There are many IOS 14 aesthetic ideas for your home screen already out on the internet, but here are some more ideas you can use by getting the Calm icon pack.

Apple icons are always designed by the company that builds the app so they have special brand guidelines. Icon packs have their own visual identity, which redesigns the icons to have the same look & feel. This creates consistency and clarity as they work well together.

How do I customize my iPhone icons aesthetic?

Use the Calm icon pack available with black icons theme with a black and white background photo to get this desired effect. These aesthetic icons for apps work really well on a variety of screen wallpapers so play around with your photo library to make it more personal.

The look and feel of these app icons aesthetic with the photo are really hi-end, clean and classy. Think of hi-end black cars or fashion brands.

Where do I get iOS 14 icons for all my apps in one pack?

Looking for the best iOS 14 app icons & themes? Check out the Calm pack. Download the icons pack below.

Get Calm App Icons

This iPhone app icons comes with +130 icons and 6 theme colors (black, white, purple, blue, mint and gold) which opens up a lot of possibilities to mix things up on your iPhone home screen.

Each aesthetic icon is custom made and professionally designed to keep the look & feel consistent making this a great icon design set.

Pick an IOS 14 Icon set that has many icons to have most of your apps covered. The Calm theme above also has the option to request new icons so you can have all your app icons customized. There are thousands of iPhone apps so this is an amazing feature available from the creator.

Etsy could also be a source of products inspiration to improve aesthetic iPhone.

How do I change the look of my icon for my apps?

All the iPhone app icons form the Calm packs have been professionally custom designed.

The icons theme comes in 6 custom app icons themes:

• Black
• White
• Purple
• Blue
• Mint

The aesthetic of these is great and even combining an icon from the different pack can have a great visual effect. Apps are made to be changes, reorganized and even played with.

The Calm app icons aesthetic also helps with phone detox as you can’t see the red circle with the number of notifications. This is a dark pattern of design and is made to hook a phone user to constantly check the home screen or open the app.

Another part of customization are also IOS 14 widgets which not only extend the look but also the functionality.

Can I customize iPhone icons with a better aesthetic?

The answer is “No, but…” as you can’t really change the icons directly (although Instagram has this option), but you can use the Shortcuts app. Your ios 14 aesthetic home screen will look great, but it will be full of shortcuts and not directly app icons which you may want to hide so you don’t have duplicates.

Shortcuts icon aesthetic is a bit ruined by the user experience this hack provides. You actually open op the Shortcuts App first, which then opens your selected app. So there’s a split second where you see this transition. But Apple is already working on IOS 14.3 which has this transition improved greatly.

Users are spending hours playing and customizing their phones, it’s become another phone obsession.

How do I change app icons on iPhone shortcuts?

This detailed step by step guide will cover the steps you need to make that will show you how to create an iOS 14 aesthetic with app icons.

1. Download your theme pack and upload it to iCloud or Dropbox which you can access from your phone. This will help you quickly change the icon for each shortcut you create.
2. Open the app for Shortcuts. This is where you’ll be spending most of your time.
3. Tap “plus” button in the upper-right corner of the screen to add an additional shortcut.
4. Click the button that says “Add Action”.
5. On the next screen, you will select the “Scripting Option”.
6. Choose the “Open App” button.
7. Tap the choose “Chose” button and select an App that you want to open.
8. You can use the search option to find the app faster and easier.
9. Click the button with the 3 circles for more information.
10. Tap on the “Link to Home Screen” button which will add the shortcut to your homescreen.
11. Tap on the small generic icon below.
12. Use the “Choose File” option to select the custom app icon.
    In the iCloud or Dropbox folder, search for a specific icon within the uploaded icon pack.
13. Once you find the image with the icon you want to use, you can rename it the shortcut.
14. You can also remove the name to have a cleaner screen by pressing the “X” button.
15. A popup will open with a note.
16. The new icon shortcut will now be visible on your home screen.

How do I change the color of my apps icons aesthetic?

The only way is to have aesthetic icons for apps in special color combinations (background color and icon color) that work well together. Your downloaded app icons need to have themes that have these colors because you get high resolution JPG or PNG images which can’t be changed or colored. You could get away with some Photoshop skills, but the results are not perfect.

