Polymer Clay Ambitions
and Twisted Kneads home
Business Layout and Design Elements
The Key is keeping it simple  . . .
Many decades of working in the paper publishing media have taught me the few key elements that are essential to
insure a well designed layout. It's not necessary to know everything to prepare an appealing and well-balanced look to
anything on a 'flat' surface . . . business cards, web pages, brochures, hang tags, billboards, etc.

Do you have a layout design that you are having trouble with and just can't get it to look right? I'd be pleased to look it over
and see if I could be of any help to you. If you would like any help creating a design or would like a logo designed for you, I
can and will do it for you without a fee of any kind. No, I'm not dumb as a stump just because I don't want money for
services rendered - I love the challenge of creating a good design and with almost 40 years of working in the business I'm
pretty good at what I do and could charge a huge fee for one simple design but that is not going to happen here. Let's just
call it "paying forward".

Contact  Michele  if you have any questions or would like to have some design help . . . please include "Business Design"
in your email subject window.

With just a few basic things that are shown here, you can create your own professional designs.
The background in this photo is
of no importance to the image.
It is a very large photo with lots
of wasted space.

It is also taken from a distance
making it difficult to see any
details.

This photo has been cropped
deleting as much of the
background as possible plus it
is a much clearer photo and
shows better detail.

It may still be a large picture but
it shows the object itself and not
a useless background.
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Fairy Hollow
All things Fantasy

777-777-7777

Owner,
Sally Dewdrop
444 Flyaway Avenue
Fairyway,State 123456
FAX_________________
CELL_____________________WEBSITE_______

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All things fantasy
 Fairy Hollow
444 Flyaway Avenue
Fairyway, State 123456
777-777-7777
Sally Dewdrop
FAX _______________Cell_________________
Website _________________________________

    The above layout may certainly get your
    attention with all the jazzy colors but is
    the name of the business "Fairy Hollow"
    or "All Things Fantasy"?

    There are many errors ...

    The picture is "facing out", pulling your
    eyes away from the information.

    Too many colors

    Too many type faces (fonts)

    Too much bold type

    "White space" is unbalanced

    Address, fax, etc are so small they
    cannot be read unless you have a handy
    dandy magnifier in your back pocket.

    Simply put . . . it does not "flow" ... it
    confuses the eye.
  

    The above layout is simple, clean and easily read. The company name is
    clearly defined.

    The MOST important information is instantly recognizable, the NAME and
    PHONE.

    It has all the information that the other layout has without all the confusion.

    The "empty" space around the outside of the card 'frames' the info and
    therefore, is not considered 'wasted' space. This is called "White Space" . . .
    and your best design friend!
A word about photos . . .
Unless the background is necessary to the importance of your photo it is always a good thing
to "crop" your photos.

This is particularly important when you have a website. Large photos take time to upload and
download and eat up your webspace allotments so getting rid of any background that is not
necessary saves time. Folks who visit your site are going to appreciate that!
I will add more tips as I think of them but the few tips on this page are
really the basics of good design and there isn't a whole lot more that you
would need to know to make a good web design layout, a business card or
anything that requires a clean and pleasant design.