Brands, blogs and businesses all need ways to make their content and digital presences more vibrant and appealing. Design is often a major consideration for those who want to make a good first impression, establish brand recognition and otherwise be remembered. As such, graphic design is almost always a necessity.

Yet most of us don’t have graphic design experience. This can result in the chronic need of graphic design services. While many solutions are relatively affordable, these costs can add up quickly – plus other factors such as turnaround time can be problematic.

Because of this, we’ll be looking at some simple ways you can build better graphics (even if you suck at graphic design).

White Is Your Friend

When you lack a professional’s touch in graphic design, perhaps the biggest piece of advice is to work with simplicity. Many amateur designers try to create too many colorized elements and patterns, leading to their lack of skill being more easily recognized. By using white as your default canvas and incorporating it into backgrounds and other elements, you can minimize the amount of work that’s needed with each graphic.

Ultimately, you don’t want to be pinging your website or social media with content that is designed intricately but poorly. White can serve as a good way to hide the fact that you aren’t able to design complex images.

Generate Professional Palettes

Not everybody has an eye for color – and most who aren’t expert graphic designers won’t know how to choose the best colors. Ensuring that your color palette works seamlessly is integral to good graphic design. Thankfully, there are many color palette generators online that can automatically create recommended options for you based on initial color desires.

There are several different types of color palette configurations, including compound, triad, complementary and analogous. Explore each and see what you like best.

Utilize Psychology

Every color has the ability to tell a story. One of the core tenets of visual marketing is to learn the effects that each color has on an audience. Depending on whether you wish audiences to listen, feel calm, buy something or be emotionally piqued, there are color selections that must be considered.

Red for instance encourages emotion and activity, while blue makes people feel at ease. Green embodies a sense of nature, while purple inspires creativity and trustworthiness. Make the right colors work for your design projects by using the ones best-suited for your goals.

Embrace Symmetry

Ensuring that your graphics look professional can take a lot of work, but some simple design elements can improve the process. You don’t want to be caught pinging your website with designs or images that are asymmetrical when they should otherwise be symmetrical (some designs are inherently asymmetrical, which is fine, however).

Alignment is another concern that may or may not relate to symmetry. By ensuring everything is lined up properly and not askew, your brand’s images, logos and graphics won’t be subconsciously written off by most as a poor imitation of a professional design.

By following these tips, your website, social media presence or brand in general can enjoy more refined designs without the need for expensive services. With enough time and experience, you may even become a professional designer yourself!