One of the most popular aesthetic app icons are black and white themes. You can use the one you like or based on your phones color or dark mode or light mode you may be using.

Photos icon aesthetic also needs to be taken into consideration as these backgrounds can make or break your icons. A good way to test this is to put a background you really want or like and try a couple of different app icons to see what looks good. When you know what you like, you add the other icons.

Black and white photos work really well with black aesthetic app icons for your iPhone.

How do you make icons invisible on iPhone for achieving a cleaner app aesthetic?

This is a hard thing to do but it’s possible. You need another app that actually creates the image of the icon from the screenshot of your background. Then you create the iPhone home screen icon without the name and put it on the right position.

There are many steps involved, but the aesthetic effect if great and rewarding if you have patience.

Here’s a great video that shows how to make invisible icons on your mobile around your apps.

Widget functionality is just one of the things you can use with IOS 14 Icons pack to start customizing your experience. Best IOS14 widgets may be paid, but you can find some that are not.

One of the popular app icon packs is CALM.

Download IOS 14 icons

You can even use some of these widget apps to not only customize and personalize your iPhone but your iPad as well. Your version of the OS just needs to be IOS 14. Apple will also be improving this functionality in the next releases.

Got any IOS14 widgets ideas of your own? Share them!

This article aesthetic app icons has many examples and previews of how to make your home screen beautiful.

Does the iPhone with iOS 14 have widgets?

Yes, custom widgets IOS 14 come with some default system-wide apps you can use on your home screen. As this is a new feature you need to wait a bit that the app developers add the widget for your favourite app so make sure you update regularly.

Widget stacks also work as a unique widget because it combines and rotates them.

How do you use iOS 14 widget for your home screen?

The easiest way on how to add widgets on iPhone ios 14 is to:

1. tap and hold an icon on the home screen until they start shaking.
2. On the top right, there will be a new + button. Tapping it will open up the settings panel for widget creation.
3. Choosing and customizing a widget will add it to the home screen, you can move it around like other icons by dragging.

How to create a custom widget?

To create a widget, use apps like Custom Widget or Widgetsmith where you can style them to suit your theme. You can customize fonts, colors, shapes, sizes and much more.

Best ios 14 widgets are the ones that have a similar look and feel to your app icons theme.

What apps have best widgets iOS 14?

Currently, these apps have widgets, but more apps are adding widgets. If you can’t see it, you may need to update your apps.

Here’s a IOS 14 widgets list for apps that support the feature:

• Neon
• Liftr
• Brief
• Things
• Google
• Twitch
• Tyme 3
• Fitbod
• Rachio
• Unread
• SongKit
• Flighty
• Grocery
• CBS News
• Ambiient
• Coinbase
• Longplay
• Headspace
• Paws Week
• OpenTable
• Widgetize
• Timerange
• Spark Mail
• Kontax Cam
• Step It Up
• My Macros+
• Marvis Pro
• Fantastical
• Widgetsmith
• ChibiStudio
• MusicHarbor
• Paws Almanac
• My Meal Plan
• The Athletic
• Carrot Weather
• Sticky Widgets
• Heart Analyzer
• Stats for Tesla
• Siri Suggestions
• American Airlines
• Health Auto Export
• The Weather Channel
• Spotify widget IOS 14
• Weather Radar Widget

iPhone widgets ios 14 are just one of the way you can customize your home screen. App icons are another one of the new functionality of Apple smartphones.

Try it out, it’s really fun having a new experience without a new phone.

The functionality is still not native, but it did show what do the users want or have been missing.

Some apps like Instagram even added a feature to natively change the app icon from their apps, which is really amazing. Any feature added costs money and resources for the company, development is pricey. They want to give the best user experience possible to their users and make them happy so it makes sense to help them.

Apple may also add such home screen features in the future, maybe IOS 15 already, who knows. But the users really want to personalize and customize their phones and express their creativity. This post will talk about some IOS 14 Home Screen Ideas you can either get inspired from or copy.

IOS 14 Home Screen Ideas

First thing you need is to find some good app icon themes you like. This Calm icon set is one of the best and popular one out there at the moment and gives you 6 different themes to either use alone or mix and match.

