Category: Infographic

9 Tips On Best Graphic Design For Beginners

Some of the mistakes that beginner graphic designers make when they start out could be easily avoided if the already established professionals shared their tips and tricks. This happens from time to time but it’s still not enough to keep them on the right track.

Some of the tips that graphic designers often give are to practice a lot, keep it clean and simple and work on your mistakes.

Here is a list of tips on best graphic design that you may find useful if you are a beginner in graphic design.

1. Find Inspiration

Inspiration always matters. You could take a look at what other designers are doing and see an element that you may like, see what other people are doing and how they are working on solutions on problems that often happen. Find designs that you like and that entice you to create. There are plenty of these resources online, especially on Pinterest.

2. Stay Organized

Organization is one of the problems that most creative types face. To eliminate this completely, create a schedule for yourself – make it work for you. Don’t just work on a whim since this could potentially be dangerous in terms of missing your deadlines. Purchase a planner and enter all of your deadlines and important dates.

3. Choose Compatible Fonts

Clarity is the key. Fonts that are hard to read may look good but they just add confusion to your design. Many guides state that you should explore fonts and use different types but this could be wrong. People have a hard time adjusting if there are more than two fonts in your design.

Use one for the main text and another for the subtext. Try to make them compatible as well.

However, don’t always use the same font – you should explore and find the perfect one for your project at hand.

4. Develop Your Own Style

This is an important step in any designer’s career. Having your own style will make you stand out on the market and help you get more assignments. Experiment in your free time and find options that appeal the most to you. Copy from other designers but always refine their work and put your own spin on it.

Display all of your best designs in your portfolio and assign catchy titles to them. There are companies that specialize in crafting these, if you need some assistance  – State Of Writing or Revieweal, to name a few.

5. Work On Your Skills A Lot

As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect. Invest your time into improving your skills and developing a better approach to each element of your designs. As you get better, you’ll get better jobs.

‘Practicing really made me stand out. I was just a beginner when an expert told me to use all the free time I could spare to work on designing and see what works for me. This advice made me who I am today and that’s what I say to all the new designers.’ Says Dave Milton, a professional designer from Write My Australia.

6. Choose Quality Images

Images you add to your design improve the overall project. This is why you should focus on making them look good – quality images improve your design immensely. If you are using your own images, stay consistent and use just them since if you mix them with stock photos, the difference will be noticeable. The lightning and the alignment along with other elements will not be compatible and it will look bad.

7. Simplicity Is Sometimes The Best Solution

Think of your favorite designs – most of them are quite simple. Stick to a simple color palette and clear text. This goes a long way sometimes. A too busy design can be off-putting and the same thing could be said about a design that’s too dark or too light.

8. Get Feedback

Feedback is the best way to learn. See what your clients have to say and improve your skills based on the things that they said were not as good as the others in your design. Even though it can be hard to hear it sometimes, bad feedback is a lot more useful to you than the good one.

‘I hated bad reviews in the beginning. I would get so disappointed and sad that I did something wrong. But I realized that bad reviews make me work harder and now I hope for some criticism so I can improve and learn more. ‘says Melissa Green, a beginner designer from Best Australian Writers.

9. Keep Going No matter What

This is possibly the most important tip out there – don’t give up. If designing is your passion, don’t let anything drive you away from it. Learn, grow, improve and continue designing. Success never comes easy but some day you’ll be an expert – you just have to keep going.

Wrap Up

Being a beginner in any industry is never easy. However, with the help of seasoned professionals, you’ll be able to achieve greatness soon. Just remember to stay inspired, work hard on your skills and keep designing. The rewards will come along with your efforts.

Chloe Bennet is a social media manager of seven years now – she worked for a wide array of companies including UK Writings, a leading custom writing service. Chloe teaches social media marketing techniques and web design at Academized and Essayroo websites.

Pinterest Infographics: Your Marketing Strategy And Social Media Trends

Do you include Pinterest in your marketing strategy? If not, you might be missing out on targeted traffic for your business.

