As the year winds down, it’s the perfect time to reflect—not just on resolutions, but on how we design. Whether you’re working on an animated explainer, a social campaign, or this year’s holiday card, a few simple shifts can make your visuals clearer, kinder, and way more effective. So we put together a quick naughty-and-nice list to help you stay on the good side of great design.
A few thoughts on ways to create clear and engaging visuals on your next project, whether it’s an amazing explainer video or this year’s holiday cards!
Naughty: Writing a Novel
Adding text on screen can help viewers retain information better but the average shot in an explainer video only lasts between 4-6 seconds. That’s not a lot of time for your audience to read and absorb the information on screen, so be sure to keep onscreen messages short and succinct.
Nice: Writing Visually
Every Christmas I’m excited to share the Christmas memories I had as a child with my kids. One holiday special that I like to share is the Muppets Family Christmas. This was something that I loved as a child because, not only were Kermit and the Muppets there but there are also characters from Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock that joined the show so that the entire Muppet family was together for the holidays. We’ve shared this tradition with our kids for the last few years and now every year they’re excited to watch it again and again, just like I did when I was a kid.
Naughty: Using every Crayon in the Box
So many beautiful colours! How can one possibly choose! It can be tempting to stuff your scenes with every colour in the rainbow, but that can lead to scenes that feel confused and hard to read.
The 60-30-10 Rule is a classic design principle that can help here. You first choose a primary colour (often something more neutral) to make up 60% of your scene. Things like backgrounds and major design elements would appear in this colour. Your secondary colour would make up 30% of your scene, often things like or text, characters or other important elements. The last 10% is then made up with a colour that really stands out from your primary colour. This colour is used as a highlight colour to pull your audience’s attention where you want it.
Nice: Keep Things Tidy
Too much clutter can lead to chaotic visuals and a confusing experience for the viewer. By leaving a comfortable amount of space around text and images in the scene you give everything some room to “breathe” and make the information much easier to scan for the viewer.
Naughty: Making Everything Huge
Whether it’s your logo, your call to action, your contact info or that amazing illustration, it can be tempting to want to get everything large and visible in the frame! But if everything is important, then nothing actually appears important to your viewer. It’s all the same. That’s why it’s important to think deeply about your goals and prioritize every element in order. What’s the most critical thing the viewer needs to know? The element at the top of that list then becomes the main focus. The biggest, boldest, most colourful thing in the image. Everything else then becomes smaller and more subtle as you go down that priority list.
Nice: Designing With Empathy
Remember, at the end of the day, your video is really for the person watching it, so try to put yourself into the viewer’s shoes. Ask yourself “What visual symbols will resonate and connect with them?” “How can the imagery reflect their lived experience?” “Where will they be watching this? On a laptop, a big screen at a conference or on their phone?”
This also means thinking about accessibility. Leave space in your design for closed captions to exist in without covering up anything important. Check that the image will still read well for someone with colour blindness. Support text with images or voice over when possible.
Always design with an empathetic mindset and a big heart!