Basics of Design
by Jay Moore, NALS Communications Manager

Audience
I know you have all probably worked on some type of flyer or newsletter design sometime in your life. Odds are if you kept it simple it turned out fine and was an alright piece, but if you tried too hard to make it look fancy it may have not turned out as well as you thought it would. I am going to outline some design basics which when combined with the moniker "Less is More" you will be able to create some nice promotional designs that can be used for anything.

You must know your audience...I know this sounds simple but if you don't know what your audience wants and how they best receive a message then you can not effectively reach them. Since you know your audience so well you need to make your design suited to their tastes and needs. Remember you are not designing for you, rather you are designing for your audience. There are some standard rules to follow based on your audience such as the font size. The font size should be larger for older audiences to make it easy for them to see. This can also decrease the amount of space you have for text so use your space wisely and edit your text to make it the most efficient. It is also advisable to avoid light or bright colors and look at high contrast designs to make the information jump off the page. For all audiences you want to avoid complicated backgrounds and make sure there is a clear distinction between the foreground and background. Most people want visual breaks when they read something so make sure that you use columns to give a visual break and avoid long line of text going completely across the page.

Learn as much about your audience as you can so you can effectively target them with your designs and your programs!