When it first launched, Pinterest was a place where people shared their wedding photos, recipes, fashion ideas and other personal hobbies and interests.

Today, it’s evolved into an amazing business channel for many industries and niches.

Pinterest users market their products and services by posting content in the form of vertical “pins”. The pins are much like infographics and tend to get a high number of shares, repins, and clicks.

They’re also a huge reason that users love finding content on Pinterest – and why savvy marketers love Pinterest.

Infographics break down complex topics into visual content that is easy to digest and remember. According to research, infographics are one of the most effective forms of content for businesses.

Why are Pinterest and Infographics perfect for each other?

Pinterest pins have a much longer life than Facebook or Instagram posts. In fact, well-designed pins with compelling headlines can easily go viral and get thousand of clicks and repins for months and even years. The potential is huge.

Here’s why Pinterest and infographics go hand-in-hand:

1) Pinterest pins are vertical

A stand pin size ranges anywhere from 600×900 to 800×1200, with a sweet spot right around 735×1102 (Canva’s preset size).

Pins are easy to view on multiple devices and show up especially well on mobile. This is important, given that most people view pins from their phone.

Here’s an example of a 735×1102 pin:

Image Source – Pinterest

2) Pinterest is a visual content platform

Promoting infographics can be tricky. But since Pinterest is specifically designed to share visual content, it’s the perfect channel to share them. You can simply pin or upload your infographics and they’ll easily be visible to your audience.

Pinterest gets 250 million visitors each month, which is a good number considering that most Pinterest users are on the site to find and share interesting pins about topics they love.

Given the visual nature of Pinterest, you can easily brand your pins and infographics so that people instantly recognize your business. In fact, many people will click on your pins simply because they know you share quality content.

3) Pinterest is the “creative” channel

Pinterest is known as the social channel for creative types. Bloggers, photographers, designers, realtors, copywriters and others love to share ideas and projects.

As a marketer, the way to tap into that creativity is to curate and share content that looks fresh, exciting, and yes, creative. Pins that are able to do all three tend to go viral much quicker than pins that look stale and boring.

How to Optimize Infographics for Pinterest

There are a few things to keep in mind when creating infographics in general, and special things to do for Pinterest infographics.

1) First, select a trending topic

Ideally, you want to choose a topic that is relevant to your business and already popular as a Pinterest category. The topics that perform the best on Pinterest are travel, food and marketing…with science, lifestyle and business close behind.

Image Source – venngage

Remember that choosing a topic is only part of the equation. It doesn’t guarantee that your infographic will go viral right away – or ever.

Your infographic needs to be visually compelling and make people want to click through to learn more. Plus, you’ll need to optimize your pin so that it shows up in relevant searches.

If you want to ramp up your Pinterest marketing strategy and get maximum exposure for your pins, there are several online courses available for marketers and business owners.

2) Have a clear objective

The best infographic either make people laugh, show them how to do something, or answer important questions they have.

Infographic categories can be framed around “reactions”:

  • Funny – Makes you laugh
  • Helpful – Gives practical tips and strategies
  • Surprising – Makes people curious
  • Aspirational – Makes you feel motivated and pumped
  • Interesting – Thought-provoking facts and sound bites

Image Source – venngage

If you can hit the mark with any of these categories, users will likely repin, share and click on your pin.

Below is an example of a “helpful” Pinterest infographic:

Image Source – Pinterest

People looking for tasty smoothies that are healthy and unique would find this infographic with recipes and ingredients helpful.

3) Use simple graphics

Most businesses think that infographics need to complex to be effective. When it comes to Pinterest infographics, simple is better.

In fact, often times, text-based infographics work best on Pinterest. Remember, people are looking for inspiration and quick tips. They’re not on Pinterest to solve complex problems and they don’t need complex graphics.

All you need to do is give people a “sneak peek” at what they’ll see when they click. Make your graphic bold, bright and easy to understand and you’ll be on the right track.

Image Source – venngage

“List” infographics are hugely popular on Pinterest. They’re like cliff notes to a blog post…easy to understand and a quick read. You just highlight points of your post using bullet points and sections for organization.

