Well, here we are folks, at the conclusion of my conversation with Professional Graphic Designer Ali Rowan. In parts two and three I shared her insight on color usage, design strategy and copyright risks.

To sum everything up, we will conclude with Ali’s recommendations of the top three things to do and not to do when utilizing her provided knowledge.

As mentioned previously, a lot of visual action or wild patterns are not necessarily your friend when it comes to design and layout. A focal point to cement itself in someone’s memory is your goal. This is something that is very important to remember when working on a website also.

Finding your own individuality is the key to longevity of your brand.

A great example is the design of kid’s rooms; the latest fad of say, a particular cartoon character. The child absolutely MUST have that be the theme of their bedroom. Let’s look down the road a few years…
More often than not, that child has moved on to a different focus and is pestering the parents to redo the theme.

The same principal applies to catchy phrases or references to trends and fads. You need to think in the future tense of your business when designing branding logos, websites and identifying phrases.

Don’t outdate yourself or your business without realizing it. People are a fickle breed and our attention span is getting shorter every day.

Another thing that falls into the novelty and cliché category is background music on your website. You don’t want to ‘force’ the marketing experience on the recipient, and having music start to play when your site is opened does just that.

For someone working quietly at their desk, it can be a sure fire way to prompt them to quickly close the page, never to visit it again. When working with a client on website design, Ali often finds herself explaining this.

To recap, remember these important points:

• Do work with a professional. Design schools are in existence for a reason. The knowledge of a professional will greatly enhance your design and finished product.
• Do take advantage of the free online resources available. Some of Ali’s favorite design blogs to follow are: Just Creative Design and David Airey
• Do network with other creative types. Twitter is a great resource to find others with your same interests and allow you to corroborate. Be sure not to over–do, though. Getting carried away with several lines of input from others will soon get you an overload of information to work with.

Now for some definite Don’ts

• Don’t get hung up on the latest fad or trend. Remember, fads and trends are both generally short lived and you can outdate yourself quickly. Take the best features of an idea and make it your own.
• Don’t feel ‘shiny and pretty’ are necessary. You want to convey your message with colors and design that best represents the tone and message of your business.
• Don’t use your first immediate idea. Take that first initial thought and set it aside. This will allow you to explore some more ideas, avoiding the chances of someone with the same business having a similar branding logo. Your first thought, while exciting, is probably the first thought your competition will have. Sometimes you end up coming back to your original idea; most times you come up with something phenomenal that has your original thought within it.

Ali Rowan is a freelance graphic designer in the time that fits around her being a student, writer, crafter, girlfriend, daughter, sister, Canadian, and the various other things that keep her busy—not that the Canadian bit entails a lot of effort on her part, Olympic spirit aside. To embrace cliché, art and design have been a part of her life since she was little—she was temporarily ambidextrous around the age of 3, just so that she could continue colouring when one hand grew tired. To this day, she deeply regrets not keeping up with that, because come to think of it, being fully ambidextrous would be quite awesome.
Brief tangents aside, it was only in 2009 that Ali embarked on her freelance career, and admittedly, she’s still got lots to learn, just as she always will—if there’s one piece of advice she’s got, it’s that there’s always something left to learn, so never stop.
For more on Ali, don’t hesitate to follow her on Twitter, or check out her website, Actuali Design.

photo credit: bjornmeansbear