Can you DIY design?

Many companies and start-ups reach a hurdle when it comes to design, as cost and creativity become limiting factors. There are ways of reducing marketing expenses by doing some of the design work in-house. Careful planning and preparation will be the key to successful DIY design.

We have included a list of common documents used across most businesses that should have:

• Logo
• Business card (85mm x 55mm)
• Letterhead (top of an A4 Document; 210mm x 297mm)
• Compliments Slip (210mm x 99mm)
• Email Signature

These documents have many design commonalities, for example logo placement and contact details. We have included dimensions of each of these so that you can create documents yourselves to cover most (if not all) of your business needs.

Keep the design of your logo as simple as possible using shapes, lines and text. Try to avoid using images as these distort and lose quality when stretched to different sizes. Try to aim for your stationery to be clear with your contact details being easy to find, as well as including a link to your website (if you have one).

When using images within your documents ensure that the highest resolution images are used (300ppi for print and 72ppi for web), this will ensure the quality remains sharp. PPI stands for pixels per inch and may also be referred to as dpi (dots per inch). You should also remember to save your designs at all stages because you may be unable undo changes at some point and will have to restart the whole process again. Name your documents using an easy to understand convention (i.e. DOCUMENTTYPE_DATE) this will make it a lot easier to track and trace your documents.

If you are still unsure about doing any of this design work in-house; contact a professional design agency (even one who is a start-up specialist). Using a professional design agency to create and brand your documents is useful as they know what they are doing or should do! Always check credentials first and ask for references if you have any reservations.

Many companies and start-ups reach a hurdle when it comes to design, as cost and creativity become limiting factors. There are ways of reducing marketing expenses by doing some of the design work in-house. Careful planning and preparation will be the key to successful DIY design.

We have included a list of common documents used across most businesses that should have:

• Logo
• Business card (85mm x 55mm)
• Letterhead (top of an A4 Document; 210mm x 297mm)
• Compliments Slip (210mm x 99mm)
• Email Signature

These documents have many design commonalities, for example logo placement and contact details. We have included dimensions of each of these so that you can create documents yourselves to cover most (if not all) of your business needs.

Keep the design of your logo as simple as possible using shapes, lines and text. Try to avoid using images as these distort and lose quality when stretched to different sizes. Try to aim for your stationery to be clear with your contact details being easy to find, as well as including a link to your website (if you have one).

When using images within your documents ensure that the highest resolution images are used (300ppi for print and 72ppi for web), this will ensure the quality remains sharp. PPI stands for pixels per inch and may also be referred to as dpi (dots per inch). You should also remember to save your designs at all stages because you may be unable undo changes at some point and will have to restart the whole process again. Name your documents using an easy to understand convention (i.e. DOCUMENTTYPE_DATE) this will make it a lot easier to track and trace your documents.

If you are still unsure about doing any of this design work in-house; contact a professional design agency (even one who is a start-up specialist). Using a professional design agency to create and brand your documents is useful as they know what they are doing or should do! Always check credentials first and ask for references if you have any reservations.