Businesses also use infographics to tell their brand story, outline a process or showcase events. You can use timeline graphics to show the history of you company, including how it started and key milestones along your journey to today.

4) Use the right fonts

It might surprise you to know that fonts are a big deal when it comes to Pinterest infographics.
Use the wrong one and you might not make the impact you intended. If your font is too small, too large, too severe or too faint, people will likely skip over it.

It can be hard to choose the right font, especially since there are so many out there.

And while I prefer sans serif fonts, research shows that serif fonts are actually most popular on Pinterest.

Image Source – venngage

When it comes down to it, the font you choose depends on your brand and the type of infographic you create.

Select one that matches your brand personality and matches the objective of your infographic. Do you want the infographic to look professional? Serious? Hand-drawn? Whimsical? Choose a font that matches your intent.

Keep this in mind though:

Whatever you do, try to stay true to your brand fonts at the same time. You want that when people see your pins and click through to your website, everything looks cohesive and harmonious.

One thing you can do is look at similar infographics on Pinterest. See the fonts they’re using, then decide how effective they are at communicating the message while being readable.

Image Source – venngage

One last thing…

Make sure you use a large font for your headline to encourage people to click through and share your infographic.

5. Create short infographics

Long-form infographics used to perform well on Pinterest but they recently made changes to prevent marketers from hogging up the feed with super long pins.

So these days, it’s best to keep your infographics shorter.
As you can see from the image below, infographics don’t need to be incredibly long to be compelling and convey your idea. With this new trend on Pinterest it challenges marketers to be even more creative at using visuals without relying on the length of the pin.

Try to stick with a 2:3 ratio if you can. If you need to go longer, use a 1:2 format. Here’s what those ratios translate into in terms of the pin size:

  • 2:3 ratio: 800 x 1200 px
  • 1:2 ratio: 800 x 1600 px

Image Source – venngage

Wrapping it up

Pinterest is a diverse website which provides ample opportunities to create a stunning and engaging infographic.

The size of the display along with many other features makes Pinterest the best platform for brands and companies to market their product and services using infographics.

All you need to do is culminate of some strategies and create a high-quality infographic that provides you with the best results.

Quick Introduction To Cloud Computing

Cloud computing provides services with the demand of users, in the services computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power. Cloud computing offers faster services and its flexible on the scale of economics. It really helps to lower your operating cost and lower for your machine maintenance.

So cloud computing means a type of Internet-based computing, where different services including servers, storage, and applications are delivered to computers and devices. The cloud let you remotely access the services over the internet.

Top Benefits Of Cloud Computing

COST

When you go for buying hardware or software you always worried about the cost expenses. And you have to take care of your hardware or machine from time to time. Cloud computing really helps you to reduce the cost of your machine. You can buy the computing power, system resources or data storage on demand that fit your needs.

AVAILABILITY

The service, tools or data is available for you 24×7. These services are truly reliable and have up time around 99.99% and resources can be accessed any time from anywhere.

FLEXIBILITY

It is the one of biggest advantage of cloud computing. Flexibility in capacity gives you freedom to choose or upgrade any piece of hardware or software in minutes while sitting at home. If you feel, you need more data storage or you feel you should upgrade processor of your remote machine, it can be done with ease in no time.

REMOTE ACCESS

You can access any file from remote location, edit it, share it with your colleagues. Multiple people can work on same project at a time from different locations. It can provide you centralized system which you can access from any part of the world. All you need is internet connection.

UPDATE

There is an automated system for software update, you don’t need to worry about it. All of your tools or machines will be updated automatically whenever its required. Manual update requires long time which can be avoided by using cloud computing without any hassle.

SPEED

Cloud computing storing and accessing the data over the internet. The process of getting the services from the cloud is really simple and fast typically with just a few mouse clicks. Cloud has an impact on corporate networks. It can improve the speed of the connection.

