christmas card with Adobe Stock and InDesign.

By

Sourced from CREATIVE BLOQ

Read More
By
In News

How To Handle Every Graphic Design Challenge With Ease Using These Tips

No Comments

Sourced from Skuirel

Someone has said, “A picture speaks a thousand words”. This fact was never more true for anyone else, but for graphic designers. Graphic design is a process of communicating with your target customer using tools like typography, photography and illustration.

Common uses of graphic design can be found in corporate designs in the form of logos and branding, editorial design for magazines, newspapers and books, environmental design, communication design, product packaging and signage. It also includes advertising and web designing.

Graphic design has wide reaching applications. It has application in road signs, interoffice memorandums, reference manuals, selling products or ideas, logos, colors, packaging and branding too. Other applications of graphic design include the entertainment industry, vinyl album covers, opening and closing credits in filmmaking, artwork used for designing T-shirts. It is also an important part of information design. This information could be for newspapers, magazines, blogs and television. It could also be for film documentaries, illustrating news stories on the web, data visualization, and information graphics.

Who Is a Graphic Designer

A graphic designer is one who creates and combines symbols, pictures and text to communicate ideas and messages. A typical graphic designer uses all the three tools namely typography, page layout techniques and visual arts techniques to make visual compositions. A graphic designer is an important member of the branding team. In other words, a graphic designer is a professional within the graphics design and graphics arts industry who communications through images both in still and moving communication media.

Click HERE to read the remainder of the article.

Sourced from Skuirel

Read More
By
In News

Here Are the 10 Graphic Design Trends to Watch

No Comments

By Skuirel

Trends come and go. The graphic design world is always evolving. Some design trends fade away for months, others stay for years. Today we’ll spill the beans on which graphic design trends will generate buzz this year.

Whether you will follow the crowd or set up a new trend yourself – the choice is yours. Either way, it is vital to be up-to-date. We have taken the time to browse the web and find out which design trends will take the leading positions in 2018. We will also reveal some of the graphic design trends which should better stay in 2017.

Year 2018 is pretty much all about imagination off limits. The majority of our examples depict a combination between two or more trends, even though we have focused on each one separately. Hope it sounds promising, so let the show begin!

1. The ‘Little Big Idea’

Moonpig’s rebrand was about sweating the small stuff

“The design theme of 2017 was big impact, but paradoxically the best work achieved it by really sweating the small stuff,” says Chris Moody, creative director at Wolff Olins. “The things I have found the most striking are the consommés – those jobs that focus on something singular and use it to create something with clarity, distinctiveness and beauty: the ‘Little Big Idea’.

“2017 was about simple ideas, executed with intelligence and insight to create real, radical impact. W+K’s work on the Dutch women’s football team was a tiny logo tweak that managed to question heritage, patriarchy and even what a logo stands for. The Moonpig rebrand did more with the kerning of an ‘o’ than a thousand animated cartoon characters ever could.

“If 2018 is going to be as chaotic, channel-hopping and crazy as 2017 was, elegant logic will be the only way to cut through.”

2. Braver colours

The Dropbox rebrand made strong use vibrant colour

“2017 has been a riot of colour, with graphic designers making big, bold choices,” says Shaun Bowen, creative partner at B&B studio. “Perhaps in an effort to inspire positivity after a difficult year in 2016, we’ve seen an influx of bright colours, often with flat graphics and only one or two colours used at any one time,” he adds.

“More and more brands are also using their core packaging hue as the backing colour in posters and supporting graphics.

Max Ottignon, co-founder at London branding agency Ragged Edge, tells a similar story. “We’ve noticed our clients getting braver,” he says. “Fluoro colours and clashing tones have moved away from edgy startups into the mainstream. eBay’s new identity has colour right at its heart, using it as a way to communicate both its breadth and inclusive personality.”

Mireia Lopez, creative director at DARE, concurs. “We’re seeing the use of vibrant colours in juxtaposition with bold imagery,” she says. “This can be seen as a response to minimalism and material design, from using white spaces and clean layouts to unexpected colour combinations and distinct varied typographical styles – and is across all areas of branding as well as digital.

“The new Dropbox brand direction, for example, is doing this with its creative use of images, and corporate identities such as NatWest are shifting to a fresh and modern feel, using the potential of brighter colours to increase higher conversion rates. In my field, digital, this development is probably due the fact that sites can load faster and screens on phones are bigger, so it’s easier to play with images.”