Be creative, use your imagination and don’t forget to share your ideas.

Download IOS 14 icons

5 IOS 14 home screen aesthetic ideas for your iPhone

It’s hard to achieve the great design and beautiful aesthetics if you’re not a graphic designer. There are a lot of design tools out there, but knowing the tool won’t help you. You’d need to understand color theory, composition, layout, systems,… the design field can go really deep. Icons are just a small part of the whole field and there are people that specialize at doing just that.

The above icons have been designed by a designer so they’re extremely high quality.

Here are some home screen ideas on how you can mix & match the icon themes to get a great looking screen.

Download IOS 14 icons here

Clean IOS black theme app icons with wallpaper idea

You can achieve a really amazing hi-end aesthetic by using a black & white photograph as a background and use the black Icon set from the Calm themes. Here’s a great example of such a home screen

Best design of IOS 14 home screen themes

Here’s a list of some of the trending ios home screen themes you can find on the internet. Some were also featured on sites like PicMonkey, Mashable etc. so they’re really popular. Best aesthetic designs where there’s a theme for anyone. Some iPhone app icon themes with wallpapers also come with discount deals.

Read this article that explains in detail how to change ios 14 app icons.

IOS 14 iPhone home screen layout with widgets

With just a tap on a widget, you can add more functionality to your home screen, not just opening apps as shortcuts. Widgets are an aesthetic upgrade and a smart way to improve user experience. The 2 below are one of the best and also the first ones that came out so they’re popular and have regular updates.

If you search the App Store for widgets you will find loads more with the exact functionality and goal you want the widget to do.

Get Widgetsmith

Get Color WIdgets

How to edit home screens IOS 14 widget

There are two ways on how to edit home screen ios 14 widget, first one is to tap on the screen and hold until you see the “-” icons, then tap on the widget to open settings. The second way is to edit the widgets inside the original app, probably on a settings screen.

With IOS 14 being new and these functionalities not being tested, things may change and improve in the future. But for now everything is a bit experimental. But the iPhone screens and widget use is going to increase in use and popularity quickly with new aesthetic styles.

IOS 14 home screen setup with app icons

There are three ways to set up your home screens app icons.

• The original way is with the Shortcuts app.
  The problem here is that after a tap you see the Shortcuts app open, and then switch to the chosen app.
• You can use Icon Themer
  Really popular, but some people argue installing it may be unsafe as it’s a 3rd party app and the way it customizes the ios 14 icons is a bit hacky.
• Try the Launch Center Pro
  This one is on the App Store so it is safe and comes with some really great features.

Not fully hough as changing these app icons is kind of hacky. It uses the Shortcuts app to create ios 14 icons for the homescreen which when tapped open Shortcuts app which open the selected app. It’s not pretty and comes with some drawbacks we’ll talk about later.

How to get custom app icons IOS 14?

Below are some previews of the popular Calm IOS 14 icon set. It comes with 6 themes which you can mix&match.

Download IOS 14 icons here

How to customize app icons ios 14?

Here are the steps needed that explain how to customize your iPhone home screen.

The first time you go through them will take some time but as you’ll be adding more icons (it can take a while depending on how many apps you have), you will quickly get a hang on it and be faster.

To change app icons on IOS 14, do the following steps:

• Download and unzip IOS14 App Icons, and upload the icon pack folder to iCloud to easily change the icon.
• Open App for Shortcuts.
• To add a new shortcut, tap + in the upper-right corner of the screen
• Click the button for Add Action.
• Pick the Scripting Option on the next screen.
• Choose Open App choice.
• To pick an App you want to launch, tap Choose.
• Look for the app on the list or search for it if you don’t see it.
• With 3 circles, press the circle button.
• Tap the option Connect to Home Screen.
• Tap the tiny second button below.
• Choose the Choose File choice.
• Browse or scan for a particular icon inside the uploaded icon package in the iCloud folder and pick it.
• You can rename it after you pick the symbol.
• You can erase the symbol text by clicking on the X to provide a cleaner screen.
• A progress update popup will see you.
• On your home screen, the latest icon is shown.