SECURITY

When an organization comes to cloud computing solution is there a big question on security. When you remotely access your data and services then how you know that it is protected or not.The cloud host’s carefully monitoring security.  It provides services like traditional IT security and its protecting information and data from data leakage and deletion.

PERFORMANCE

The biggest cloud computing services run on a worldwide network of secure data centers, which are regularly upgraded to the latest generation of fast and efficient computing hardware. This offers several benefits over a single corporate data center, including reduced network latency for applications and greater economies of scale.

Here are some more advantages of Cloud Computing, have a look.

Best VPN Services For WordPress Users

Do you need a VPN service for WordPress? Lots of people rely on Virtual Private Networks to protect their privacy and keep them safe. They protect personal and private information and can mask your location, helping bypass snooping and restrictions. According to research by BestVPN.ie, 31% of VPN users use VPNs to protect their anonymity while browsing online.

There are hundreds of VPNs available nowadays and each claim to offer the best service and speed. You need to find which service is actually the fastest on the market. You can confirm your speed using online tests like this.

Here are the best VPN services for WordPress users.

1. IPVanish

IPVanish is among the best VPN services in the world. Their service is super easy to use and works with all popular devices, browsers, and operating systems. Beginners have no trouble getting started, and advanced users have lots of features to enjoy.

IPVanish doesn’t keep logs, has over 500 servers, and boasts high speeds, making it a top quality VPN for people who want great quality at great value. IPV costs a little more than some other VPN services, but there’s no denying you get what you pay for.

2. ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is another high quality VPN service, with services available in 94 countries. They adhere to the top standards of the industry to ensure that your data and information is encrypted for high security.

Thanks to their apps that work on desktop, mobile, and other devices, you’ll have no problem using this service. ExpressVPN allows you to change your IP and switch servers with a single click. The main features of the service include P2P connections, zero-logging of internet activities, file sharing, and more.

3. Overplay

Overplay is a top quality VPN service for keeping personal information and online activity secure. They have servers in over 50 countries, with a network that encompasses more than 650 servers. Overplay provides instant, unlimited server switching, letting you jump to a faster server in a matter of seconds. They also have a quick connect feature that suggest servers to connect to for high speeds.

Overplay works great on all devices, comes with P2P features, and offers the choice between SmartDNS with or without VPN encryption.

4. NordVPN

NordVPN is for people who want better than average protection. They provide double encryption by encrypting already-encrypted traffic for you. If this is an important feature you want, then this could very well be the best VPN for you.

Outside of their dedication to security, NordVPN boasts over 1,000 servers in over 60 countries and has a fantastic kill-switch feature. This feature will automatically close applications and prevent internet traffic from flowing if you get disconnected from the server. Not everyone on WordPress is going to be on the hunt for that level of security, but it’s good to know you have options if you need them.

5. Private Internet Access

Private Internet Access is considered by many to be a great choice for VPNs. You can have up to five devices connected at once, including phones, unlimited encrypted bandwidth, Wi-Fi encryption, peer-to-peer connections, and there are no traffic logs. They don’t record what you do while connected, giving you privacy and peace of mind.

6. VyprVPN

VyprVPN is one of the most robust VPN services available. They boast the best AES-256 encryption available on the market right now, which is why they deserve a spot on any list of the top VPN services for WordPress. With over 700 servers and 200,000 IPs across 70 locations, they have a fantastic range of services for users to get past censorship. Their services include having a cross-platform client that works with anything, Chameleon Technology, zero logging, 24/7 support, and their own DNS service called VyprDNS.

7. TorGuard

Last but not least we have TorGuard. TorGuard is fast and reliable and keeps no logs of user activity. There’s a range of different options and packages so you can tailor your protection to your needed level of privacy and security. TorGuard allows up to five connections at once, with servers in over 50 countries, and incredible customer support. One thing that helps TorGuard stand out, especially for WordPress users, is their business VPN service. If you need a VPN for your business, then TorGuard is hard to beat. They also provide Deep Packet Inspection bypassing, which allows you to use their services in locations and countries that actively block VPN services.

You might be interested in – The Best VPNs for Mac