Very many people in the design industry think that flat design is like a fad that will be present today and gone by tomorrow. Whether or not this assumption is correct, it is imperative for every designer to keep up to date and always be ahead of every trend.

As a professional designer, it is not your duty to refuse or accept trends that you don’t necessarily agree to. Instead, you should have an open mind and consider anything that can make you add more value to you clients and improve your skills as a designer and presently, flat design is one of such things.

When you get to the internet, you will get a plethora of articles and web pages giving versions of illustration on various flat design projects. Whereas they are right, and most of the designs they show are breathtaking, they fail miserably at telling you how to come up with such designs on your own.

They leave you high and dry because they offer you with nothing at all to enhance or improve your skills towards becoming a good flat designer. We, however, break this norm and show you how you can create flat design projects that rock. For the best results, consider the following when working on flat design projects-:

Consider bold color choices

Bright and bold colors are the secret sauce in most flat design projects you will ever encounter. But this is not to say that they are the only colors you can use when working with flat designs. In fact, several flat designs don’t use bold colors, yet they give stellar end products.

Therefore, feel free to use bold color palettes. However, you can use not solid color hues, with different amount of lightness, slightly more than normal saturation levels and you will still end up with successful flat design projects. You can also use solid colors and have great success just as seen in the case of Windows 8.

Typography and Flat Design

The typography used is a great factor of concern when thinking about flat design projects. Typography, as usual, is an enormous subject with endless details and options. But with regards to getting it right with your flat designs, there are fundamental aspects of typography you have to give close attention.

For instance, the use of the traditional serif fonts has proven not to give the very best results with flat designs. You have the option of using Slab-Serif faces like Sanchez or Rockwell. But if you want the most authentic looks for your flat design, then you should consider using clean, modern Sans-serif fonts.

Choose icons that reflect the design theme

Using icons in designing is always important irrespective of what you are working on, whether they are symbols, large logos, or glyphs, icons will always fit. But with flat design projects, when you use icons, then they must create coherence with the overall design theme. You are free to use small sized icons or oversized icons so long as they don’t have any sharp or strong rounded edges and also they don’t have any gradient.

The use of images in flat design

If you have to use images in your flat design, then it is a good idea to have them filtered or stylized. You will realize that most of such designs feature full-width images that stretch across the entire layout. Again for great results, the images you use must never have any borders, so be sure to cut your images directly without creating any borders.

Flat Design and Spaces

Learning how to use spaces correctly is something that many designers still struggle with, and it’s not when doing flat design projects alone. Too much space will leave the design bare while too little space will make it look cluttered.

As a good design practice, you should always add spaces rather than subtract, and this also applies when you are working on flat design projects. For instance, start by including all the elements you need in the design before you start taking away the ones you don’t need so that you remain only with the essential ones.

Avoid the following

Proficiency in flat designing will come with a lot of practice. Besides, it is still considered a fad. Hence, there are no strong industry guidelines on what should or should not be done. Most of it involves trial and error and so far, observing the above factors has always led to great designs.

Even though the concept is still evolving, there are a few things that will certainly ruin your flat design projects. These include using gradients, unless they are subtle, using drop shadows, application of borders on design elements and using traditional serif fonts. Stay away from them and you will fare well with any flat design projects you make.

Check out some other new trends in design from 2015!

The post How to Make a Flat Design That Rocks appeared first on LogoMaven | Easy Logo Design Software & Logo Maker.

The right color combination, on the other hand, can impact positively on the customers and enhance the brand awareness of the business. Listed here are five tips you can use to get the right color combination for every design you consider. The tips apply to all types of design, including websites and not just graphic alone.

Simplicity Reigns

If you want to get the right color combination for every design project you work on, then you must be open minded towards simplicity. This primarily involves choosing a few basic colors and manipulating them to bring out the particular effects you want. As a matter of fact, using more than five colors in one design can be considered to be disastrous unless you have vast experience in design, and you are accustomed to using a range of many colors at the same time.

The danger of using a lot of colors concurrently is that you increase the likelihood of getting the viewers confused, and in the process making it hard for them to decipher the message you wanted them to get. It is also advisable that you make it a habit of starting with the primary colors before moving on to the others.

Let your Brand Colors Give you the direction

In every design project you work on, there will always be brand colors for the product or the business for which you are making the design. If you feel overwhelmed or lost, and you are not sure about the right color combination to use for the design, just turn to the brand colors for direction.

You can use the predominant colors of the business brand, or you can use other complimentary colors to the brand colors in your design. However, you must maintain the identity of the business at all times, and this requires that you should never stray away from the brand colors. It is the only way to stay consistent throughout all the designs.

Consider the mood you desire to communicate

Designs will always be intended to evoke particular moods or emotion on the audiences. Colors are very useful in evoking different emotions. Hence, it is important to consider the mood you want to communicate when thinking about the right color combination. The following is a rough guide to some of the colors and the particular moods they invoke in the viewers-:

• Red – shows passion, vitality, aggressiveness and strength.
• Gray – show practicality, authority, corporate mentality, somberness
• Green – health, tranquility, freshness
• Black – seriousness, distinctiveness, and boldness
• White – truthfulness, refined, purity
• Orange – warmth, fun, cheerfulness
• Purple – royalty, wealth, success, wisdom
• Blue – authority, dignity, faithfulness, security

Depending on what your design is all about, you need to be careful with the predominant color because it will communicate the mood to your clients and customers.

Don’t use the same colors as your competition

Many people hate their color schemes to be used by other businesses offering same products and services. While considering the right color combination, it pays to spy on your competition to identify their color patterns so that you avoid using the same colors in your design. In design, you need to stand out for you to attract attention and get recognized by your existing customers. This calls for complete uniqueness in every design you come up with for your businesses.

It is also important to remember that you risk being accused of copyright infringement when the best you can do is to adopt the colors of other business. However, as you avoid using the same colors as your competition when deciding on the right color combination for your designs, you should make sure that your final choices are in tandem with your industry and are complimentary to your brand.

Learn to use palettes

Palettes will hasten the process of choosing the right color combination hence it is important that you learn how to use them. Palettes are a good idea because you will be relying on combinations that other designers have created and tested to be effective in the past. But even with the palettes, you must have the objective as well as the targeted audience in mind. The internet is an awesome resource where you can find a plethora of palettes to use to make the design process faster. Just be sure to take your time and select the ones that will be the best fit for your current design project.

Learn More about choosing the right typography here!

The post Choosing the Right Color Combination for your Design appeared first on LogoMaven | Easy Logo Design Software & Logo Maker.