10 Commandments of Digital Design
“Design is translating what a heart can feel into what an eye can see.”
-Andrew Hochradel
The moment I heard this quote my hand shot out to pause the video I was watching. I grabbed a pen and scribbled these words down, even backing up the video to ensure I had it right. In just 14 words Andrew Hochradel (or Hoch as he prefers) summed up what I aspire to achieve every time I sit down to design.
Okay, it may be hard to make a heart leap for joy with a newsletter design, but we all know what it feels like when we see a newsletter that lacks any intentional design. Or how we cringe when that piece of 1990s clip art gets pasted into the announcements.
Design matters. Big businesses know this, which is why they spend billions of dollars on designers for everything from packaging, to social media, to emails, websites, and ad campaigns.
Churches know this too, but they don’t have the resources they need – money, staff, and knowledge – to make it happen. I can’t help with the first two resources, but I can help with the third.
My goal is to help churches learn the keys to good design. I’m on a mission to move past the Papyrus era and teach you how to communicate effectively through form and layout.
To get us started, I’ve created the 10 Commandments of Digital Design. In the coming posts, we’ll break down each commandment in more detail. Here is a print-friendly version of them.
10 Commandments of Digital Design
You shall appreciate the role good design plays in clear and effective communications.
You shall use four main principles of design (proximity, alignment, repetition, and contrast) in all publications.
You shall keep a file of good design pieces to learn and gather inspiration from.
You shall proofread anything published to the world.
You shall not use fonts without choosing them with intention (including and especially Papyrus and Comic Sans).
You shall not center justify all design work.
You shall not use Microsoft Word as design software.
You shall not use more than two fonts in a design.
You shall not use all the fancy tricks available in a program simply because they’re there.
You shall not over-clutter a design.
Is there a commandment you think I missed? Do these commandments change anything for you? I’m looking forward to diving deeper into all of these with you in the coming posts (including the reasons to break some of them!).
In the meantime, have you signed up to get my weekly email which includes tips, articles, and other helpful things to help you stay on top of your communications game? If not sign up below.
