3 Ways to Improve Your Graphic Design Skills

Oct 12

Have you ever come across marketing graphics that stop you in your tracks?

Maybe it was the cool layout that caught your eye or how the words were styled in the unique fonts they chose. Or maybe the colors just spoke to you.

Psst… more than likely, it was all of the above.

It was the combination of these intentional design decisions that made this effective marketing graphic. Those design choices helped engaged you and made you feel something.

That, right there, is the power of design.

Now, you may be here because you want to HARNESS the power of design and create eye-catching graphics like this yourself.

But when you don’t feel your design skills are up to par, creating professional-quality graphics that truly connect with your audience and help you accomplish your marketing goals can feel a little out of reach. The way professional designers put design elements together to create such beautiful marketing designs feels a bit like magic.

But the truth is, it’s not magic.

YOU can improve your design skills and learn how to create more eye-catching + strategic marketing designs for your business and/or your clients.

YOU SEE, DESIGN IS A LEARNED SKILL.

When you have the right design approach, perspective, and instincts, you can create awe-worthy marketing designs that are purposeful and strategic without draining your budget. You don’t need professional training, certifications, or fancy software; you just need to cultivate a good eye for design.

Whether you’re a:

Service provider who wants to make a great first impression while staying inside your freelance budget
Virtual assistant or online business manager who wants to up-level your skills so you can create more professional designs for your clients (and impress them along the way)
Self-taught web or graphic designer who wants to brush up on your technical design skills so you can feel more confident in your client work
Product-based business owner with endless print + digital design needs who wants to be able to create on-brand flyers, lookbooks, and other graphics quicker and with more ease
Marketing professional who knows that having a more refined design eye would help you collaborate with team members and communicate the value of what you create to clients

…with the right tools, knowledge, and confidence, you can learn to design *any* marketing piece you need in business — from social media graphics to service guides to client presentations and beyond. And you can use your design skills to strategically connect with your audience and get the results you’re looking for with your marketing visuals.

Not sure where to begin? I’m here for you!

HOW TO GET STARTED IMPROVING YOUR GRAPHIC DESIGN SKILLS

So you can create more polished and impactful marketing visuals:

1.) Start thinking strategically about design

At the core, design is visual communication.

When you’re creating a new social media post graphic or client presentation or any marketing piece, it’s easy to hop into your design program and throw something on your art board that incorporates some pretty fonts and colors.

And yes, part of creating marketing visuals is thinking about “how can I make this look good?” That’s often in the forefront of our mind. And it’s not necessarily a bad thing because as humans, we are naturally attracted to beautiful things. That should be a goal.

However, looking good is just part of the equation. Like our good friend Steve Jobs says... “Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like… It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

Professional-quality design is about how the design works.

HOW you’re laying out your graphics, arranging text, placing branding elements, and using photography makes a BIG impact on how your marketing visuals are perceived and how your audience responds.

In other words, designing strategically will help you influence how people interpret and interact with your marketing. Design is really powerful in that way.

Once you harness that power and approach your designs with more intention and strategy… that’s when you’ll really start to see the impactful changes. Your designs will start attracting your audience and help you gain their trust + loyalty (which leads to investing in you…which is the whole point, right?!).

AND your marketing graphics will start to look better too :)

You might be thinking, “Okay, Allison. I get it. But HOW do I harness the power of design? How do I actually design with more intention and strategy?”

This leads me to #2…

2.) Learn the design basics + best practices

Like I said above, design is visual communication. Every design you create communicates something and you want to do it with STYLE + STRATEGY (it takes both!).

Which is where the design basics come in. Understanding basic design techniques and developing your skills will totally change the way you approach your designs and visually communicate with your audience. You’ll start making better design decisions and lay out your graphics in a way that makes your message clear while being compelling, refined, and professional. You’ll design with more ease AND you’ll not only attract your audience but also connect with them through the design… which leads to know/like/trust.

The best place to start:

Learn the design principles (hierarchy, alignment balance, etc.)
Understand color theory basics
Know how to effectively use typography/select fonts
Develop your eye for creating a cohesive, branded look in your marketing

These topics are truly the foundations of design. Learning them and improving your skills in these areas will help you elevate your marketing visuals and keep you moving toward your business goals.

3.) Keep practicing

It probably goes without saying that refining your design skills does not happen overnight. After you learn the design basics and best practices, it’s important to give yourself time and space to PRACTICE your new skills.

The best way to test out your new skills and improve is with real-life design projects that have a real, tangible use. Try creating a set of social media templates for yourself - click here for a how-to! or laying out a simple service guide for your business. If you’re a VA or OBM, try using just 1-2 of your newfound design techniques on your next client design project.

As a small business owner, you know these opportunities fall in your lap all the time. Don’t have a current project to practice with? Make one up for yourself!

My best advice is to just get started. And be patient with yourself :)

READY TO FEEL MORE CONFIDENT IN YOUR DESIGN SKILLS + CREATE MARKETING GRAPHICS WITH MORE EASE?

My DESIGN SPIRIT course is for you.

Start bringing your ideas to life with less frustration and creating truly impactful marketing pieces that connect with your audience… all on your own schedule.

About the course

Design Spirit is a self-paced graphic design course especially for small business owners who are sick of tinkering in Canva and just want design to feel easier.

Inside the course, I help you improve your design and layout skills, so you can make better design decisions, design with more ease, and confidently create professional marketing pieces that attract your audience… EVEN if you’re not a designer.

You’ll learn the fundamentals of design and improve your design eye through lessons in the design principles, color, typography, how to be cohesive + consistent, and more. And all in an approachable, fun-to-learn way with tons of visual examples, plug-n-play templates, and cheatsheets to get you rolling!

No pre-requisites or fancy software necessary. You can exercise your Design Spirit right where you are and start making more beautiful and strategic marketing visuals… like, today.