“Using bright colours helps content stand out from meme-filled social media,” notes Nathan Sandhu, founder and creative director of Jazzbones Creative.

Click HERE to read the remainder of the article

Sourced from Skuirel

Read More
By
In News

10 Hottest Graphic Design Trends of 2018

No Comments

By Skuirel

One thing’s for sure, 2018 has delivered designs that are anything but boring. It’s been a year dominated by imagery that’s funky, wild, fanciful and even absurd—perhaps reflecting the increasingly nutty world we live in. So sit up, take notice and see how you can incorporate some of these electrifying graphic design trends into your images.

Glitch effect

Mistakes, imperfections, blemishes. Rather than rushing to erase or correct what’s gone wrong, we’re embracing the accidental and finding the beauty in the flawed. In a world where technology touches every aspect of our lives, it makes sense that we’d incorporate the inevitable glitch into our imagery. Weird color surges happen, as do file corruptions and crooked lines, disorienting compositions and blurry photos. While our initial tendency is to make things neat and tidy for the viewer, it’s time to consider the joys of awkward discomfort.

 

80s and 90s Retro 

Who came of age in the 80s and 90s? Millennials. Who are businesses trying to woo? Millennials. And who are the creative leaders deciding what’s in and what’s out? Um, yeah, you guessed it: Millennials. So if you want to know why we’re being inundated by color palettes full of turquoises and teals and peaches and pinks, randomly placed geometric shapes and patterns, squiggly lines and retro illustrations, it’s because we’re resurrecting that golden age when hair was big, Pokemon could only be found on cards and videos, and everyone was watching “Friends.” (Oh, wait, they’re still watching “Friends.”)

Groovy Gradients

Another popular trend from the past (this time the early aughts) that’s making a major comeback is the gradient, sometimes known as “color transition.” You can’t look at your iPhone’s app display without seeing a gradient or seven, but this time around, the style is getting an update. Instead of sticking with linear transitions going horizontally or vertically, the new gradients can be radial (starting at a single point and emanating out) or even have different starting points, creating a more swirling, spirally effect.

 

Trippy typography

Designers are having the time of their lives playing with fonts, text and typography. They’re erasing key parts of letters while still maintaining their readability. They’re flouting conventional lines and placing letters haphazardly across the page or screen. They’re allowing text to interact directly with photographs and illustrations in imaginative ways. There are handmade fonts, layered letters, abstract forms, sliced and diced and dripping text that will make the viewer dizzy with delight. And most incredible? The return of the serif font, which is making a welcome comeback after a too-long absence from our digital screens.

 

Authentic Photography

Authenticity has been a buzzword not just in design, but in advertising, branding, business, social media, arts, entertainment, politics—pretty much every sector of society. One of the easiest and most effective ways to tap into an authentic vibe is through photography. Photos offer a realness that can’t be matched, especially pics that aren’t staged or arranged but rather have a documentary feel to them. While stock photography has been flooding the internet for a while, those canned images seem to be phasing out and are being replaced by messier imagery with imperfect lighting, lots of action, interesting compositions and deeper emotions.

Click HERE to read the remainder of the article.

By Skuirel

 

Read More
By
In News

Developing design: Shaping young minds

No Comments

By Ryan Malcolm

Digital design luminary and Swinburne grad, Tim Kotsiakos, is using his years of experience to shape the future of digital design students.

A 22-year career in graphic and digital design has provided Tim with a vital outlook on the landscape, one which he aims to impart to aspiring designers.

Since completing a Bachelor of Graphic Design (Hons) at Swinburne in 1995, Tim has blazed a trail in digital design, navigating huge changes in technology and garnering an impressive reputation within the industry.

Immediately following his graduation, Tim became a senior designer for DTDesign, working with fellow Swinburne grad David Trewern to establish an upstart design studio that would be able to compete in an ever-changing and close-knit Victorian design industry.

“It was a pretty exciting time to be in the industry and it was all very new,” says Tim.

“The industry was so small, we’d meet at a bar once a month and we’d all fit in the tiny back room.”

Becoming a creative director

Tim’s first exposure to the industry also played a vital role in shaping the kind of creative director he wanted to be as his career developed.

“Some of these early experiences certainly helped me understand the importance of being truly human-centric. Being able to watch David interact with clients and build his own business was a massive influence, and one I’m still very grateful for,” says Tim.

