Graphic Design for Social Good
Tips for developing effective graphic design skills and navigating the experience of designing for a client/partner.
Graphic Design projects for social good tell visual stories for the recruitment, marketing, training, volunteer, or donor purposes. To create a design project for public interest, creators must approach the design process from a needs-focused, user-centered perspective, with accessibility, sustainability, and usability in mind.
Key Questions
Heads
- Who is your target audience?
- What information does your target audience need to know, and how can you deliver that information in a way that gets their attention?
- Is your design project accessible to your target audience? Is it reaching those you’re trying to connect to?
Hands
- Does your message provoke thought and change?
- Are your team and the partner on the same page about tone, mood, and content?
Hearts
- Are your images high quality, accessible, and easy to view?
- What formats is your design project viewable on?
- Is all of your sourced content properly attributed?
Step 1
Preparation
- Practice with the tech to get comfortable with the design tool and techniques
- Enroll into tech lab to support you in learning the tech tool
- Meet with your partner organization to identify the needs and identify which design tool will be best to meet their needs
- Ex: Affinity, Illustrator, Canva
Step 2
Research
Meet with your partner organization to find out what product they want you to create – do they want infographics? Social media graphics? Fliers to post physically?
Ask your partner questions that will help you understand their vision for their graphics
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- Who is your audience?
- What are you trying to communicate?
- What is the purpose of the graphic?
- What elements do you want in the graphic?
- Where will this graphic be shared?
Identify the style of graphics your partner wants by asking questions and providing examples. Ask your partner to describe how they want their target audience to feel about their organization.
Identify what text and language they want on the graphics. Ask your partner what they want their “voice” to sound like– Academic? Friendly? Down-to-earth? Youthful?
Share a content guide with the partner org to input the text they want in the graphic.
Ask your partner org to send you their style guide and content
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- Style guide: Organizations colors, fonts, and logos
- Content: Pictures, specific language, text on the graphic
Step 3
Strategy
Look for inspiration on the partner orgs, websites and social media platforms. This will help you get a better sense of what kind of graphics they are looking for
Search for outside inspiration and creativity, using Pinterest, Google, and other resources. Begin sketching some rough ideas for graphics, using a quick, low-pressure medium like pen and paper.
Once you have some ideas, sketches, and a design strategy, meet with your partner to confirm that you are in the right direction in the design process. This will save you a lot of time in the refinement phase. Ask specific questions to solicit guidance from your partner if their feedback is vague or unclear. After the meeting with the partner, incorporate their feedback into your sketches and ideas.
Step 4
Development
Translate your sketches into design drafts using your chosen platform. Create several alternative versions of your draft graphic, to allow your partner to pick out the best option and have more autonomy in the process. When you have completed a graphic, send it to the partner org for feedback and set a suggested deadline by which to meet or send feedback through email or online messaging
During development, your partner will wait to hear from you that the graphic is done. Ask your partner to let you know how much communication they need from you. Remember, this will depend just as much on their capacity/bandwidth as it does on yours.
Step 4
Refinement
Meet with your partner organization to give you feedback on the graphic. Ask for specific guidance if the partner isn’t satisfied. You can ask, for example:
- Can you point out specific parts of this design that you don’t like (font choice, color choice, graphic style, etc)?
- What were you expecting from this graphic? How is our product not matching those expectations?
- Can you tell me one or two things we can change that would make this better?
Confirm your next steps/changes you’ve been asked to make before starting your next round of revision.
Step 4
Refinement
Meet with your partner organization to give you feedback on the graphic. Ask for specific guidance if the partner isn’t satisfied. You can ask, for example:
- Can you point out specific parts of this design that you don’t like (font choice, color choice, graphic style, etc)?
- What were you expecting from this graphic? How is our product not matching those expectations?
- Can you tell me one or two things we can change that would make this better?
Confirm your next steps/changes you’ve been asked to make before starting your next round of revision.
Additional Resources
Guides, Examples and Templates
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- Everett Tech Manual Repository (made by former students)
- Feedback and Iterative Design – Student-to-student Presentation
- Design Communication – Student-to-student Presentation
- Graphic Design Basics Slide Deck – Alumni Presentation
Graphics and Inspiration