I have some super important going to rules that only a few designers are taking notice of
and today we're not covering the basics that everyone's mentioned a billion times before
things like keep your design simple or don't use too many fonts now if you follow today's
first golden rule your designs will keep up to date with the contestant Evolution and shaping
of interest and preferences of the general public as a designer you should probably try
and keep up a pop culture because it's actually way more important than you probably realize by
staying current with pop culture Trends graphic designers can create artwork that resonates with
their target audience making that work more relevant relatable and engaging incorporating
elements from popular movies music fashion or even internet memes it can actually help
designers connect with their audience on a more profound and a more deep level this clever set
of designs uses Pantone cards mixed with pop culture references and the design is instantly
more interesting intriguing to audiences now you can check out websites like fubis which
do have dedicated pop culture sections on the website so you can keep up to date with Trends
and also when you are researching pop culture you likely realize that you become inspired
whilst conducting that research of course it won't be relevant to all your briefs it's no
good just slapping Walt away onto a brochure for a funeral business as an example but being popped
with culture is a powerful weapon a designer can have in their toolkit ready to use whatever the
next Golden Rule is Big it's a biggie Jesse nyberg has mastered the rule in his work and
also Elliot in his work too two awesome design channels that you probably should check out by
the way the golden rule that I've mastered is to carve out your own designer style but you knew
that already right however do you understand the gravity the importance of it once you've found
a passion in design and crafted a specific style of work you will then become a super recognizable
and have certain clients gravitating to you for repeat work having a strong style is the best way
to actually be seen in a sea of online designers these days so try and work on your unique design
style and see how your the style can actually be reflected by your personality that does help a
lot too however you still need to ensure your work addresses the brief and your clients needs first
and foremost and the next Golden Rule might actually surprise you or you might actually
be surprised by how important it is if you've ever had a really bad creative block or find
yourself procrastinating to the point where you'd rather clean dishes than design something then it
might just simply be down to instant gratification every time we scroll through social media eat junk
food spend hours playing video games and so on we're hijacking a dopamine response in our brain
in this way we're actually teaching ourselves so we don't need to be productive to feel good this
breeds an environment where it becomes harder and harder to be productive and to be creative
so the Golden Rule here is to try and limit the instant gratification that the majority
of society is falling for these days it will be difficult at first but the more you train yourself
to be productive and to feel good from being productive the easier it will be in the long run
there's one way to supercharge your designs and make a highly targeted visual language
some people don't want to hear it but imagine your tasked to design a logo for a new tech startup how
can you ensure Your Design actually relates back to an essence of a brand or how does it resonate
with the target audience how can you position the logo so it competes with the Brand's competition
the only way you can do this each and every time without fail is to do research research is your
secret weapon for creating impacting memorable designs it will elevate your work from ordinary to
extraordinary it ensures your designs connect with the audience on a deeper level evoking emotions
and forging Lasting Impressions and that's why research will always be a golden rule on any list
now here's an oxymoron the next rule is to break rules but actually that's not the full
story as a graphic designer you should learn all the principal rules like hierarchy balance
alignment and all of that good stuff not only learn it but to become a master in it
get to a point where you can look at any design for example this design here and you can see where
hierarchy has been used where the white space exists and why the designer has done certain
things such as use grayscale with just one color once you're at that point once you become a master
of the rules then you can start breaking the rules in your projects and seeing how that can actually
fit into a brief having fun while pushing the rules can make original designs and it
shows the maturity of a designer and how they've actually grown to respect and then bend the rules
Adobe recently introduced a new feature into Photoshop and that's where you can use prompts
to instantly add elements onto imagery and your design work it is pretty cool but it illustrates
a very important Golden Rule as a graphic designer in 2023 you should embrace Ai and no I don't mean
you should be using it to make actual designs but rather you should be using it within your
workflow to save time to generate ideas or to test Concepts designers who shun AI or neglect it
they're the ones are going to fall behind because this industry is moving at lightning speed and so
it pays really well to actually keep up to date with technology and how it's moving and advancing
AI is not a replacement for human creativity but a powerful Ally that can amplify the creative
process Elevate design outcomes and redefine the boundaries of graphic design now we're going to
look at two bonus tips that actually relate back to today's video and something I've spoken about
before but they are important memory hooks think how you can add something to your design that is
unique that will really help embed itself into the memory of the viewer the thing is though it needs
to be relevant to the message and also the brief but let me explain this bottled water design does
it really really well people who buy this will remember the cool concept of that whale on the
design it's a talking point among other people and groups of friends and it's one way how products
spread throughout communities and then you have this brand here who are selling something as
simple as fabric wool but look at the packaging on this product it's creative it's fun and it's
memorable now I can almost guarantee without checking beforehand that this company probably
sells their products for about three or four times the price of their competitors simply because of
the packaging alone okay maybe not three or four times more expensive but it will be more pricey
humor is a great way to create a memory hook just like this bag design right here it's a
unique and fun design again super memorable and it's a great way to elevate something
like a standard brown bag other designs can be memorable because they are weird or shocking
this poster gives a lot of room to that shouting head graphic which might I add is basically all
mouths and nothing else this graphic is striking and it will likely be memorable to the viewer
memory hooks are ever so more important these days due to the amount of design
work that the average person consumes every single day online their smartphones and so on
now does your design have a narrative or shall I say does the brief call for an actual narrative
to be used breakup with your bank this is a mini marketing campaign for styling bank
it's a relatively new form of banking aimed at younger people which are trying to remove the
old traditional banking systems so that's the narrative but how does the design play into
it firstly using a hashtag is obviously aiming things at the younger tech savvy kind of audiences
breaking up with the bank also relates back to relationships and breakups something younger
people tend to go through more than older people the imagery used points to the old and tedious
forms of money management and Banking and they are literally just torn apart it's a really
clever narrative that has been executed really efficiently now here's another design selling an
organic kind of shampoo we can see how the color palettes are very muted and very restrictive which
highlights the minimal nature of the design which actually highlights the Purity and organic nature
of the product the design also uses hand-drawn illustrations that makes it seem more genuine
and more natural and organic it would be very different if the design used very straight angled
lines instead of these organic hand-drawn ones know the narrative know how to use a narrative
and then Express that narrative and if you want to learn about more ways to master this water
graphic design just click that video on screen and until next time guys design your future today
thank you