View these IOS 14 home screen ideas to get more inspiration about your customization.

Pros and cons when you customize app icons

One of the best things ist hat you can have an icons design system meaning that all icons will have the same or similar style either in one or more colors.

The drawback is that these icons don’t show notifications so you may be missing those red numbers on social icons or messages and even phone calls. But there is a positive side to this, your time spend on using your phone will go down and you’ll have fewer distractions.

If you want to really have a calm phone, you may want to disable notifications for all apps apart from Phone, Messages and the ones you really need if someone calls you.

How to customize app icons and widgets

Icon packs have their own design style so combining them with widgets can be tricky, especially if the icons have a background color. Some widget apps like Color Widgets have the ability to input the RGB values of the widget so you can have the same colors as the icons.

Some other widget apps won’t have that option or the functionality you’re looking for. But more are added regularly. Widgetsmith is also another popular one that will allow you to blend in the iphone icons with it.

YouTube also have some great reviews for customizing app icons and widgets so make sure to search there as well.

How to change app icons IOS 14 without Shortcuts app

There are two ways of using the custom app icons without the shortcuts app. You need to Install Icon Themer or Launch Center Pro apps.

Icon Themer can feel a bit insecure, so be careful when installing and read the comments on the webpage. Youtube also has a great tutorial on how to install and customize your home screen with it.

Launch Center Pro on the other hand is on the App Store so the security should be good.

Conclusion

I hope you liked the guide on how to change app icons ios 14 and you’ll be enjoying your new iPhone experience.

It all sounds too easy, you spend a dollar on ads and expect a return of two or more. Then you scale your ad spend from $100 to $2000 etc. All good but only if you manage to convert those advertising clicks into sales. That’s what conversion rate optimization services have been invented to do.

This is measured by the conversion rate metric, which is the average % of sales made by 100 visitors. So a conversion rate of 10% means that from 100 visitors, 10 of them bought your product or service.

For e-Commerce stores, the average CR is around 2.5% but more is also possible depending on your product and marketing plan.

The higher the % of the conversion rate, the higher your profitability will be depending on the cost and profit margin of your product. It’s all measurable with some mathematical formulas so you can have control over many things.

What conversion rate optimization services are available

There are 2 ways to your profitability, either hire a CRO agency or a CRO Consultant that will increase your sales. Each of these should bring you results, but there are always some pro/cons to both. Agencies usually cost more money and the cro teams take on 4-5 clients at a time. A consultant will probably spend more time and will have 1-2 clients, focusing more and bring results faster.

Agencies are more costly as you pay the full team but a designer/dev/marketing CRO hybrid will be cheaper. Results-wise it depends but both can bring similar results, depending on the knowledge and experience.

Here are some specialized CRO services you can take advantage of:

• Landing page optimization
• Cart/checkout page optimization
• Website speed optimization
• Funnel optimization
• Upsell and cross-sell optimization
• Lead generation optimization

But the main benefit is the optimization methodology which starts with an audit, research and discovery that results in a list of potential gains. These are then prioritised which bring laser focus and you start experimenting and testing things that may bring the biggest results with the lowest investment of time or money.

What results do CRO services bring?

Anything is possible, but your traffic limits our potential. Lowe traffic is hard to measure especially results in a range of 0-10% as you need a ton of traffic to get results that are truthful. Low traffic means it’s just a possibility or chance. Like throwing the dice 3 times and getting all 3 throws sixes. It can happen but the chance of repeating is slim. So you need to throw 100 times to get a more accurate average of the result.

CRO results in the ranges of 10-30% are pretty common to achieve and usually consists of quick wins like design/dev fixes or UX/UI improvements.

30%-70% are usually full redesigns and copywriting rewrites of a full landing page or the product page. Using the data, insights and research to craft the appealing message that sticks with your visitor will result in higher conversions. 

70%+ conversions rate increases are rarer but are quite possible. Just design alone or rather a redesign of a landing page with design patterns and best practices can results. Add speed optimization and you can get more conversions and achieve bigger profitability as well.

