Lessons in Graphic Design: Simple is Beautiful

What’s the number one note that Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, gives to his animators? It’s one word: “Simplify.” It’s good advice for any creative work – and it’s advice that our graphic design team takes to heart. Groening goes on to say, “There’s a simplicity in the design of the characters that makes their emotions very easy to read.” He’s absolutely right, simplicity in design allows your message to speak – without being cluttered by unnecessary or competing elements.

Simple is Hard

Unfortunately, many freelance graphic designers have tried to pass off lazy or rushed work as minimalist or simple design. But despite their best efforts to ruin a good thing, no number of sluggish designers can bring down true design principles – just like counterfeit money will never negate the use of the real thing.
Designs that are truly embracing this simplistic principle require a significant amount of work and an eye for detail. Anybody with a basic understanding of photoshop can fill a business card with icons and text – it takes a professional eye to balance whitespace, design elements, and text in a way that lets the message and emotion shine through.

Simple is Effective

Cluttered and busy designs aren’t just hard on the eye, they also obscure your message and confuse your target audience. In a Design Taxi article, Charlie Johnson pointed out the wisdom of embracing simplicity in your graphic design,

Some graphic designers believe that if they add more effects in design, it will become attractive. But the reality is otherwise. Adding too many elements to a design makes it complicated and messy to look at. They often neglect the power and significance of simplicity. Instead of making intricate and difficult to comprehend designs, designers should prefer simple concepts the target audience will remember.

I don’t have much to add to that. Busy designs are complicated and messy, while simple designs are powerful and memorable.

We do Simple

Our team can design whatever suits your fancy. But we love to make designs that harness the power of simplicity to deliver your message. Our graphic designers can handle any job – and we even offer monthly plans that feature unlimited graphic design services for your business. Contact us today to learn more about our full service graphic design packages!

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