Graphic Design Tips & Tricks

John McWade presents a series that touches on all areas of design, helping designers new and old sharpen their skills and create more powerful work.

Introduction

• Welcome

The Best Practices of Graphic Design

• Design a modern cover: Think simple, clean, and angular
• Transform a product sheet: Put your words here, not there
• Design a business card: Make it look like what it says
• Double your artwork for free: Use the same picture twice
• Design a ghosted logo: A picture always goes with itself
• Design a business card using repetitive shape
• Why round letters are bigger than straight ones
• Design a powerful poster: Work with your photo, not against it
• Design stationery that’s almost a brochure: Picture your product, not your logo
• Alignment: Your ruler’s good only for regular things
• Logo design: Think simple
• Your design needs a focal point: Dramatic photo anchors a strong makeover
• Chart your data with images
• Make a beautiful logo with off-the-shelf type
• How to transfer your look to a new format
• Angles
• The (very!) versatile art of the silhouette
• Easy, functional one-line design
• Signage: Consistency makes the brand
• Elementals: How black, white, and gray make depth
• A beautiful desk calendar you can make yourself
• Lesson of the counterintuitive logo
• How to design visual instructions
• Design a beautiful CD package
• Simple brochure presents your face to the public
• Soften the edge
• Small layout packs a big punch
• Shape it: Part one
• Shape it: Part two
• A logo makeover: Part one
• A logo makeover: Part two
• Grid collage
• People in a group on a grid
• Magazine cover redesign
• Designing cards with type alone
• Designing a small-space advertisement
• Designing a business card for a photographer
• Designing names with type and basic shapes
• Review of an outdoor sign logo
• Creating a small multipage brochure
• Designing with black, white, and gray
• Gestalt techniques: Isomorphism
• Redesigning a business card
• How to put motion on a static page
• The color wheel
• Layout decision points
• Designing a tiny brochure
• Panoramic spacing
• Multi-use format for a business card
• The boring book cover challenge: Part 1
• The boring book cover challenge: Part 2
• The single space practice
• Incorporating hairlines into your design
• Close enough with color choice
• More design techniques with grids
• Lanzarote calendar assignment
• Foreground focal point
• Stop, look, observe
• Working with a rule of thumb (dynamic) grid
• The humble power of negative space
• Go with the flow
• Learning by doing
• For the love of design!
• The boring book cover challenge, part 3
• Bold moves
• Simply beautiful
• Common but versatile looks
• Audacious philanthropy
• Simple slides
• Every face has a place
• Those little extras
• Seeing sight lines
• Swiss style grids, part 1
• Swiss style grids, part 2
• Poetic type
• Visual continuity
• Find your balance
• Procrastiworking with album covers
• Looking around: Why it works
• Don't fake it
• Find the focal point
• Tooth and texture
• Small and simple
• Design challenge: Dino Water
• Looking around: Address the audience
• Experimenting with borders
• Magazine layout triple threat
• Product ad comparison
• Lanzarote calendar assignment: Revisited
• Rewind: Simply beautiful
• Rewind: Seeing sight lines
• Find your center with typefaces
• Maki poster, part 1
• Maki poster, part 2
• Quick look: Decoded wallet case
• A type of luxury
• Quick look: Saltwater restaurant
• Quick look: Nick's Cove
• Less is more: Book covers
• Less is more: Notices
• Less is more: Posters
• Movement in design
• The British Academy: Logo
• The British Academy: Type
• The British Academy: Grid
• Quick look: Teavana rock sugar
• Ask John: Authentic advice
• Blue Note: Donald Byrd album cover
• Blue Note: Caddy Daddy, Part 1
• Blue Note: Caddy Daddy, Part 2
• Blue Note: Caddy Daddy, Part 3
• Ask John: Finding your passion
• It's all in the details: Lineweights
• Paper flyer redesign
• Set a headline with Gossamer
• Ask John: New business logo
• A new type: Helvetica Now
• In detail: Line values
• Typographic silence
• Rebranded: Uber
• Capture connection with authenticity