Digital content is getting nosier and nosier, which means that brands hoping to get their message out have to be savvier than ever about grabbing eyes. High-quality visual content is more critical than ever.
Text on its own is hollow; the brain processes visuals much faster than words, says Troy Coleman, senior visual designer for photo-editing site, PicMonkey.
“When everyone is competing for the same customers, whatever you can do to get your work noticed and stand out above others is essential,” he says.
Troy recently offered his expert advice on the importance of creating more eye-catching visuals to share your brand’s story.
Tell us about PicMonkey.
PicMonkey is an online photo editor and design creation tool. Our features are extensive. We have all the basic editing tools you’d expect from a photo editor (crop, exposure adjust, etc.). We have photo effects with a ton of ability to fine tune, as well as an extensive set of Overlays, Frames and Textures. And the collage tool has to be seen to be believed; our designers painstakingly focused on making it user friendly and flexible.
What sets PicMonkey apart from other online photo editors?
Editing with PicMonkey is a fun experience. We have a talented team of people – writers, designers and engineers – who go to great lengths to make the features relevant, the copy funny and helpful, and the site function smoothly. Our blog delivers relevant info and tutorials with just the right amount of PicMonkey flavor.
Who should be using PicMonkey?
Everybody. No, really. We have users from all walks of life. Businesses and bloggers create their brand imagery with PicMonkey. Parents and teachers find that it’s a great tool for children’s creativity. We often talk about the “who knews:” the folks who begin using PicMonkey and suddenly realize how their photos benefit from even a minimal amount of editing, be it cropping or adjusting exposure.
What are some basic dos and don’ts for brands that want to present more eye-catching visuals?
I would say to adhere to your style guide. Stay true to your brand by using quality and brand-relevant imagery to tell your story. In particular, make sure your imagery is relevant to your content; if you have an image that is out of context with your content, your message will be unclear.
Definitely keep things simple; a timeless aesthetic will always win out. Your end goal is to deliver information that can be absorbed effortlessly. Clean design helps you achieve that goal. Try not to convey too much information at once. Remove clutter by thinking not about what to add, but what to eliminate.
I like to think of branding as a system. Everything should work as a set; any images you send out or content you publish should be considered as part of this system. Remember, your brand is something you created. If it’s not working, change it. Deviating from your brand will invariably happen. If it starts happening a lot, that may be an indication to think about rebranding and adopting a better system to tell your story.
There is so much generic stock art out there that there are now sites devoted to documenting the worst of the worst. What can resource-strapped business owners do to personalize their stock art – or better yet, make their own visuals stand out against the competition?
To start, invest some time and resources into defining your brand so you have guidelines as you move forward. I would recommend creating as many of your own images as possible. This way, as a business you can stand out. Avoid using stock photos, especially overused and cliche imagery, when it’s something you could easily shoot yourself. Also, be aware of your market so you can differentiate your visuals from your competitors.
While perusing the Internet, what are some of your biggest photo pet peeves?
People selling bad images as photography. There is a lot of bad stock photography out there.
Bad cropping, especially in food photography. It pains me to see beautiful images that are not framed well.
Watermarking that obscures your great imagery. A nice logo in the corner or a caption is a great way to watermark and claim attribution.
What about some of your favorite visual trends today?
Giant page spanning photography. With connection speeds increasing and high-quality stock imagery becoming more widely available, more designers are incorporating big, beautiful images into their designs. It makes the web experience feel more human and less mechanical.
Print-inspired digital design. Typography, grid systems and the print aesthetic are much easier to achieve in web design now, and there’s a lot of freedom to use really dynamic type and traditional print layout principles. Designers are making impactful statements with simple stripped down designs and good visual hierarchy and by incorporating better typography.