How to Talk Design
“Make it pop”
“Dazzle me”
“I don’t know what I want, but I’ll know it when I see it.”
“Can’t you just copy this?”
These phrases will typically not warrant the kind of results either the designer or the client is hoping to achieve. If you can learn some simple design terms, it will make the process much more efficient and save time and money. Plus, you’ll keep the designer happy and a happy designer is much more willing to make edits or changes than a frustrated designer, trust us.
Let’s start with the phrases above and what to say instead.
“Make it pop” / “Dazzle me”
What you really want is for your branding/design to stand out against the competition. You have a few seconds to capture someone’s attention, we know that, we get it. We want it to “pop” as well! Our response to “make it pop” would be twofold, who is your competition, and do you have any inspiration, or have you seen things that you believe “pop”?
Knowing the competition helps us do some market research to see what is trending in your industry. This allows us to create something in line with the industry but also something that stands out against the competition.
The second, asking for inspiration, helps us get a feel for your aesthetic. It creates a nice baseline and those two pieces of information, will help make the process flow much more smoothly. If you don’t know where to look for inspiration, Pinterest is a great place to start! Our other suggestion, go shopping and take pictures of branding and designs you like.
“I don’t know what I want, but I’ll know it when I see it.”
This is typically not true or helpful. Gathering a few pieces of inspiration that you like sets a standard for the designer and is a good place to start. Wasting time having a designer create lots of different examples only costs you money and creates frustration on both sides. Whether it is having a discovery meeting or spending 30 minutes before the meeting to gather inspiration, we can promise you it is time well spent and will save you money in the long run.
“Can’t you just copy this?”
Not only is this illegal and morally wrong, but it also won’t help you stand out on a shelf. Copying other designs does not help you become authentically you. Your best bet is to use what you found and like, then create something in the same vein but that can be completely ownable by you! This brings us to our next section.
Let’s get into some basic design terms and how to use them.
How to talk Type.
Maybe what you liked about the inspiration was the font selected. Identifying the basics, such as Serif, Sans Serif, Script, and letter weight/contrast will move the conversation along pretty quickly.
SERIF
This is a serif font (Baskerville). We know it’s a serif because, at the ends of each letter, there are extra strokes or lines that come off the sides. They look like little tails.
SANS-SERIF
This is a sans-serif font. The ends of the letters do not have “tails” and are typically less varied in contrast. We’ll get into contrast down below, just note that the “S” is the same thickness all around.
SCRIPT
A script is exactly what it sounds like, remember writing in cursive? This is design’s way of doing that. Scripts are generally used as accents, never as body copy because of legibility. You can also use an italic version of your serif for a similar look and desired outcome. But only if that font family (when you click on the font and it says: thin, light, regular, medium, bold…etc. that is the font family) has an italic as part of it. Creating your own italic will not have the same feel.
CONTRAST
Take a look at the letters you like. Is there a variation in the width of the stroke? As you can see here, the Didot font has lots of contrast in the letters. One side of the letter is very thick and the other side is very thin. This creates a very specific look. You can see with the sans serif, Futura, there is no contrast within specific letters. Also creating a specific look. Now you can tell your designer you like a serif font with lots of contrast OR a sans serif with no contrast. And now the designer has clear direction saving them loads of time and you lots of money!
Great! Now you have a clear idea of what you want.
In step two, the designer presents options. Let’s get into how to review them together.
KERNING
This is the space between individual letters in a word. Kerning helps with legibility and can help the word feel more visually appealing. So if one letter looks too close or too far from another you can say, “Can you adjust the kerning between these two letters” and it’s an easy fix!
TRACKING
Tracking is the distance between letters in a word, not to be confused with kerning, tracking takes into account the whole word. If you want the letters in the word spread out more, you say, “Can you increase the tracking” or if you think it is too spread out, “can you decrease the tracking?” Easy peasy. All of the sudden the word takes up more or less space.
LEADING (led-ing)
Leading is the distance between lines of text. Remember writing essays in school… we know, probably terrible memories, but also do you remember when the teacher said “double spaced”?! So exciting! That means twice the amount of leading as normal. Designers increase or decrease typically of legibility especially when text gets small.
Next time, you don’t have to say, “I don’t know what I don’t like about it, but can you fix it?”, you can use specific terms to help effectively communicate what you’re hoping to achieve and get you there quicker. Once again, saving time, frustration, and money! Yay!