Tim spent eight years playing an integral role in pushing DTDesign to the forefront of the Victorian digital design scene, where he developed his knowledge of production and interface design for the user experience (more commonly referred to as Information Architecture at the time).

Developing these skills early in his career helped Tim stand out from the crowd, giving him the opportunity to collaborate with the Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA), where he developed his outlook on the business of design.

“It was a very good reminder of how many amazing, hard-working design businesses there are in Australia, and a reminder of how many of them are small, micro-businesses,” Tim says.

“It helped me form the opinion that to do great design work you also need to be great at business.”

Taking on the world

Following brief stints at Atomic and Eclipse (Deloitte), Tim joined the world-renowned Reactive design team as a creative director. He completely overhauled the Reactive brand and website, before collaborating with a number of international clients, including British Airways.

Working in conjunction with Reactive’s London office, Tim developed an in-flight entertainment interface that would work while reclined in first class with a handheld remote, as well as in a confined space in economy, utilising a touch screen display.

This experience, working in a small team of “really experienced people” had a lasting effect on Tim, as it provided a model for him to launch his own design company in 2015.

MASS effect

After a fruitful tenure at Reactive, Tim’s new company MASS hit the ground running, quickly developing a reputation for exceptional design output and client collaboration, which Tim hopes will lay the foundations for future growth.

“We’re excited about solving big problems in lateral ways and we want to work on projects that have a long-term impact on peoples’ lives.”

“If we achieve this and continue to grow, we’ll be absolutely rapt!”

While managing his small Fitzroy-based team, Tim has also returned to his Swinburne roots, becoming heavily involved in developing the Make It, Break It Design Sprint, a five-day program that allows communication design students to workshop creative new ideas in a team format.

In addition, Tim has been involved in adjudicating an honours year ‘shark tank’, allowing these same students to pitch their ideas to established industry experts and garner feedback that can help shape their own design outlook, a role Tim takes great pride in.

“My goal has always been to remain connected with education, and Swinburne has made it very easy for me to do so,” says Tim.

“I’m impressed to see an emphasis on research and user-centred design… the immediate benefits to students are obvious, but I think there is a longer-term benefit to the industry.”

“If we raise the overall quality of graduates we can in turn progress the industry.”

By Ryan Malcolm,

Bachelor of Arts (Journalism) (Professional). Ryan is currently completing a 12-month Professional Placement with Swinburne’s Centre for Design Innovation.  

Sourced from Swinburne Knowing

Read More
By
In News

The designer’s guide to using images more effectively

No Comments

By

Get more from imagery in your design work with our essential advice, covering graphic design, web design, apps and more…

Images are an integral part of the design process, and when it comes to selecting them and using them in a project, it’s important to make the right choices: one of them speaks 1,000 words, after all.

So whether you’re art directing an on-location photoshoot for a glamorous ad campaign, or searching a stock image library for the perfect visual asset for an email newsletter, you should still apply a discerning eye and not settle.

While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, there are a few key dos and don’ts for using images in your design projects – and some hard and fast rules for using them for different purposes, from catching attention to making the hard sell.

Read on for our essential guide to using images more effectively in your design work. We will continue to add to this collection with more tips and advice each month…

01. How to use images in graphic design

5 ways to create better brand imagery
Five brands that have mastered the art of creating powerful brand imagery, and what you can learn from them. Featuring First Direct, Aizone, London Symphony Orchestra, Apprenticeships and D&AD.

Use images more effectively in editorial design
Improve your editorial design work with these expert tips, which include: letting the content lead the design, using photography more creatively, telling stories with illustration, not being afraid to go big, and cropping images in a dynamic way.

5 reasons to use photography in your designs
Why you should choose photography for your next design project: you’re looking for realism, you’re showing something specific, you want wow factor, you need a visual metaphor, or you have the budget to do it properly.

5 reasons to use illustration in your designs
Why you should choose illustration for your next design project: you want to express something abstract, the subject is too ambitious to photograph, you want to tell a story, you have some data to visualise, or a particular style is required.

02. How to use images in digital design

Use imagery more effectively in app design
Select the perfect visual assets for more engaging, user-friendly apps. Advice includes optimising for HD screens, making savvy use of animation, paring back to basics, keeping all UI elements consistent and designing with touch in mind.

