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Be a Better Designer Discover the secrets that successful designers use to create elegant, clean, and interesting designs. Get back your clients that were stolen from you!

Get access to premium mockup and design templates (DFY), stock images, and my special font combos. Are you're tired of creating ugly designs? Are you having trouble fixing a problem in your design? Are you ready to turn your passion for design into a full-time career that gives you the freedom to work from anywhere? Do you want to discover how to choose the right colours and perfect fonts for your

designs? Do you want to discover how to arrange elements in your design to create a strong visual impact? Do you want to discover how to charge WELL for your design? Do you want to discover how to create beautiful, clean, and interesting designs that wow your clients? Have you noticed something is missing in your design but you can't just figure it out? Are you new to graphic design and want to learn design software first? (Don't fall into this trap!)

Do you want to develop an excellent eye for design so you can spot a good design from a bad one? Are you just starting with graphic design and need a STRONG foundation? Do you want to improve your design but don't know how to go about it? Be a Better Designer graphic design boot camp is the solution you need.
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Every month, for seven days, you'll discover how to upgrade your design game and attract sweet clients that appreciate the value of your work. This class will hold on Telegram, so distance is no barrier. If you're part of the first 50 people to enrol in this boot camp, you'll enjoy

---My Deluxe font combination pack (you'll never break your head again over the perfect font combination for your designs).
---Free access to industry-standard graphic design software.
---Free access to my premium mockup templates (over 40GB).
---Free access to my premium design templates and stock images (Done For You). Send me a message to reserve your slot for the next boot camp. If you can't wait for the next boot camp, you can grab a copy of my latest eBook that reveals all the secrets I exposed in the last boot camp. Get your copy of the book here:
https://selar.co/BABD

07/03/2023

What design project are you working on right now?

03/11/2021

As a graphic designer, when your typography is on point, words become images.

28/10/2021

There's one big issue I've noticed with logo designers here:

Kerning!

Most of you hardly do kerning for your logotypes.

There's a difference between mathematical and optical accuracy.

Kerning is one of the things that separate pros from amateurs.

I wish I'll have time to talk about kerning.

But if your designs deal mostly with type, you should master kerning.

There's a free tool for you to practice with and build your muscle memory.

It's a kerning game that helps you improve your kerning.

The link is in the first comment.

27/09/2021

Repeating elements in your design creates cohesion and consistency. It strengthens your design by uniting the separate parts of your piece. Repetition is very useful in one-page designs. In multi-page documents and brand collaterals, we simply refer to it as consistency.

The goal of repetition is to unify a design, create visual interest and direct a viewer around the page. If a page looks interesting, it’s more likely to be read.

I’m sure now you think of repetition as being consistent. You just need to push the existing consistency a little further. Make your repeated elements stronger so it becomes a conscious effort.

Repetition is like accenting your clothes. For example, a woman who wears a stunning black dress might accent it with some red heels, red lipstick, and a tiny red handbag.

But if she were to wear the dress with a red handbag, red lipstick, red wig, red earrings, red coat and red nails, this repetition would no longer be a stunning and unifying contrast. It would be overwhelming and would confuse viewers from the main point of focus, her stunning black dress.

You see what I mean?

Too much of everything is bad. So, avoid repeating an element to the extent that it becomes uninteresting, overwhelming or annoying.

13/09/2021

You must have seen some kids on their way to school this morning. It's likely that you also spotted some of them who were attending the same school.

How did you know that those kids were pupils of the same school? The repetition of their clothes, obviously!

The repetition in the form of their uniform created a sense of unity and cohesiveness. It made you know that even though you saw different pupils, they belonged to a unit.

This same principle applies in design.

Repetition is a design principle of repeating elements throughout a design or collateral piece to create a unified look. Think of it as adding visual consistency to a design.

The repetitive element might be a typeface, font style or weight, line, colour, shape, pattern or even a spatial relationship. Anything a viewer can visually recognize.

You might already be using repetition without knowing when you
▪️make your headlines the same font size and weight
▪️use the same bullet style for your lists throughout your project
▪️use a particular colour for your headers or footers throughout your project.

What you need to do now is to push this idea further. Turn that invisible repetition into a visual key that holds your design piece together.

Repetition and consistency go hand in hand. As you look through a 20-page PowerPoint slide or a 70-page magazine, it is the repetition of certain design elements—their consistency—that makes each of those pages appear to be part of the same document. If there are no repetitive elements carried on from page to page, the document loses its cohesive look and feel.

Repetition goes beyond just being consistent. It’s an intentional effort to unify every part of a design.

Apply repetition in your design today and see the magic.

10/09/2021

In your design, don’t place anything on your page arbitrarily. Elements should be visual connected with one another on the page. There needs to be some visual tie between the elements in your design to create a unified look. Even though some elements are far from each other on the page, proper alignment can make them appear connected to some other information on the page.

Remember, the goal of alignment is to organize and unify a design.

Be conscious of where you place elements. Always look for a way to align one element with another irrespective of how far apart they are.

Avoid using more than one type of text alignment on a page, except you know what you are doing. Try to break away from using centre alignment by default.

