DESIGN TIPS & TRICKS

TIP #1:

You may have heard of the rule of thirds before, it is a simple concept that is seen in the world of design and even more so, photography. The general concept helps you to position and align your key elements to areas in your design or picture where they will draw the most attention. This allows for a clean and pleasant looking design. Here is how it works

First, you want to split your design vertically into 3 sections, drawing lines at ⅓ increments, then do the same thing horizontally. This will give you a rough shape of a hashtag (#). Now you are set-up and ready to start laying out your design elements. You will notice and use the following elements within the “hashtag” you just drew.

1. The vertical lines you drew should be used to line up and vertical focal points in your design. This can be people, or utensils or a tree. Try to keep these elements centred on one of these lines. If something vertical is coming off the edge of your card into the middle, it should stop at one of these lines.
2. The horizontal lines you drew should be used in a similar manner, but for elements that are aligned horizontally. Good examples of this would be the top edge of a table, a pool, a pathway and of course the horizon!
3. You will notice that the vertical and horizontal lines also intersect at 4 points in your design. These are your main focal points. In portrait photography this is often where you try to focus on the eye, while designing a card, this might be where you try to place your logo!

TIP #2:

When designing a card, choosing the right colour combinations plays a crucial role in making your card stand out in the way you want it to! Colours can affect us in ways you might not have thought of. A vibrant red colour has been found to grab a viewers attention faster than any other colour, a blue colour has more of a calming effect on the viewer and a yellow will generate happiness in the viewer. Using a proper balance and mix of colours can deliver a message in and of itself, just always be sure to use a colour harmony that matches your brand well! Check out our blog or contact us for more detailed information on colour harmonies and the psychology behind colours!

TIP #3:

Have you uploaded your logo into our online designer, but simply cannot get around the unsightly box that is around it? Our designer has an exclusive feature that allows you to remove the background colour from your logo or image, allowing you to have a more seamless placement on your card! Simply follow these simple steps once you are in our designer, creating your masterpiece of a card!

1. Click the “Image” button
2. Click “My Files” and then select “Upload Files” to add your preferred image or logo
3. Once your file is uploaded, select it and click the “Edit” button
4. This will open the Image Editor, for this tool click on the “Background” button
5. Now all you need to do is click on the colour you wish to remove from your logo or image!
6. Click “Apply” once you are finished, followed by “Save”. You will now see an “edited” version of your image or logo in the gallery. Select this modified version and insert it into your card design!

While using the background removal tool, there are a few features you can edit.

• Choose Background
  This allows you to preview your logo in a variety of colours. You are able to hover over a colour to preview it or select it to lock it in place while editing. This will not save and is only for preview purposes.
• Tolerance
  This allows you to indicate how large of a range of colours is removed from the colour you select. A low tolerance (0%) will remove only the exact colour you have selected, while a high tolerance (100%) will remove a massive range of colours, including what you have selected. While we recommend testing a few different levels, 20-30% generally is a good level to start at.
• Contiguous
  This checkbox determines if you are looking to remove the colour only from the specific area you have selected (checked), or if you would like to remove your selected colour from the entire image or logo (unchecked). Take our logo for instance. If we decided we wanted to remove the white from inside of the logo, but not the “CARDS” text, we would make sure this option is checked. We then would need to click each section of white inside of the logo to remove it.

For more help on using our designer, feel free to contact us!