How to create a killer social media campaign
Five pro tips to use images more effectively in branded social posts, including: tailoring images to different platforms, having a clear goal in mind, considering why people will share it, picking images that tell a story, and designing for short attention spans.

Use images more effectively in digital ad campaigns
Pick the perfect assets to create engaging online ads. Advice includes knowing your ad formats, picking a single message, choosing one killer image, cropping images more dynamically, and emphasising the call to action.

Use images more effectively in web design
Pick the perfect visual assets for any frontend design task: source the perfect hero image, consider different crop sizes and ratios, curate assets for an online shop, choose images for UI elements and icons, and find editorial images for pages.

03. How to source the best images

4 tasks that stock imagery makes easier
Make your stock assets work harder, and your life easier, on common tasks such as sourcing supplementary photography for a brochure, adding depth and texture to your artwork, and developing UI elements for a digital design.

5 stock image uses you may not have thought of
Pro designers do use stock libraries – and in clever ways, too. These include social media campaigns; moodboards and presentations; mockups, wireframes and prototypes; email newsletters; and just for general inspiration.

Find unusual images for your design projects
Stuck for a visual idea? Here are some places that can help, including stock image libraries, The British Library, SpaceX, Jay Mantri, Realistic Shots, Life of Pix and PicJumbo.

By

Sourced from CREATIVE BLOQ

Read More
By
In News

Business 20 Top Graphic Design (Branding) Project Proposal Templates

No Comments

By

If you’re in business, branding is an important part of that. Branding affects how others perceive your business, and ultimately it affects your bottom line since people choose whether to do business with you based on their perception of you.

Strengthening your brand identity is important as you start your business or if you’ve changed your branding strategy. Branding is never more important than when you send out a design project proposal.

The right graphic design proposal templates can help you grow your own brand since they let you to incorporate branding elements right into your design proposal. Fortunately, there are plenty of branding proposal templates that will help you strengthen your brand. In this article, we’ll explore twenty design proposal templates to help you build your own brand and also land design clients. Here’s a popular design proposal template that’s trending in 2018:

 Popular graphic design proposal template
This high quality design proposal template is just one example of a template proposal that you can find on Envato Elements.

We’ll also share five project proposal tips in this article to help you create the best design proposals for your needs.

What Is a Design Proposal?

A design proposal is used by a freelance designer, design agency, or other design business. It’s sent out to prospective design clients to provide details on design and branding work.

A design project proposal needs to be crisp and professional since it represents the business that sends it out. It also needs to be consistent with the organization’s own branding. For more information on branding, review this tutorial:

  • Branding
    What Is Branding?
    Julia Melymbrose

Top Branding Project Proposal Templates (2018 Product Showcase)

Here is a curated selection of some of the top graphic design proposal templates from Envato Elements and Graphic River. These unique design proposals are ideal for any branding or design project you may have.

Browse through these branding project proposal templates to find the right one to download for your next project.

1. Rubicon Branded Identity Kit Bundle

Rubicon Branded Identity Kit Bundle

Choose between four different design templates with cover letter and table of contents. Use the free fonts and choose between three different color combinations.

Keeping your branding consistent for all of your communication needs is easy with this bundle. The template set also includes business card templates and a Facebook timeline template as well as some high-resolution background textures.

2.  Design Proposal Template – Easy to Customize

Design proposal template

This 36-page design proposal template is ready for you to customize. Here are some of the convenient features you’ll benefit from:

  • Based on free fonts
  • One-click color customization
  • Use with popular paper sizes, A4 International & US Letter
  • Grid-based layout
  • Layered document
  • And more!

3. Full Business Proposal Template

Full business proposal template

This full business proposal template is a great choice for your design and branding proposals. From start to finish, this professional proposal leaves a powerful impression. It’s perfect for agencies and other creative professionals.

Start by choosing one of three eye-catching different cover designs. Then take advantage of some of the unique features such as a milestone schedule, portfolio section, and pricing plans. The proposal template even includes a section for terms and conditions and a contract.

4. Clean Proposal – Flexible and Easy to Edit

Clean Proposal Template

This 16-page proposal template is a great find if you’re looking for a proposal with a clean, attractive look. There are two different cover designs. INDD and IDML files are included. Plus, it’s fully editable and easy for you to add your own information!