Let’s look at a live site example

This affiliate marketing website about docking stations can be looked at as a review landing page. It has all the elements a conversion-focused page should have, but a CRO program would be able to improve it in various ways. Here are some ideas:

• compare table of all products (it makes it easier to compare rather than read all of them)
• add social proof (personal images with the product from other customers or users)
• testimonials and quotes (this is not the same as social proof, but rather customers talking about the product and how it impacted their life)

A Conversion optimization program would also find other quick wins based on data.

Conclusions and takeaways

Conversion rate optimization works although it’s still a new field, being data-informed to produce new experiences that the competition doesn’t is becoming more and more beneficial to an eCommerce store growth.

It’s also hard to copy these things as you don’t know or understand the context it’s been done and you probably have a different audience, product etc. So its a costly mistake to copy or steal websites or landing pages.

Give CRO a chance, but be open and patient and it will reward you with knowledge insight, growth and profitability. At the end, it will inspire evolution to your brand. That’s how powerful conversion optimization can be.

Below I’ll show you a variety of long distance paper aircraft planes which you can DIY with just a piece of paper. Preferably use a bit thicker one for weight but experimenting is key here to get the best results.

Their flight path will be long and some can even fly up to 100 feet/30 meters or more at high speeds and straight.

If you’re a father, you should teach your children to make paper airplanes as it will help with their skills and even better, get them away from the video games, apps or TV and out in the open.

Design your own paper airplane

Once you create your plane, you can paint it or draw something on it as well. Whatever you create, you can make it look pretty awesome even with just a coloured paper. Black paper works nice but if it is too thick, the fold make start to crack on the edge or it may get bulky.

Craft of my favourite paper airplanes

Start with a letter or A4 size of paper.

Fold your paper in half on the long side.

Fold the top edge of the paper down about 2 inches.

From the top, create another edge and fold it to make this part twice thicker.

Fold this part again one more time to make it thicker even more.

To create the wings, fold the top corners away/behind the paper to the center line.

Now fold the paper plane again in half towards you.

To create the wings, you need to fold the both sides and bend the edges. This will help with the speed. The body should be around half an inch wide.

Tip: As the body to wing ratio is one of the important things that make the plane fly longer distances, you can experiment with this part.

Add the “flaps” as well (about 1/2 Inches) to improve the planes flight attributes. Here’s a photo of how I use a ruler to make the flap.

Congrats, you’ve successfully crafted your paper airplane glider. Have fun and enjoy playing with it.

I’ve used a paper that is too thick in the tutorial above but you should try and make one with a 80gsm, 100gsm or 120gsm paper for best results. A +180gsm paperweight is too much especially for this kind of paper aircraft model.

Tips on improving the paper airplane distance and craftsmanship

One of the good things to note when trying these out is that they fold when making the airplane need to be precise and clean. Make sure you take special care when doing the wings and the nose.

For the longer folds like the wings and body you can use a ruler and fold the paper over it as well. Then you can also use the edge of the ruler or something hard to make the fold sharp lines.

I also suggest using a cutting matt that has the grid showing measures (inch or cm) to make the crafting of planes easier, more efficient and consistent.

When you throw the plane, you need to have a technique as well (just like throwing a ball) and you want to have a smooth acceleration of it.

If the plane goes to the left or right too much, it will fall down sooner.

The angle of the wings is important because it sets the plane’s direction so bend the wings a bit or align them more, to straighten the flight path.

Adjustments like these and experimentation are necessary to get better results.

The planes nose, wing, fuselage and tail all help with reaching a high distance.

The wind is also another factor to take into account so throwing it indoor will make it fly further than throwing it outdoors.

Adults started to use science to make the best paper aeroplanes with great result. These paper aircraft come in various shapes and sizes and aren’t that hard to make with tutorials and video guides.

Takeaways & Conclusion

Distance is one of the most desirable traits a good paper airplane has

The more planes you make, the better and cleaner you will make them increase their flight time and distance.

Best paper airplanes are those you take special care when creating them.

Let me know if you want to make more, there are also some paper plane championships and blueprints of world record paper plane you can build.

Here is a collection of the most popular ones that bring results, and their information will remain with you for years to come and still be relevant.

