How to Speak Designer

If you struggle to communicate what you want to your graphic designer, here are some tips from the clever folks at TGM Creative in New Zealand. Or take a deeper dive into bridging the divide between marketing and design from Amrita Mathur at Superside.

Key Design Terms to Know

Understanding design terminology can significantly improve communication between marketers and designers, leading to more effective and visually appealing marketing materials. Here’s a breakdown of key design terms and concepts:

Branding & Identity

• Brand: The overall depiction of an organization, encompassing its message, values, and visual identity.
• Brand Guidelines: A rulebook detailing the visual identity elements (logo usage, color palette, typography) to ensure consistency.
• Logo: A visual mark or symbol representing an organization, including wordmarks, lettermarks, or icon-based designs.
• Brand Identity: The visualization of a brand, including the logo, stationery, packaging, website look and feel, and tone of voice.
• Palette: The arrangement of colors that constitute a brand’s color scheme.
• Visual Identity: The look and feel of a brand, reflecting its personality and creating consistency for recognition and trust. 

• Typography: The style and visual appearance of letters and words, including font type, size, spacing, and height.
• Typeface: A series of fonts with similar design features, offering differences in weights, styles, or sizes (e.g., Helvetica).
• Serif: Fonts with small strokes or extensions at the ends of character strokes (e.g., Times New Roman).
• Sans Serif: Fonts without serifs, often favored for modern design and readability (e.g., Arial, Helvetica).
• Kerning: Adjusting the space between specific characters to optimize visual balance.
• Leading: The space between lines of text.
• Tracking: Adjusting the spacing uniformly across a range of characters.
• Hierarchy: Structuring text by order of importance, using font sizes, styles, and arrangement to guide the reader’s eye. 

• Color Value: Codes or numerical designations representing color in different systems (CMYK, Pantone, RGB, HEX).
• CMYK: A color model (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key/Black) used for print purposes.
• RGB: A color model (Red, Green, Blue) used for displaying colors on screens.
• Hex Code: A six-digit code representing RGB colors online.
• Saturation: The intensity or purity of a color.
• Contrast: The degree of difference between elements like color, size, or texture.
• Resolution: The quality of an image, typically measured in DPI (dots per inch) for print or PPI (pixels per inch) for screens.
• Stock Photo: Licensed images available for use in marketing and design.

• Grid: A system of rows and columns used to align design elements for consistency and accuracy.
• White Space (Negative Space): The empty area around design elements, used to improve readability and visual impact.
• Alignment: The arrangement of design elements (text, images) in relation to each other, creating order and visual harmony.
• Rule of Thirds: A guideline for visual composition, dividing an image into nine sections and placing focal points along the intersecting lines.
• Balance: The distribution of visual weight in a design, creating stability or drawing attention to a focal point.

• User Experience (UX) Design: The design process focusing on making products and services appealing and intuitive for the end-user.
• User Interface (UI) Design: The design of the visual elements and controls users interact with.
• Call to Action (CTA): An interactive element designed to prompt a user to take a specific action (e.g., “Sign Up,” “Buy Now”).
• Accessibility: Ensuring designs are usable and understandable by people with diverse needs, including those with disabilities.