When designing logos, we generally work with font, colour, texture, and shapes. If designing marketing materials, we can add size, space, lines, graphics and images to the mix. When working on websites and video, we can also add motion.

Today, I’m going to focus on great design in general, before diving into logos, marketing material, websites and video in future posts.

The below points are a general guide — you can always go against them with good reason!

First and foremost, great designs are clear. There isn’t usually much point putting out a logo or poster if people can’t understand what it says, or what it’s about.

Your name or headline should take the front seat and be large enough to read.

Don’t ever forget that the main reason for putting out content is to get a message across to the reader.

Your design needs to stand out from the crowd in order to be noticed.

How you do this is up to you; everything from exciting colours to minimalist designs can stand out from the crowd. The key is for people to recognise your brand as something different, and be able to recognise it when they see it again.

Timelessness = Not affected by the passage of time or changes in fashion.

Though most brands evolve their marketing material as the years go by, their core look and feel stays the same. Iconic brands such as Apple and Nike have so far stood the test of time, simply altering parts of their designs to reflect larger design movements worldwide.

Neutral designs which aren’t too busy tend to do the trick.

The design should reflect what people would expect to see from the type of business.

That isn’t to say that all banks have to use the same designs!

A good example of this is Monzo, a bank based in the U.K., which branded its cards with a bright coral colour not usually used by banks — almost instantly becoming iconic.

It balanced this out with the use of a dark, premium navy colour in its marketing material and a neutral, fresh looking app interface, which helped give it a more trustworthy, bank feeling.

All your designs should be recognisably you and look good together.

You shouldn’t be switching up styles every month, this will confuse your clients and make you seen unpredictable.

It’s good to have a document outlining how you like your marketing materials to look. This would include your logo and where it should be positioned, your header and body/paragraph fonts, brand colours, and any other elements key to your brand design.

Your brand design can’t just look great on big screens. It needs to look great on business cards, letter headed paper, brochures, maybe even shopfronts.

If your brand can fit anywhere, you’re prepared for anything.