Holloway Editione1.0.0
Updated August 14, 2024Youβre reading an excerpt of Great Founders Write, by Ben Putano, writer, entrepreneur, and book publisher. Heβs the founder of Damn Gravity Media, a publishing house that inspires and educates tomorrowβs great founders. Purchase now for lifetime access to the book and on-demand video course.
Chris Do is an accomplished graphic designer, entrepreneur, and teacher with more than one million YouTube subscribers. One of his most popular video series is where he critiques designs sent in from fans. Some of them are pretty rough.
But no matter how bad a design is, Chris always follows the same thoughtful process:
First, he describes what he sees in the design. Whatβs happening on the screen or page? His goal is to get a sense of the work as a whole before critiquing the parts.
Second, he thinks about how the design makes him feel. This forces him to judge the piece emotionally before logic takes over.
Third, Chris identifies the strengths of the design. βOh, I like this block of text,β or, βThe shape of the symbol fits nicely with the typography and works on a concept level.β
Last but not least, Chris offers his suggestions for improvements. In logo design, the most common critiques are legibility, contrast, and creating a focal point.
Numerous studies have proven that good design increases user satisfaction and comprehension. Poorly designed things, from websites to office buildings, grate on us like sandpaper. They are literally exhausting to consume.
Thatβs why the design of your writing is just as important as the content. Good design creates clarity. Before a reader reads a single word on this page, they judge the aesthetics of the work as a whole. We all judge books by their cover. The same is true for blog posts, emails, and investor memos.
Writing is your most powerful tool, but only if people read it.
We can learn a lot about writing from the way Chris critiques design work. Letβs look at four design lessons to make your writing easier to read:
Good design gives your eyes a clear path to follow. We tend to notice bigger elements first, as well as elements in the forefront of the design. If you see eyes on a page, youβll naturally look to where they are looking. A web designer can use these techniques to guide a visitor directly to the call-to-action.
Writing has a natural starting point: the top left. But after that is a long, meandering path that few readers are willing to take. In the world of business writing, no one reads every word. That means you need to direct your reader to the most important information.
Most readers skim writing before deciding to read it more thoroughly. Readers will jump to the biggest elements first: your headers and subheaders. These are your directional arrows. Donβt try to be cleverβmake your headers clear and descriptive.