White space is the area around and between design elements. It's also the space within the design elements, and even within the letters themselves! It's also known as negative space, which may be a better name for it as it doesn't actually have to be white, it could be a background image or another colour. But whichever you call it, try not to make your designs too crowded, make use of the space around the text or images. Allow your message to stand out clearly by giving it space to breathe. Less is more - this is so true when it comes to design!

Using different fonts in a design can look great, but you need to make sure you choose fonts that work well together and limit the number of fonts you're using to two or three maximum. You want to ensure your designs are easy to read and look professional. This applies to all areas of design, for example a handwritten font can often be paired well with a sans serif font, especially in capitals, like I've used on this logo: 

How are you doing during the lockdown we're all faced with? We all need to look at the positives rather than focusing on the negatives, and use this extra time in our homes to our advantage. Perhaps you have more time to focus on your own business now, or maybe you're looking to start a new business whilst your full time job is on hold? I'd love to help you with your branding!

I've decided to offer 10% off marketing materials to help other small businesses during these difficult and uncertain times. Many small businesses will be rethinking how they are working or delivering their services moving forwards, and I wanted to offer my help, including a discount, to support this. Perhaps you need a social media advert to promote your services moving to be delivered online rather than face to face, or maybe a graphic that you can send out via email to existing customers. Get in touch and we'll have a chat about how I can help you. We may need to socially distance ourselves, but we have social media and the internet at our fingertips, so don't need to be alone!

Did you know that Pantone pick a 'colour of the year' each year? I love their website for exploring new colours and checking shades of different colours, but this is also a fab way to see which colour will be (or they predict will be) 'on trend' each year. The Pantone experts carry out extensive research around the world, looking for new colour influences in all areas of design, art collections, fashion, the entertainment industry, popular travel destinations, new technology, materials, textures, social media platforms and upcoming sporting events.

Today, as something a bit different, I thought I'd look at some other brands who chose purple for their logo. Purple is traditionally said to represent royalty, luxury, elegance, creativity, power, ambition, wisdom, peace, mystery and magic (plus a few more things if you google you'll find more meanings than I could list!) It's a versatile colour choice for branding, ranging from the most subtle purple hue right up to the brightest shade.

So, it seems that Facebook has changed again! I'm not sure exactly when they made this change, but today I've discovered that the cover image (across the top of your profile or business page) requires to be set at new dimensions in order to ensure it displays well in both mobile and desktop views. So, I've not written anything in a while but I thought this might be a useful subject to jump on my blog and explain!

I thought today I'd talk about social media templates as this is a relatively new item, but one which I include within my branding packages. The idea of these is that I provide you with a background or a frame which you can then use in your favourite app or image editor and change to promote whatever product/service/message you're focusing on.

People use the words ‘font’ and ‘typeface’ interchangeably. I’m guilty of this as I often feel that people are more familiar with the word ‘font’ and could be put off or confused by the word ‘typeface’, but actually there’s a difference between ‘type’, ‘typeface’ and ‘font’.

Your branding should be consistent so that your customers (or potential customers) recognise your images, social media posts or marketing materials. You want someone to see what you share and instantly think of you. 

People come to me for many branding-related reasons: either they want their logo redrawing as a high resolution vector file so that they can use it for print, or they need to slightly alter their current logo to better fit their business as it has evolved, or often they want a complete rebrand. Here are a few pointers that might help you decide whether your branding might need updating:

With so many graphic designers to choose from, how do you know which designer is right for you? 

I'm sure this is a question many people ask themselves when they are sifting though their choices. The first thing I suggest you do is to head over to their website and have a look at examples of their work. Most graphic designers will have an online portfolio, either on their own website or, like mine, hosted by Adobe. Mine is linked to my main website, so it's easy to find. This will give you an idea of their design style, and their skills, and you'll know whether they feel a good fit for your project.

Spring is showing signs that it's just around the corner, and maybe, like me you feel like freshening up your branding or marketing materials? You might have noticed that I've added a few zingy colours into my ads and social media posts lately, I felt like it was time to freshen things up and wanted people to notice my posts rather than feeling like they've already seen something before.

I thought I’d share a tip about colour modes with you today!

I know a lot of people are confused when talking about colour modes and some won’t even know what I’m talking about, so I thought I’d share!

Well, I thought I'd look at something new for 2019, so I've decided that from January I'll have a go at writing a blog... you'll have to bear with me please as I'm new to this, and I'd love if you could pop over to my social media sites and give me some suggestions as to what you'd like me to talk about!

You can find me on facebook at www.facebook.com/stephbuncherdesign and also over on instagram at www.instagram.com/stephbuncherdesign