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We know that CMYK and RGB totally sound like the two boy bands your teenage daughter is swooning over, but they’re actually color spaces that we encounter with images. Each color space has a specific use and they’re the reason why things that look one way on your computer screen may look completely different in print.

Today we’re going to explain what CMYK and RGB are and how they have different uses depending on what your project is. It’s going to be a lot like an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy only with less bowties and fewer awesome sound effects.

Sometimes when production is heavy, some of the non-designy types around our studio joke about being able to help the designers out, saying, “I’ve got glitter pens! Put me on it!”

Oh if it were only that easy, GLAD WORKS friends! 

The truth is that graphic design requires a lot more than just a willing heart and a pack of Crayolas (sorry non-designy types). It takes a ton of skill, training and talent to create effective visual communication, but many folks leave it as an afterthought when it should really be one of the very first priorities. 

“Kickoff meeting” sounds like you’re either about to get a kick in the shins or we’re all about to have a party where we chat about your project while sipping some champagne, munching on a nice crudité, and dancing. That’s pretty much what it’s like, except instead of champagne we have flavored coffee or herbal tea. Perhaps one of our account managers will do an interpretive dance for you at some point?

The principles of design determine what to do with each of the design elements we talked about last week. The principles of design are like the recipe we follow when we bake a cake, and the elements of design are the raw ingredients we use. But you can’t just go dumping stuff in a pan (or onto a page) and hope it comes out well. You have to have a little bit of skill, so today we’re going to talk about how all of this comes together to form a great layout.

When you make a cake, there’s a list of ingredients you have to include. If you don’t have everything you need, your cake is probably going to come out pretty crummy (no pun intended). But, if you included all the right ingredients, measured and mixed carefully, poured the batter into the pans and watched the timer like a hawk, your cake is going to be a success.

6:30 am: Wake up to the sound of my alarm clock and realize my cat is sleeping on my head, as usual. As soon as my feet hit the floor, he starts clamoring for food by winding around my legs and meowing loudly. I mutter something about turning him into a pair of slippers if he doesn’t pipe down.

Once you’ve chosen a color for your design project that communicates all the right things, then what? Certainly that can’t be the ONLY color you use in your whole design!

Well, it’s not. Today we’re going to explore the topic of color combinations!

When combined with other colors, each color helps work to tell a story. Just like with words, you can’t tell a story with only one sentence--you need a few others in there to help support it. Below, you’ll find a few examples of what we’re talking about to help us demonstrate what we mean.

This may sound like the world’s boringest blog post in the history of ever, but don’t click away just yet, GLAD WORKS friends! This is super sexy stuff and we’re gonna prove it to you today. Typography is not just for design nerds!

Have you ever sat down, looked at a website, and said to yourself, “I LOVE THIS.”

If so, did you then ask yourself what makes you like it so much?  Is it the colors used in the design?  Is it the layout?  Is it the graphics and images?  Is it the way the content is organized or is it something else?  Is there something that speaks to a deeper part of you that you can’t put your finger on, like—soul?

One often-overlooked element of design is color. Color has the power to influence a viewer’s perceptions in some amazing ways. Sure, a certain color might look nice, but what about the psychological impact it has on the viewer? Does a certain color make the brain happy as well as the eyes?

“Bah!”  You say. “I don’t care. Yellow is my favorite color and we’re gonna use it!  Yellow everything!”

But we assure you that color plays an important role in our visual perceptions. Creating the right palette that makes people react the way you want them to is part of the whole thing we do when we design stuff.