Graphic design is evolving with every new day. Technologies get better, but more importantly, people think of new, fun ideas of how to present a site or anything else, for that matter. Making a nice design, one that is current with the trends, is easy enough if you are keeping with the times and know the basics of design.

Keeping with the times is a constant refresh button click on many pages but the basics, or rather, basic tips, you can learn in a couple of minutes.

Be Uniform with Your Typefaces

Typefaces, collections of fonts of a similar design, can make a design better or worse. If your fonts are that much different and your eyes and brain keep fighting over which to focus on, you have made a bad design choice. Search for typefaces which have suitable fonts, suitable for your needs.

Size Can Matter

Feel free to emphasize the content that needs to be emphasized. Some words can be in a larger font size, or bolded, while some photos or logos can be smaller or larger, depending on the page and the importance of the item. Be free with resizing your content, but stay reasonable, you do not want an entire word across the entire page.

Contrast is Important

You should use contrast to emphasize the text or some other content on the page. Text is usually best emphasized through the usage of white or black fonts. Shift your background colors to help emphasize the text, but do not make them complete opposites. Avoid placing bright green and purple together, or teal and red next to one another, if you value your visitors’ sight.

Order Versus Chaos

People like seeing things in alignment. Now, depending on the project you are working on, alignment can be great, and not so great. Some sites are meant to be asymmetrical and work best when everything is not perfectly aligned.

Use Empty Space

The usage of empty space, or negative space, as it is called, is a great idea to keep your content fresh. This also limits some of the more noticeable content and brings balance to whatever it is that you are designing.

Using the Right Font

Fonts can make or break a page, just like typefaces. Now, typefaces can be used when creating a site when pressed for time. One or two presets for a type of site, and you can quickly dish out the content when needed.

Some sites, however, require a personal touch. This is where fonts come in, as they can really set the mood of a site. Professional, goofy, neither here nor there, that can all be done with font selection.

With these tips, you should be on your toes and avoid making some of the more common mistakes. Non-designers often run into problems like these, though they can be solved with just a bit of light reading. Keep learning if you want to improve, in and out of graphic design.