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ENGL110 class page

Getting Started

Graphic design projects can include infographics, presentations, social media graphics, research posters, websites and much more. Check out the tabs below for free resources and tools to enhance your designs!

Creating your design project

Planning is key to creating a successful design project.

Not only do you need to plan the content (what is the message? who is your audience?), but you also need to plan the visual look of the project.

Trying drawing thumbnail sketches of your layout- it doesn't need to be pretty at this point!

Best Practices for Design

  • Design with your audience, purpose and key message in mind. 

  • Include white-space in your layout to avoid overwhelming your audience

  • Keep it consistent. Choose a color scheme and fonts; stick to 2-3 throughout the design 

  • Make it visual with icons, graphs, charts, and high-resolution images. 

  • Ensure your designs are accessible, especially when it comes to color contrast. 

  • Templates are a great starting point but edit them to work for you. Be creative!

Watch the "Design Principles" video to learn how to apply the principles of proximity, repetition, alignment and contrast to enhance your project:

Graphics & Images

Colors

Fonts

When you are finished and ready to share, remember to export your project in the proper format.

File Format

Features

Use for...

Don't use for...

JPG Raster; lossy compression (small file sizes but loses quality) Photos and artwork- online and printed Transparent web graphics                             
PNG

Raster; lossless compression; allows transparent background

High quality transparent web graphics, such as logos, charts and icons Photos
GIF

Raster; lossy compression, small files, limited colors

Animated web graphics Printed graphics
TIFF

Raster; very large files, uncompressed, detailed image data

High quality print graphics, high quality scans Web graphics
PDF Vector; preserves formatting Printing, displaying web documents Editing designs