Employees without formal design training are often pressured by their company to assume the role of an in-house graphic designer. Your boss may assume that purchasing graphic design software and putting it in your hands is enough to ensure a quality product - not realizing that professional graphic designers have years of training in typography, color theory, design theory, electronic prepresss procedures and graphic design history (as well as extensive training in the use of graphic design software).



Of course, the best way to guarantee that your company has beautifully-designed materials is to hire a top-notch graphic design firm. But your boss may not agree.

Fortunately, the principles underlying professional publication design are relatively simple. And by following the ten simple steps I've outlined here, you can whip almost any publication into shape, create work which looks professionally-designed, and win kudos for your company.

1. Don't Decorate

Good designers don't decorate a page (by arbitrarily changing colors or typefaces); they make it easier to read by imposing a logical visual hierarchy on the page that makes it immediately apparent which information is the most or least important.

Differences in typeface/type style/color should be used to clarify different categories of information and guide the reader's attention. If different colors and typefaces are simply sprinkled through the design like confetti, without regard for how they structure the reader's expectations, they may be detracting from the design rather than enhancing it.

2. Understand Your Text Content (Before Trying to Design It)

Try to understand the information you're designing so that you can decide which parts should be given visual priority. Read through the articles you're designing, find out who your intended audience will be, and ask your boss/editor/client what general impression he/she is trying to convey with this design: Should it be conservative or cutting-edge? Should it speak to teenage skateboarders or middle-aged investors?

3. Stay on Budget by Planning Ahead

Find out what your company's budget will allow. Is this a spot-color/four-color project? How many pages can it be? What size and type of paper can you use? Are bleeds ok? Then design accordingly.

If it's a one-color publication, consider using an ink color other than black, such as navy or dark brown, so that your text will look almost black, while areas of screened-back ink will look bright and colorful. [This trick makes a one-color design seem like two.]

4. Study Work by the Pros

Look at existing, award-winning designs to generate ideas for the layout, color schemes and type choices that will best fit your project - visit the design section of a large bookstore, where you can find whole books devoted to one genre of design, or look through design magazines such as Print and Communication Arts.

5. Use a Simple Layout Grid

Use a consistent grid or column structure in your layout to keep the design clean and well-ordered, and be sure that your columns are wide enough to accommodate 30-60 characters per line. (A layout without consistent margins and guides is likely to become a train wreck.)

6. Limit Your Choice of Fonts

If you're still a novice with type, try limiting yourself to just two type families in each publication: a serif (such as Times, Garamond, Palatino, Caslon or Baskerville) & a sans serif (such as Futura, News Gothic, Universe, Frutiger or Helvetica).

Use the serif typeface at 8-10 points for your text, and try dramatically different sizes and weights of the sans serif typeface for your headings. The critical principal when combining typefaces is to maximize visual contrast.

7. Add Visual Drama to Your Text Layouts

Eliminate the monotony of "gray" text-heavy pages by introducing what the pros call "black space"

[photos, illustrations, bold headings, drop caps or pull quotes] . Also include "white space" [generous margins or open areas within the design] whenever possilble.

8. Avoid Symmetry At All Costs

Replace static, symmetrical layouts with diagonal compositions that imply movement and energy. If several photos appear on a single page, make one photo dramatically larger than the rest, and pull the small photos together so that they read as one item on the page. Avoid symmetrical or "blocked in" white space which forms a static rectangle.

9. Use Color to Tie Things Together

Distribute color in a logical and consistent manner to differentiate between important categories of information in your document. (Don't sprinkle it randomly throughout the design.) Make sure that the emotional qualities of your color scheme are appropriate to the content of the publication.

For a full-color design, try using a palette of just two or three colors for everything other than your four-color photos; this understated palette will make your design look classy and prevent the "confetti" problem I mentioned earlier.

10. Use Consistent Motifs to Make Your Publication Unique

Use headers and footers, rules, sidebars or other repetitive motifs to unify your design and give it a unique identity. And don't feel obliged to pack the entire page full of text content. Generous margins and distinctive design elements along the top and bottom of each page will make your layout more inviting and actually encourage your audience to read more of your text content.

These ten simple principles form the foundation of professional publication design. Apply them to your own work, and I can guarantee that you (and your company) will be happy with the results.