My friend Robert Ilovar who is a brand identity designer and consultant helped share some of these great books.

What are the best books about branding?

This golden collection contains the best books on branding for both beginners and experts or marketing veterans.

Start with why from Simon is the answer to the beginning of everything you will ever do.

It goes deep into the crucial issues that are connected to your own existence and your own being. Once you have found the emotion and feeling that drives your actions, things will happen quickly and easily. More difficult things will be meaningful, and you will be able to influence your employees and other companies as they will be able to support your goal. This is a book that is a must read and with which the wave of greatness begins.

View on Amazon

Brand gap from Marty combines strategy and design to create a brand that customers will find essential to their lives.

You will learn about differentiation, collaboration, innovation, validation and cultivation. It is important to know that it is not what you tell others about yourself that is a brand, but what others think, talk and feel about you that creates a brand. You can never create a brand, but you can influence it. Great book for those who are new to brand building and brand marketing.

View on Amazon

Building A StoryBrand from Donald shows how you can connect with your customers through storytelling.

This is a communication book that shows a process that works, has proven itself and is repeatable. Seven universal story points are required for your customer to begin to respond to you on a deeper emotional level. If you have difficulty explaining what you do as a business, this book is essential. You will be able to create the most effective messaging for your website, social media or any other marketing channel. Give your customers added value and they will take care of your business.

View on Amazon

What are other great books brand strategy?

1. Start With Why by Simon Sinek
2. The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier
3. Building A StoryBrand by Donald Miller
4. Brand Thinking by Debbie Millman
5. Power Branding by Steve McKee
6. What Great Brands Do by Denise Lee Yohn
7. Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler & Debbie Millman
8. Identity Designed by David Airey
9. Logo Design Love by David Airey
10. Hello, My Name Is Awesome by Alexandra Watkins

Takeaways from these brand strategy books

A brand is all about emotions, and design is all about making these emotions tangible, so it’s no wonder that branding is created by combining these two areas. It’s wise to study some of the best graphic design books, which may also be necessary to understand the whole complex process of brand building.

AI chatbots are very popular these days. One reason is that people have become
quite familiar with messaging and voice assistant platforms, both of which use
some form of AI .
Having a conversational AI on your site is beneficial for your business. It can
also be helpful in graphic designing

through suggesting some creative designs. However, AI chatbots are still
machines, and they have potential vulnerabilities. True, the algorithms used in
AI chatbots are much more complex than your average app, so security breaches
are less likely. But, it is still a possibility.

How to minimise the risk?

You can minimize your risk if you choose from the best

conversational AI platforms
currently available. It is most likely that they all have user ID
authentication, but that is not always enough. Even the authorized users are not
always careful about protecting the privacy and data of their customers.

What are the factors that should be considered while using an AI Chatbot?

You need to check if the AI chatbots platform that you plan to use has the
following security measures:

• End-to-end encryption
• Two-factor authentication
• Critical data blocking
• Channel restriction
• Time-based restriction
• Biometric verification

Final Thought

Meeting the security challenges associated with AI chatbots is crucial. Find out
more about other challenges that you need to address with AI chatbots in this
infographic. To know the best AI chatbots that you can use, read this blog
ShaneBarker.com.

Image Courtesy:
shanebarker.com

It is the craft of creating visual content, to communicate a message visually. It’s a combination of many skills ranging from information hierarchy, layout, typography, color psychology, art theory, aesthetics, illustration, … It mixes photos, color, fonts, lines, shape, texture, size, order, space and variety of design principles (balance, alignment, proximity, repetition, contrast,…) to create balance and harmony between all elements. It’s not something that can be easily done to be at a higher level.

By using all these skills as one a designer creates something that can have an emotional impact on the viewer. Graphic design work is used in advertising, marketing, corporate design, branding and packaging, motion, print and web. Basically, anything that’s communicating a message or grabs our attention. Either to present an idea to us or inform us about something.

If you have a B2B or B2C business like an e-commerce store, it’s important that the designer also knows conversion rate optimization. Reasons for this is, that a landing page conversion optimization can increase sales, for example, up to 61% (based on the CRO case study in the link).

