Some business owners tend to underestimate the role good design skills can play in expanding your business’s brand. In our conversation with Canva’s Senior Graphic Designer, Poppie Pack, we answer some common design-related questions business owners have and discuss the tools that can take your company’s graphics to the next level. 1. Why is good design important for social media? When it comes to managing your company’s social media platforms, a good design can help communicate your message. If you are a brand, it is important to create a visual identity for yourself. It is also essential to establish a level of consistency across all branded graphics that allows you to build familiarity. Lastly, creative and consistent design can help communicate with your audience through social media graphics that can be identified with your company. 2. What are the biggest design mistakes when it comes to creating social media content? One of the biggest problems that people have when they start exploring their creativity is the tendency to over-design. Most commonly, they use too many fonts and colours as well inconsistent filtering. The simple motto to follow is that a good design is not complicated. 3. What are the top tips for businesses?
- Branding is an imperative part of the design process so consistency is key.
- Small decisions such as pairing typefaces, choosing colour palettes and communicating your message is vital.
- It is important to research your product and your audience to find out what colours represent your industry and communicate with your demographic.
- Find out how your audience ticks and associate with them. Make it a part of your user’s identity.
- If you are on a limited budget, there are a number of websites that provide beautiful images.
4. What are the dos and don’ts of using images in social media?
- If you have a lot of text, keep your image less noisy. Contrastingly, if you have very little text, opt for a more ambient image.
- Avoid using stock images. They don’t add to the imagery you are trying to create in a meaningful and impactful way.
- The key to finding good images is using key words to refine your search.
- Do not feel the need to co-ordinate with things that have been created beforehand such as logos.
5. Which tools to use? A great tool to assist business owners with their design woes is Canva. With the pro version, Canva for Work now available, there are a number of great new features you can use.
- Templates: A great way to ensure your whole team is staying on brand.
- Magic Resize Tool: Optimise any design for as many social media channels as you want.
- Photo Folders: Organise and centralise all your photos in a more efficient way.
- Brand Kit: Set up a style guide that is in the cloud for you to access whenever you want, with all of your brand fonts, colours and logos.
With the right tools and guidelines, you can be consistent and impactful in your use of design to construct and expand your company’s brand. As well as highly recommending Canva, Poppie also really likes to use Hootsuite for her scheduling. You can also download Poppie’s free eBook, How to Design for Your Brand in Canva. This post was interpreted by Angira Bharadwaj from an audio interview with Poppie Pack. Angira is currently completing a journalism internship at the Australian Businesswomen’s Network. She studies journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney.