5. Well-Organized Project Proposal Template

Well-Organized project proposal template

This well-organized proposal template makes it easy for your design project proposals to look good. It’s been separated into five layers to make it easy for you to work with. Plus, the template includes a help text file.

Customers love this one. Here’s just some of what they say:

“This is really good work!”

“With this design the project is already a success! =) Great Work!”

“Great product!”

6. Apps Design Proposal – Great for Creatives

Apps Design Proposal

Whether you’re an agency or a solo creative, the Apps Design proposal has a clean, modern look that you’re going to love. This 24-page template supports both A4 and US Letter sizes.  The images, text, and objects are all on different layers–making it easy for you to edit. Plus, there’s an auto page numbering option!

7. Agency Proposal Template – for Design Agencies and Other Creatives

Agency Proposal Template

This gorgeous creative proposal template is designed to meet the needs of creative professionals. With this template you’ll find lots of agency-friendly features such as:

  • A project timeline
  • Room for client testimonials and templates
  • One-click color adjustments
  • Numbered master pages
  • Free invoice template
  • And more!

8. Branding Proposal Template With Multiple Templates

Branding proposal template

With 14 templates, this proposal package has everything you need to make a pitch. You’ll find templates for a cover letter and resume as well as templates for project proposals and design quotes or estimates. There’s even a matching invoice for billing.

The template’s easy to use and customize. Plus, you can change the colors in the proposal to match your own unique branding.

9. Brand Logo Document – Great for Client Branding

Brand logo document

No discussion of branding guidelines would be complete without a look at this brand logo document. If you do a lot of banding work, you’ll want this to use with your own clients. The beautiful design is based on a document grid and can be used for both print and web guideline documents. You’ll find this template has titled master pages with real text.

10. Creative Branding Proposal With a Clean, Modern Look

Creative branding proposal

Impress your clients with the clean, modern look of this creative branding proposal template. You may even find this ideal for building your corporate identity. Some of the user-friendly features include:

  • Based on free fonts
  • Print-ready
  • Well-organized design
  • Help file included
  • And more!

11. Quoter Professional Proposal Template With Invoice

Quoter professional proposal template

The image your branding project proposal projects is important. This professional-looking template is great for branding and other creative projects. Plus, it’s full of features to help you succeed. Choose from two layout sizes and customize the colors to match your company’s brand. The bonus invoice template includes the Autosum feature.

12. Graphic Design Project Proposal

Graphic Design Project Proposal

This 40-page proposal template boasts a 12-column grid and also includes a baseline grid. Icons are included with the template. The graphic design proposal template also has many popular proposal sections including a table of contents, an about section, a case study, and a project timeline. There’s even a section for frequently asked questions (FAQs). It’s print ready and works for both A4 and US letter size pages.

13. Kinney Design Proposal – Flexible Format

Kinney design proposal

The flexible format of the Kinney Proposal template makes it perfect for use by an agency or creative professional. The design is aligned to a 12-column grid. Images, text, and background are all separate layers to make it easy for you to edit. Plus, you’ll get a help file.

Here’s what customers say about this popular proposal template:

“Spectacular work!”

“Stylish Work And Great Item. I Like It.”

14. Landscape Graphic Designer Proposal

Landscape graphic designer proposal

With a unique landscape format, this professional proposal is bound to catch your client’s eye. The fully editable graphic design proposal template file includes 30 professionally designed pages. There’s also a professionally designed front and back cover to further enhance your brand. And you’ll get a file with help and instruction text to make using the template even easier.

15. Bright Brand Proposal

Bright Brand Proposal

Take full advantage of the way this design proposal template bundle uses color to help your proposal stand out. You can use this proposal template with A4 or and US letter size pages. Here are some of the other powerful features that make this creative proposal template work:

  • Includes vector infographics
  • Aligned to a 12-column grid
  • Help file included
  • Editable text and color swatches
  • Master pages
  • And more!

16. Creative Design Proposal – Bold Design

Creative Design Proposal

The bold design of this creative design proposal template is bound to impress. The template comes with 24 pages, but you can add more pages by duplicating existing page layouts. Personalize the colors in this template using the one-click color panel. A documentation file is included for your convenience.

17. Project Proposal Template With Eye-Catching Graphic

Project Proposal Template Eye-Catching

This print-ready project proposal is great for creatives or anyone who needs to make a good impression. It’s easy to customize–add your own colors with the palette. It’s based on free fonts. Plus, all the graphics are included with the template. The template files include a PDF preview file and a help file.

