Minimalism In Graphic Design

0:02hey everybody it's graphic designer Roberto Blake and welcome to another one of my YouTube videos where I will be talking to you about graphic design if you're just finding my channel for the first time don't forget to subscribe to get new graphic design videos on Mondays and Photoshop CC tutorial videos on Thursdays so today I want to talk about minimalism in graphic design and why it's important graphic design isn't just about visual presentation and aesthetic although that's important graphic design is primarily about communication and communication is often best when it is concise put simply sometimes less is more this is something that main designers struggle with and in many

0:39cases it's not always their fault often they'll get a competing opinion from someone who's not a designer whether that be a client a supervisor an employer someone who doesn't necessarily understand the importance and the value of minimalism and the effect they can have in both presentation as well as communication and why sometimes s despite the fact that you might be paying for the entire space of an ad or a page that using as little of it as possible to get your point across or to Showcase your product or to put your message out there is sometimes the best thing you can do because it creates emphasis and impact

1:17technology and consumer electronics companies do this very well in their advertising if you look at any of the recent ads for Apple and Samsung and even Google in any media whether that be print whether that be online or even in their videos you can see their emphasis on minimalism and the real idea that less is more and making their product the hero and making their messages impactful the way they usually do this is that the product that they're talking about is usually featured on a clear background whether that's black or whether that's white with a subtle gradient or drop shadows and they let the product take Center Stage they don't

1:52utilize color they don't have a lot of flying Motion Graphics going around they just keep it very crisp very minimalist and they focus the presentation entirely on making you um you know focus on the product and that's been very successful and we know that it works but more importantly you have to think that these companies spend Millions upon millions of dollars in their advertising but also in their research with regard to what works what plays well as with audiences their focus groups Etc so the odds are that these are the smartest most competent people in the creative Services industry and when they're doing these things they're doing them for a

2:30reason so imitation in this regard is not necessarily stealing it's not lazy it's using an intelligent shortcut to make the best decision possible you want to have a clear and concise intent and action that the user can commit to this is also true for user interface design as well um and even product design look at our smartphones this is following uh the whole concept of Kiss keep it simple stupid um and that's something that a lot of people get away from whether it be in graphic design or product design web design UI Development A lot of times people make things overly complicated and they make them cluttered and I

3:10recommend that when you need to explain why you're using minimalism why you're not necessarily using all of the page or why um you know there's so little to this that it's not that you're being lazy it's not that you're being unimaginative is that you're trying to um be impactful you're trying to be bold you're trying to be concise and you're trying to you know make the product the hero or you're trying to let the message speak for itself these are phrases that are going to help you when you need to convince someone of your use of minimalism because a lot of people just don't get it if you don't have an arts

3:45or a design background minimalism does come off as being lazy or not being thoughtful and doing as little as possible but thing is you want to do as little as possible to get your point across and to communicate your message message that's why I try to keep these minute these videos um under 10 minutes whenever I can under five if I can really manage it because you really don't want me to sit here and lecture You On Any Given thing about design for an hour do you I mean if you do that's fine leave that in the comments below and I'll make some content like that

4:17when I can but I think that you want the message to be clear get the point across with as few words as possible and get you in and out of here with a sense of having learned something new and that's what all audiences want want all audience want immediate gratification they want to get it they don't want to have to think about it too much they don't want to spend a lot of time waxing over it you know being H I wonder what they were trying to say I wonder what they're trying to tell me they want the message to sink in and they want it to

4:45do it very quickly and very easily they want a simplistic concept they don't want to read a bunch of text in your ad they don't want to read about your features and benefits most audiences don't there are some that do um they don't want a complete tear down of the technical specifications again not every client is like that not every audience is like that but again the majority of them don't want that they want something that just speaks to them very clearly and tells them that this is what they need or that this is what they gain and again it's not just me saying this this

5:18is proven by the fact that this is the approach to design used by some of the most prominent and uh most well-respected companies in the world with the largest advertising budgets in the world so clearly wouldn't spend all of that money to do something ineffective but I'd love to know your examples of minimalism in advertising and design what your thoughts are on it and how you communicate the value of minimalism to your employers your clients or your supervisors well I hope you guys all learned something interesting from this video um go ahead and leave your comments in the section below like this video if you like it

5:49don't forget to subscribe watch the other graphic design videos on my channel and as always thanks for watching