Design Advice From The World’s Worst Designer

You may not know this but when I first started out in this field, back in 1999, my business was called “Success by Design.” My previous history of running a magazine, working on a newspaper, and a LOT of experience with QuarkXPress convinced me to do design for self-employed folks.

It shouldn’t have convinced me; I’m not a good designer. I may not be the world’s worst, but Lord it ain’t good. 🙂

If you’ve seen how beautiful our products and website have become in the last couple of years it’s because we work with a true master of design, whose name I won’t reveal because she asked me not to. She’s very, very full of client work, and she’s abandoning us all for a 6 week out-of-the-country, no-laptop adventure.

We’ll survive somehow.

I’ve written about how fancy, expensive design is not what you should invest in early in your business here.

But, still, design. Right?

Without at least decent design, people won’t read what you write. So here’s some simple advice that I’ve taken to heart. Even if it’s simple, take a breath and notice if you are paying attention to these elements.

1. White Space

White space is the space -around- things. In music, white space is called a “rest.” I’ve heard the assertion that the genius of music is in the rests, not in the notes. I believe the same is true for design.

Years ago it was my wife who showed me that you don’t place furniture right up against the wall, or another piece of furniture. You leave space, much more space than I was comfortable with initially. “Look at all that wasted space! You can’t even use that space!”

Ah, but you can. It creates breathing room.

When someone is reading your words, they need to be able to “enter” the text. They probably will get distracted before they finish, and so they might need to re-enter the text several times. Without white space, they can’t easily re-enter the text, so they won’t.

They won’t read, or finish reading, what you wrote.

White space lives in the margins around your text, on the right and the left, as well as at the top. I’ve seen many websites where the copy is jammed right up under the headline, or the navigation, or a pretty photo.

Give it some breathing room.

White space also lives between paragraphs, which is why shorter paragraphs are better for reading. Shorter measured by the number of lines on the page, not the number of words.

2. Number of elements

Another way my wife Holly is better than me is when we walk into an antique store. Typically those stores are arranged deliberately chaotically, with all kinds of stuff everywhere. She can take it in as one big picture.

Me, I freak out a little bit. Too many individual items jumbled together and my brain tries to connect with each one. Just part of my personality.

However, even for Holly, the chaos has to have some discernible order, or she’s not happy. Which is why we sweep through our house on a regular basis reducing the number of toys our kids have. How is it that kids’ toys multiply without any discernible effort?

Look at your web site, or any page in which you are presenting something. How many elements, meaning individual items, are there? This is how you count:

Each paragraph is an item. Each headline. Each time you change color. Each photograph. Within a photograph, if there’s a lot going on, changing colors, different objects, each one of those is an element, too.

Each font change is an element. Any time you have text or an image that is surrounded by white space, that’s another element.

As you begin to count the elements, are you finding yourself in the teens? Twenties? More? That creates visual overwhelm for your reader. They don’t know where to look.

Fewer elements is almost always better.

3. Color

Color, like music, can get very angelic. I won’t attempt to tread where angels fly, so I’ll say something simple and point you to a tool.

Colors complement each other, or don’t. Remember, each change of color is a change of element and adds to the potential visual overwhelm, unless it’s done well. If you have a gift with color, go for it.

If you don’t have a gift for color, use a tool like this one. Pick complementary colors, colors that “go together.” Use dark, dark color for text.

There’s a LOT more to say about color, but I think that’s enough from me.

You can go far with white space and simplicity.

When you’re in the start-up or struggling phase of your business, and it just doesn’t make sense to invest a lot in design, don’t. Keep it simple.

I’d love to hear: are you looking to add white space or remove elements? Or both? And, do you have any other simple design advice? I’d love to hear what you find for yourself, or what you have to offer.

Introducing Foundations 1: Clients and Money

Over the years I’ve watched thousands of small business owners struggle to bring in clients and money. It often brings me back to the struggle I had starting out, when my wife was really sick and unable to work, and it was all on me. It’s not easy, dear heart, I know.

So where do you focus if you’re not going to spend gazillions on a web design just yet? If this is your question, I wrote a mini-series to help you understand the 3 big issues business owners face at the outset. It introduces our new program, Foundations 1: Clients and Money, which brings together the core elements you need to move forward.

Check it out: Foundations 1 mini series