18. Graphic Designer Proposal – Clean Design

Clean graphic designer proposal

The clean design of this modern graphic designer proposal is good template choice for creatives and anyone else who needs their proposal to have a clean, professional look. The portrait proposal template design is 26 pages long and based on free fonts. In addition, you’ll find:

  • Automatic page numbering
  • Master pages
  • Grid-based layout
  • Documentation included
  • Supports A4 and US Letter sizes
  • And More!

19. Big Brand Proposal – Easy-to-Edit

Big Brand Proposal

This comprehensive, easy-to-edit branding proposal is a great template choice for many reasons. It’s based on a 12-column grid. It includes clearly labeled layers as well as paragraph and character styles. Plus, it has editable tables. It’s no wonder that customers said this about this template:

“Looks great and really easy to use template!”

“really delicious work….“

20. Elegant Proposal – Professional Design

Elegant proposal

The professional design of this creative proposal template is sure to please. It’s got a master page for layout consistency. You can customize the fonts and colors to reflect your company’s branding. The template is 18 pages long, but it’s easy to add additional pages as needed. Plus, there’s an invoice template included to help keep your project branding consistent.

 

By

Sourced from envatotuts+

Read More
By
In News

5 Free Tools That Make Graphic Design Easy for Small Business Owners

No Comments

By Evan Ferguson.

Graphic design is one of the most important elements to a small business owner’s branding strategy, yet it’s often taken for granted. Everything from marketing emails to web design to social media posts need to incorporate elements of design and help to mold the image of your business.

Statistically speaking – bad graphic design can seriously harm a business’s earning potential. Studies have consistently found that users rank well-designed websites as more trustworthy than poorly-designed sites. On top of this – good graphic design has been shown to be directly correlated with brand recognition.

With good design meaning more trust and more brand awareness – it pays to invest in graphic design if you’re a small business owner. But herein lies a dilemma. Smaller companies tend to have less disposable funds, which means they’re more likely to have less resources allocated to graphic design. While large businesses can hire experienced, professional designers – an up-and-coming brand doesn’t have this luxury. That’s where free online tools come in handy.

With so much riding on the design of your brand, knowing how to create cost-effective, yet professional-looking graphics is critical to success for a small business. Check out the list below for some amazing tools that will make graphic design a breeze for small business owners.

Burst

Burst is an image-hosting database that offers hundreds of professionally-taken public domain photographs. Images on Burst come with a creative commons zero license for free commercial use. This means the you can download professionally taken photographs for use in everything from marketing to web-graphics to print advertisements.

Finding quality photographs is no easy task. Shooting professional photographs on your own can be costly and time-consuming. If you’re a small business owner, you know that money and time are two things you can’t afford to waste.

You could pay for stock-photos, but with expensive licensing fees and complex legal requirements – purchasing stock photos can end up being more hassle than it’s worth. With Burst – you can browse stock photos, download them and upload them into your marketing materials – all in a couple of clicks.

Canva

Canva is a free graphic design tool that can be used to make everything from Facebook posts to album covers to advertorial posters. Offering a number of ready-made templates for things like marketing emails and social media posts – Canva has become an increasingly popular tool for non-experienced graphic designers looking to give their designs a more professional polish.

Canva’s strength is in its easy-to-use drag-and-drop design interface that allows users to select from millions of fonts, graphics, icons and photographs. With Canva, you can easily arrange elements onto a template to create professional-looking designs.

It’s wildly fun and incredibly easy to play around with text, images, icons, borders and shapes to create your own designs. Even if you’re not the creative type – Canva offers a number of ready-made, preloaded professional templates with fully-customizable text and formatting options.

PicMonkey

PicMonkey is a free online photo editing tool that can be used on any desktop computer or through a mobile app. While there are paid versions of the app with more features – the free version still offers a ton of basic photo-editing and touch-up tools.

From PicMonkey’s use interface, you can upload your own photos, crop them to your liking, adjust their brightness and contrast, add filters and a whole lot more. My personal favorite feature to PicMonkey is the portrait editing capabilities. PicMonkey has special portrait touch-up tools to fix blemishes, remove wrinkles, reduce shine, boost blush and more. Professional photo-editing can be costly and time-consuming – but with PicMonkey you can give your photographs a professional edge in a matter of minutes.

