5 Design Tips for Better DIY Visuals

Let’s be honest, you might not have a budget to hire a pro designer, or maybe you still aren’t prioritizing your visual branding (oops, that’s a misstep.)

Whatever the case, I’m going to give you 5 key tips to making your designs better, so that people aren’t ignoring the valuable content you’ve worked so hard to create due to the way it looks!

#1: Text Alignment

ALIGN YOUR TEXT TO THE LEFT! While center-aligned text may have its uses, it’s not human nature to read that way. Plus, center-aligned text is more advanced and harder to master, so I suggest left-justifying your text as a best practice. We read left to right, up and down; by keeping that frequency you’re creating a better reading experience for your audience!

#2: NO Drop Shadows

To the untrained eye, drop shadows look pretty — but in reality, they only work if you know how to use them correctly. In most cases, it’s best to avoid drop shadows. 🥴 If you’re using them on paragraphs/text to make the words “pop” - hard NO, boo. The fuzziness that happens as a result actually works against you and makes the words fuzzy and hard to read!

#3: Mixing Typefaces

While we love to experiment with fonts, mixing too many in a single graphic can look tacky and honestly just overwhelming to your audience. Yes, they were fun during our Tumblr days, but for the sake of your brand, I say save it for a personal graphic instead. Try sticking to 2-3 fonts per visual!! Experiment with fonts in the same family (ex: Arial and Arial Bold) or mix up some font pairs.

A trend you’ve probably seen going around is combining scripts with a sans serif or basic serif. I also would suggest taking the first letter of a word and using a script that’ll connect to the next word. It’s worth trying; you never know what might click for you!

#4: Text Visuals

Capitalizing every word in your graphic can make it difficult for the viewer to read! LIKE, WHY ARE YOU YELLING, BRO? Here’s a general guideline of hierarchy, not to be confused with the royal family:

HEADER → This can be where you use capital letters as there aren’t many words for the user to digest and you can definitely grab people’s eyes with an all-caps header.

Subheader → Since you’ve grabbed your user’s attention with a strong and assertive header, there is no longer any reason to “assert” yourself further. Take the subheader as an opportunity to further explain your header, but using text that is digestible to reading, enticing your readers to continue reading till the body.

Body → No capitalization of every word here.

ANOTHER HUGE ONE I’ve seen all over IG lately is making your text too small. Sis, I know it’s aesthetically pleasing at times, but we can’t read it. It’s a waste of a post. Oop, there, I said it.

‍#5: ColoRS 🤩🤩 (my fav)

If you continually find yourself confused about colors, I would recommend creating a color palette to refer to every time you go on to design. While it is fun to experiment with colors, if you’re creating specifically for your brand, concise colors are perfect to keep your brand identity consistent.

I always suggest two creating color palettes:

Color Palette 1 → Your main color palette, utilized for brand propositions, or any graphics you use to sell. This helps associate certain colors with your brand, contributing to your ongoing brand identity.

Color Palette 2 → Having a secondary color palette allows you to ensure your typefaces and fonts are diverse enough. You could utilize your secondary color palette to develop content that provides value to your audience instead of

That said, you’ve learned at least 3 design classes’ worth of info all for FREE! Thank me later [or now]! Let me know if you use any of the tips above & share with a fellow DIYer!