If you DIY, do it right
I know what you’re thinking.

“For the love of monkeys, she’s not going to go on about web design again, is she?”

Why, yes she is.

But only briefly, and this time she has only good things to say.

Professional tips for the DIY designer
Just yesterday I stumbled across a stellar one-page guide (quite simply, it’s a web page) to the basics of visual design. Mark Mordecai is officially on my Christmas card list for sending this little gem my way (don’t tell him, but I haven’t sent Christmas cards in years).

It’s called Clean Up Your Mess A Guide to Visual Design for Everyone.

I can’t say it better than the author, so tell me if this sounds familiar. It’s from the preface of the guide.

“If you’re like most people, you feel like a baby when it comes to visual design. You sometimes have a vague sense of what you want, but can’t articulate it or make it come about. All you can do is point and cry.”

Maybe you don’t know where to start
That particular blank canvas is just not working for you.

(If you’re a painter, don’t feel bad. If you put an actual blank canvas in front of me, I’d curl into a fetal position. I paint walls.)

Without training or very good instincts, putting a clean, professional presentation, whether it’s a website or business card, can turn into something akin to trying to hit a bullet with a smaller bullet whilst wearing a blindfold, riding a horse.

Help! How do I fix this?
If you can get halfway home, it might be even more frustrating, because you know something doesn’t look quite right, but can’t figure out how to fix it.

Daniel Higginbotham to the rescue. He’s the man who put together this brilliant one-pager.

Read, learn, and enjoy
Daniel explains, briefly and simply, how our brains process information and how to avoid common pitfalls (like centered text, one of my all-time favourites), and gives you tips on how to present elements in a way that makes the whole thing easy to read and understand.

The big benefit for you is that makes it easier for customers to buy.

I wish I had this brilliant little resource when I started out. Even now, it’s still a delight to read.

Dig in deeper—recommended reading
Daniel includes several books if you want to teach yourself more about visual design. If you want a starting point, I wholeheartedly recommend Robin Williams’ The Non-Designer’s Design Book. Williams talks about typography, which isn’t included here. It’s a great book.

The best part—there’s no catch
There’s no creepy opt-in, Clean Up Your Mess is simply a great resource, sitting out there on the Web to help you make a more professional presentation.

I believe hiring a professional designer can be one of the best business investments you can make—provided you hire the right person.

I know you might not have the budget, or just aren’t ready to take that next step yet.

My services are available if you need help polishing up the site you already have, but if you want to do it all yourself, the smartest thing you can do is to take the time to learn some professional design basics. “Clean Up Your Mess” is a terrific place to start.

A little bonus
If you have questions about your own website, leave a comment or send me an email and I’ll give you some visual design tips of my own. Consider it a free mini website review.

About the author: Stacey Cornelius is a writer and artist who has “Freelance Web Designer” in her checkered professional past. She doesn’t build websites much anymore, but she’s a mighty fine editor with words and visuals. Want high speed inspiration? Follow Stacey on Twitter.

I studied what was supposed to be graphic design in community college. It was a lame course with an unqualified teacher, which is partly why I didn’t become a graphic designer. Most of what I know now is self-taught. I wish I’d met today’s guest post author, Pamela Wilson, a lot sooner. Pamela is one of those people who has a knack for explaining complicated concepts in plain English. She makes graphic design principles seem downright sensible. So if you don’t yet have the cash to hire a designer for your marketing materials and need to do it yourself, listen up. Pamela has some good advice for you.

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You may not know it now, but by the end of this post I aim to convince you that you already have the tools you need to create marketing materials that present your work in its best light.

The Studio Source is devoted to helping you implement marketing efforts that will make your business stand out from the rest. If you absorb what Stacey shares here, you’ll know how to position your business to be memorable for the long term.

My blog, the Big Brand System, is devoted to sharing information that helps small businesses make the marketing materials they’ll use to promote themselves. I’m a graphic designer, and some people have said that the Big Brand System is going to put my design studio out of business.

That’s ridiculous, and here’s why:

You’re Not My Customer
My clients are organizations who have large marketing budgets. My fees aren’t cheap, so I can only work with companies who can afford me.

I suppose that sounds like I’m showing off, but after being in the design business for over 20 years, I bring lots of experience to the table, and my fees reflect that.

At the same time, it has been frustrating for me. I’ve met many people over the years who really need the help of someone like me. When you have a very small business, polished, professional marketing materials can give you an advantage when you compete with other businesses for the attention of your target market.

Oftentimes I’ve stopped and helped. I create a basic website, or a set of brochures, or a presentation kit that helps that person go out into the world with a piece that tells their story and sells what they offer.

In the Old Days
When I first worked as a designer back in the late 1980s, our work was done manually. Clients gave us typewritten pages, and we marked them with our instructions and sent them out to a typesetting service. The next day, a courier service would deliver galleys: photo paper that had the typeset text output on long, glossy pages.

We’d take the galleys and slice them with our X-acto knives and use rubber cement to glue them onto mechanical boards. These boards were sent to a printer to be photographed. It was a time-consuming and hands-on process.

The Big Secret
Fast forward to today. If you’re reading this blog, you own a computer that does more than I could do at my drafting table as a professional graphic designer back in the 1980s. The ability to type on a keyboard and see the results on a screen in front of you before you printed them out didn’t exist at that time.

The big secret I’m here to tell you is if you know what to do with the powerful tool you’re sitting in front of, you can create beautiful and effective marketing materials for your business.

Rules and Skills
Like any skill you want to learn, graphic design and marketing have some basic rules you need to master before you can do them successfully. And like any new skill, the more you practice it, the better you’ll get at it.

It is worth the effort to master these skills. Why? Because no one is more passionate about seeing your business succeed than you. No ad agency or design studio you hire can match the enthusiasm and energy you’ll devote to creating crowd-pulling marketing.

Learn, Apply, Grow
I encourage you to pay attention to what Stacey shares here. Apply it to your business and observe the results. Make adjustments if needed, and try again.

Learn what you can about design, too. Once you’re mastered some basic design skills, you can take the powerful tool you’re sitting in front of and make beautiful pieces that will help your business shine.

You’re a creative person, so you have an advantage over the rest of the population. You’ve already been exposed to color theory, composition basics and how to really “see.” Your learning curve for design skills should be much shorter.

I challenge you to try it. Learn about typography, copywriting and white space. Add these skills to your toolbox and use them in your business marketing. Before you know it, you’ll have the most passionate, eager person in the world working on your marketing: you!

About the author: Pamela Wilson helps people grow their business with great design and marketing. Want to know more? Get her free Design 101 e-course at her site, BigBrandSystem.com