233 TIPS ON GRAPHICS AND VISUAL DESIGN Always get someone else to take a quick look at your design. This is not about getting opinions, critiques, or even buy-in. It’s to make sure you haven’t accidentally sent an unintended message. Later you might laugh about it, but it could derail your brilliant design. (For instance, an index finger pointing up can often be seen as the “wrong” finger.) When you are in the heat of creating your awesome graphic, sometimes you are not aware of the way someone else will interpret or perceive one of the elements in your masterpiece. So, before you send your design out for approval or, even worse, get it published somewhere, take the time to show it off to someone and ask them what the first thing they notice is. If they smile, but don’t want to say anything, you can bet they picked up on something you didn’t! Kathy Manfredi, Thomson Reuters Seek out resources to learn about color theory and the hierarchy of design elements. Learn the difference between the RGB and CMYK color models. Alexander Salas, StyleLearn Get to know the tools inside your tool for graphic design basics like alignment formatting. Heidi Matthews, Terracon Draft visuals to help everybody get on the same page. Don’t worry if your sketch or chart is ugly—the objective here is to find solutions and share ideas, not to be an artist. Feedback is your friend. Try to get as much feedback as possible from people with more experience. Laura Murillo, SweetRush 5 www.eLearningGuild.com