Piktochart

Infographics have become one of the most widely used tools for businesses and organizations in both digital and print media. You can attribute this popularity to the convenience of using infographics. They’re a clear, effective and artistic way to present data without losing the attention of your reader. With internet-users being bombarded by information and attention spans steadily decreasing – infographics are quickly becoming the modern tool for presenting information in a fun and interesting way.

Professional-looking infographics can be tricky to create with expensive graphic design software – and that’s where Piktochart comes in. With Piktochart – you can create beautifully-designed infographics using a ready-made templates and your own data sets that you can input manually or import it from a spreadsheet program. Piktochart makes it easy for any business owner to present their info in fun and interesting way without having any prior knowledge of graphic design.

Coolors

Any graphic designer will be able to tell you about the importance of color when it comes to branding. It’s nearly impossible to think about an iconic brand like McDonalds and not think of the bright, golden-yellow arches accented by a vibrant red background.

The truth is that graphic designers make very calculated decisions about which colors to use. Professionals have spent years studying – not just color harmony in design – but the psychological triggers associated with certain colors and ways to make an audience experience a certain mood based on the colour palette being used.

Without being a professional – simple design decisions like which colors to use together can seem daunting. That’s where Coolors comes in handy. Coolors is a free tool that allows you to upload any image and automatically generate a harmonized color scheme by sampling colors in the image. From there – you have the option to save your color palette or make adjustments to one or more of the colors in your pallette and auto-generate complementary colors. This means you can create complex, harmonious color-schemes without having any sort of graphic design experience

By Evan Ferguson

Evan Ferguson – aka @HarveyStewartTO is a writer and digital artist based in Toronto, Canada. He’s written about content marketing, futurism, and technology. He graduated from York University in 2012 with a degree in Journalism.

Sourced from Smallbizdaily

Read More
By
In News

Using Shapes in Graphic Design

No Comments

By Eric Miller.

Shapes are at the root of graphic design. They are figures and forms that make up logos, illustrations and countless other elements in all types of designs.

Shapes help the designer to add interest or organize elements of a design. They are not strictly ornamental, either, as shapes can have symbolic meanings, invoke feelings, or be used to direct the eye to the most important information.

The Different Types of Shapes

Shapes are one of the basic elements of graphic design and you have a great variety of shapes to choose from.

Geometric Shapes. These are your basic squares, rectangles, circles, triangles, and the like. These typically include sharp corners but may have rounded elements.

Organic Shapes. This type of shape has flowing lines and are also called ‘natural shapes.’ They resemble objects found in nature such as a pond (a squiggly blob), an apple, or a leaf.

Abstract Shapes. There are also those shapes which we cannot relate to reality. These are the freeform shapes like spirals, cloud-like formations, and multi-dimensional shapes that have become popular in modern logo design.

Using Shapes in Your Designs

Using shapes properly is one of the keys to successful graphic design. The form, color, size and other characteristics for the shapes in a layout can determine its mood and message.

Soft, curved and rounded shapes are perceived differently than sharp, angled shapes.

For instance, a company whose primary customer base is women may use circles and curves in their logo. Likewise, a business in the sports industry will want shapes with sharp lines that portray movement and action like the Nike logo.

Also, consider the invisible shapes of your designs such as the general outline for a website or brochure.

Your wireframe may include shapes for the header and placement of design elements, but the boundaries may not necessarily be drawn out or outlined in the final design.

  • Shapes can be grouped or used in patterns to add emphasis.
  • The “white space” or negative space left between shapes will also significantly impact a design.
  • Experimentation and altering of shapes within a design can ultimately lead to the desired result.

Shape Creation in Modern Graphic Design

Graphics software has transformed the way graphic designers can deal with shapes and Adobe Illustrator is the most useful tool the creation and manipulation of shapes.

  • Simple shapes such as circles, squares, and triangles can be created with a click and drag.
  • Adjusting lines and curves using the tools in Illustrator and similar programs can create more complex shapes, of limitless dimensions.
  • Colors, patterns, opacity and other characteristics of shapes can easily be altered.

It is important for designers to master the shape tools within their favorite software, as almost any shape that can be imagined can now be created.

Feature Image Credit: Yuri_Arcurs/Getty Images

By Eric Miller

Sourced from ThoughtCo.

Read More
By