Embedded Files
Make all your designs look smart!
Make all your designs look smart!
We all love beautiful things, however as a designer branding and graphic design means more than just making things look beautiful. By making sure your designs are smart you can:
- Help end-users navigate and use information more easily
- Promote the Educate! brand in-schools and for other audiences
- Save on printing and resources by using spacing more optimally
In this module we will introduce you to useful resources to make sure your designs are Educate!-proof.
- The Educate! brand book
- The design style-set
- Ten commandments of graphic design in E!
1. Educate! Branding and Messaging Guide
1. Educate! Branding and Messaging Guide
Our external relations and communications team put together an incredible resource on branding in E!. This guide helps you:
- Identify which fonts to use
- What colors to use
- What logos and photos to use
Find all professional photos taken in E! schools in this folder.
Check for updates on the Educate! Wiki.
3. 10 commandments of graphic design and formatting in E!
3. 10 commandments of graphic design and formatting in E!
- Thou shalt check your spelling and grammar - Run a spell-check before sharing it with anyone! Make sure the spelling and grammar check is set to US English. More recent versions of MS Word can also give you suggestions to make your writing more concise.
- Thou shalt not make text smaller than 10 pts. If you want to cut pages, make your info more concise, but never ever go below 10 points in your fonts. In a PPT also make sure your text is readable (usually 16-24 points)
- Thou shalt not steal nor commit plagiarism - Respect copy-right. When downloading images from Google make sure to filter for 'labeled for reuse' under 'tools'. When needed, include a reference to the original source. Never copy and paste text from external resources without using quotation marks and proper references. Ideally you will paraphrase information specifically tailored to the audience of your design.
- Thou shalt be consistent throughout a document - Use the same titles, font size, colors etc. throughout the document!
- Thou shalt save trees - Fewer pages = fewer trees cut down to print your work.
- Thou shalt use graphic modes of emphasis- When writing texts, keep in mind that the readers have a limited attention span. If you write bulky pieces of text chances are information gets lost. Always emphasize key message by making words bold, underlined, turn it into Smart-Art, etc.
- Thou shalt use E! colors - Always use the right shades of red, yellow, green and blue when designing your work. It looks funny if some materials all of a sudden are lime green or bright red.
- Thou shalt use E! official logos and photos - Don't start a brand of your own, always use the logos of the E! and as much as possible make use of the professional photos taken.
- Thou shalt promote gender equality - When using photos and illustrations, always make sure you boost gender equality. Avoid using pictures that reproduce gender stereotypes (a girl making mats and a boy building a table).
- Thou shalt make your cover page easy to recognize - We design lots of materials in E!. Make sure that the printed products are easy to recognize, especially when you implement at scale admin needs to pack and distribute materials.
Tips! Advance your MS Word Skills to make professional designs
Tips! Advance your MS Word Skills to make professional designs
1. Page & Section Breaks
1. Page & Section Breaks
Lots of people use the 'enter' key to start on a new page. However, if you add some info somewhere earlier in the document this can cause odd white spaces at the beginning of the document. Page breaks can help prevent this 'funny' effect.
Learn how to use and remove page breaks here.
Section breaks are highly under-used as well! However, they can help you manage specific page layouts for different sections in the document. So you can have both portrait and horizontal pages in 1 document for example.
2. Reveal the 'invisible' formatting
2. Reveal the 'invisible' formatting
Lots of formatting is in the use of 'space'. Word has a handy function to reveal the 'invisible'. It shows you dots (.) for spaces and other symbols for section breaks, page breaks, etc.
This function is also used to delete page and section breaks.
So if you see (..) instead of (.) you can correct it and remove 1 space.
3. Creating a Table of Contents automatically
3. Creating a Table of Contents automatically
Page numbers usually keep changing as you work on a document. When you make your table of content manually you risk making errors and confusing the reader.
Use the ToC function of Word to make your life a lot easier.
4. Grammar and spell check
4. Grammar and spell check
Human beings make mistakes! Word has an easy function to help us fix these mistakes. Before sending any document to your colleagues or approver, make sure you run a grammar and spell check!
Assignment #5 'Make a poster'
Assignment #5 'Make a poster'
Make a smart poster to communicate the message of your pitch on how E! develops young leaders and entrepreneurs in your country. You can use word, PPT or any other program to make this poster. Play around with text boxes, smart-art, icons, pictures from the professional photos folder, logos, shapes, etc. Make sure you apply the 10 commandments.
Send a PDF version of your file to designacademy@experienceeducate.org
Report abuse