233 TIPS Graphics and Visu De al sign 233 TIPS ON GRAPHICS AND VISUAL DESIGN Fifteen Tips on Staying Consistent and On-Brand When developing eLearning modules, it is always important to get out in front with branding and styling standards. Having a template and/or style guide that models those elements is where I like to start. Nothing quite polishes off your product like paying attention to, and integrating, those little details—font sizes, font family, colors, margins, line height, headings, indents, tone of voice, etc. Mismatch any of them, and it’s going to feel off. Unfortunately, it is much more tedious to pinpoint and remedy these issues after the fact. Nicholas Rider, Indiana Wesleyan University Decide on your color scheme and stick to it. If you don’t plan it out from the beginning, you can end up with all kinds of crazy in your design. Kathy Zottmann, Mortgage Bankers Association Color palettes are a critical component of every eLearning project—especially when there is more than one artist or when you have follow-on projects with the same client. Color palettes help maintain consistency throughout any project and streamline the workflow. I recommend assigning a designer to create a good color palette at the very beginning of the project. This standard set of colors should be built into every template that is used by the team. The color palette should offer a wide variety of colors along with light, medium, and dark versions of each color. The light colors should be light enough to allow black or dark text to be legible, and the dark colors should be dark enough that white or light-colored text is legible. To be sure that the contrast between text and background is OK, download a contrast analyzer tool (here is a good one). It is also important to research the project you are working on to see whether certain colors are required to be in the training. These required colors should also be in your color palette. Don’t forget to brief your team on the existence, importance, and use of this very necessary tool. Happy creating! Tina Turner, SAIC Identifying a color scheme or color palette with a few distinct colors (two to four) is helpful when establishing a consistent, on-brand design. Using too many different colors can be distracting, and it’s very difficult to remain consistent in their usage. Michael Pack, MITRE Corporation To help with consistency, use Artboards in Photoshop (Layer > New > Artboard). This will allow you to have multiple images (canvases) in one document. Phil Cowcill, Canada Department of National Defence 47 www.eLearningGuild.com