Academy / Graphic design basics
Lesson 1 of 6 · 4 min
What your design must say
Most weak designs are not ugly. They have no job, so every part sits on the page with nothing to do.
Give it one job
Finish this sentence before you open Design:
"This design should make [who] do or know [one thing]."
- "... make people walking past know we sell fresh bread until 6 pm."
- "... make our regulars book the Saturday class."
If the sentence needs "and" more than once, you have two designs. Make two.
The faster they look, the fewer words
A sign in a window gets two seconds from across the street. A menu on a table gets a minute. A post in a feed gets less than the sign. Write down where yours will be seen.
Let the job pick the template
On the Templates page, Filter has a Goal: Sell more, Save time or Build trust. Pick the one closest to your sentence and the templates change to match.
Do it
- Write your one sentence.
- Open Templates, press Filter, pick a Goal and press Show templates.
- Press Use template on one that looks close. Change nothing yet: the next five lessons build on it.
Quick check · 3 questions
Check what stuck
A bakery wants one flyer to say it opens at 7, sells wedding cakes, has a new sourdough and is hiring. What should it do?
Show the answer
Pick the most important job for this flyer and save the others for other designs. One design, one job. A design with four jobs gets read as none of them.
Which design needs the fewest words?
Show the answer
A sign in a shop window, seen from across the street. The faster and farther someone looks, the fewer words they read.
Which Goal in Filter fits a design about new opening hours?
Show the answer
Save time. Save time holds opening hours, schedules, tips and news.
In this course
- 1What your design must sayEvery design has one job. How to name it before you open the editor, and how the Goal filter finds a template for it. · 4 min
- 2What people see firstHierarchy is a clear order of big, medium and small. Test it with a blur, then set it in Design. · 5 min
- 3Colors that work togetherContrast comes first, then few colors. Test your eye on eight pairs, then put your brand colors on a design in one click. · 5 min
- 4Fonts and how to pair themTwo fonts are enough. Judge six pairs with your own headline, then set yours in Design. · 5 min
- 5Space and alignmentEmpty space is part of the design, things that belong together stay close, and one clean edge makes a post look planned. · 5 min
- 6Pictures that earn their placeChoose a photo that supports the job, crop it so the right part shows, and give several photos one look. · 5 min