If you don't get anything from all I've said about alignment, get this: Find a strong line and use it.

08/09/2021

Here's the thing about centre alignment. Although it's is acceptable, it often appears a bit weak. Because of the soft edges, you don’t see the strength of the line. In left or right alignment, the invisible line that connects the elements is much stronger as there’s a hard, vertical edge to follow. This creates a more dramatic and cleaner look.

I know your first instinct is to centre align your elements. I understand—I’ve been there. Centre alignment is the most common alignment new designers use because it’s safe and feels comfortable. Centre alignment produces a more formal, diluted, ordinary, and at worst a dull look.

I understand it’s difficult as a beginner to break off from using centred alignment. So, you’ll have to be intentional and force yourself to break off it from the start. Combine your use of proximity with a left or right alignment and see how the look of your design will change drastically.

I’m not saying you should never use centre alignment. I’m saying you have to be intentional and creative to pull it off. There are lots of beautiful design projects where centre alignment was used. A centred alignment works best when it’s clearly intentional and the alignment is glaring. You can be creative with other elements and it still looks like a purposeful design instead of one with elements randomly placed on the page.

It's just like in football where penalty takers are expected to pick a direction and send the ball there instead of placing it down the middle. It doesn't mean they can't score when they place the ball in the middle. After all, we've seen many beautiful panenkas from penalties placed in the middle.

You must be conscious of the effects of a centred alignment. Ask yourself, “Is this the look I want to portray in this design?” Sometimes, the answer is yes. If you want to use centre alignment, do it consciously and make it obvious.

I say again, if you must use centred alignment, let it be a conscious decision rather than a default choice just because you didn’t take the time to try something else.

Sometimes, you may apply different alignment styles in your design.

Here's a tip: Find a strong line and use it. If you have a graphic with a strong flush side, align your text with the flush side.

Avoid weakening a strong line by bringing it close to a ragged edge. If you have strong alignments, you can intentionally break them and it will look intentional. The trick is to do it all the way or don’t do it at all.

07/09/2021

There are two types of alignment you'd find in a design: edge alignment and centre alignment.

In edge alignment, elements’ outer edges are lined up against a margin. There are four types of edge alignment:
• Left alignment
• Right alignment
• Top alignment
• Bottom alignment

In centre alignment, elements are aligned along a central imaginary axis that can be horizontal or vertical. There are two types of centre alignment:
• Vertical alignment
• Horizontal alignment

In horizontal alignment, the elements are aligned on the y axis and the imaginary central alignment line runs from top to bottom. In vertical alignment, the elements are aligned on the x axis and the imaginary central alignment line runs from left to right.

For type (text), there are four types of alignment:
• Left alignment (flush/quad left)
• Right alignment (flush/quad right)
• Centre alignment
• Justified alignment

06/09/2021

I remember my early days as a designer, when I used to plaster text and graphics all over my design canvas wherever I saw space, disregarding other items on the canvas. I was only creating disorderliness in my design. But now, I know better.

Every element in your design should be visually connected with something else on your canvas. No element should be placed arbitrarily, it should be aligned with something else on your page.

Alignment means organizing elements with respect to a line or margin. When you use alignment, you’re simply placing design elements in line horizontally, vertically, or across a linear plane. Alignment makes you conscious—you can’t just throw things around your canvas and see how they fit.

Alignment creates and strengthens cohesion in a design. Even when the aligned elements are not close to each other, there is an invisible line that connects them—in your eye and in your mind.

You might have separated elements using the proximity principle to indicate their relationships. However, alignment tells a viewer that though these elements are not close, they belong to one piece.

04/09/2021

The goal of proximity is for organization. If information is organized, it’s easier to read, understand and remember.

Squint your eyes a bit and try to figure out how many elements are on the page. Do this by counting how many times your eye stops. Depending on the design, if you count more than five stops, try to find out which of the separate elements you can bring together to form a visual unit.

Here are some mistakes to avoid when using proximity in your design:
• Forming relationships with unrelated elements. If elements don’t belong together, space them apart from each other.
• Placing too many unrelated elements on a page.
• Sticking elements arbitrarily on a page to fill up space.
• Creating confusion as to whether a graphic element belongs with its related element. Move related elements close to each other to avoid confusion.

03/09/2021

Do you know what happens when you group related items together in your design? The page becomes organized and your readers' eyes don’t have to wander around the page trying to decrypt information.

By applying the principle of proximity, your design becomes organized intellectually and visually, making communication clearer.

Always ask yourself and check to see whether elements are close to the elements they belong with in your design. Check if any elements have inappropriate relationships.

When several elements are close together, they are seen as a visual unit instead of as several separate items. So, place related items close to each other. Notice your eye movement:
• Where do you start looking?
• What path does your eye follow?
• Where do you end?
• After reading, where does your eye go next?

Your eyes should follow a logical pattern throughout the design, from a definite start point to a definite end point.

02/09/2021

Adobe is creating their product for 3D.

With Substance painter, you can add colour and texture to 3D models and import them to Photoshop.

With this, you have a virtual photo studio where you can place rendered objects in real life environments without having to shoot in a real studio.

Substance 3D

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