Historically we can find visual designs back 17,000 years ago in cave paintings and has evolved tremendously over time and the impact today is huge. Add strategy and business goals to design practices and you could evolve your company 10x.

Not everyone that can use a design tool is a designer.

Tools don’t make you good at what you do, what and how you use them makes a graphic designer a creator.

Why is graphic design important?

It’s not rare that some of the most successful startups today use design thinking as a growth strategy. Design connects with people on an emotional level. You can be a small business or a big conglomerate but at the core of anything you do there will be design. A visual identity is the strongest asset your company can have.

For example, Coca-Cola and its specific tone of red triggers emotion, maybe even thirst as they’re put an enormous amount of money into advertising over many years to get that message across. When you think of Santa Claus today, don’t you deep down think of the Coke? It’s like the company and its values are now fuelled with Santa and they really own him in a way. That’s the power of branding at a high level.

But you don’t need to put in tons of money to get results, having the core branding and visual identity with a solid structure can take you really far. And anything you do, the core values that are created will be rooted in your company culture.

You need a system and a strategy and design can be in the middle of it as it’s something people connect to on an emotional level, it’s memorable and has energy. Startup ideas are great, but the execution is better.

It can be also seen as an investment and trust me it will be a lot pricier if you don’t do it right. I’ve seen brands destroy their identities or rather were suffering from an identity crisis as they didn’t know what they are or what they represent. So they changed their logo, colors, look & feel every year for a couple of years until they close the business down. Their own inner conflicts were also felt by their customers and an almost 100-year-old story came to an end.

Of course, their identity wasn’t the only thing that made that happen, but it did show that some things are almost sacred and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Best Services to hire a graphic designer for

• Branding (Logos, Visual identity, Website)
• Graphic Design (Brochures, Leaflets, Catalogues, Promo)
• Print & Advertising (Ads, Marketing materials for campaigns,…)
• High-converting landing pages

Why is a freelance graphic designer needed?

There are many ways you can hire a design professional that will create solutions to the problems your company service or product needs. The main thing is, that you need something small like a business card, or something bigger like a print ad or a new logo.

If your company isn’t that big enough and doesn’t have resources to employ an in-house designer and you don’t need regular design jobs done, you can outsource. An independent freelance artist will solve the problem for you quick and easy. You could also hire an agency for a project or two, or find a part-time freelancer if you have a design backlog. There’s a lot of options so business owners can choose what will work best for them in their current situation.

Today the internet and technology are so great, that you can hire a remote graphic designer from any part of the world. And he has a special skill like for example creating posters out of paper art, that you won’t be able to find locally near you. It’s good practice that brands find specialised artists to collaborate and help solve problems. Unique visual requirement or specific messages you want to put out there have a higher chance of being successful that way.

There are studies that creative design work has 11x more impact than basic low-level executions. Imagine the growth you’re missing out. There’s also added value and benefits that can be obtained from this, systematisation or processes can also be designed by senior designers.

As an example, I’ve had a client that needed 6 weeks to build a website including design,… I’ve managed to develop a specific WordPress system for them, where they could do it effectively within 2 weeks. Great designers find solutions to problems, they optimise and create added value which in some cases can transform companies. Airbnb would have closed their service long ago if they didn’t try using professional photography for their renting services.

Today we can even measure design with a/b or split testing what works best and results can be up to 3x better or more. No wonder startups are turning toward design thinking and create more value.

What exactly do freelance graphic designers do?

The main definition or rather a purpose of a freelance graphic designer is to help it’s clients communicate a message. It’s combining a companies visual identity (logo, colors, fonts,…) to get the look&feel right so all the communication materials and the message has consistency throughout media channels.

Skills and services you can expect

• Branding
• Brand Identity
• Packaging & Label Design
• Marketing graphic design
• Logo / logotype design
• Custom typography
• Graphic design for business cards and stationary
• Car Wraps
• Computer graphic design
• Print Design
  • Letterhead graphic design
  • Graphic design posters
  • Brochures and Flyers
  • CD Cover
  • Magazine Design
  • T-Shirt design and illustration for apparel
  • Retouching with Photoshop
  • Book Cover Design
• Ad Design
  • Graphic Banner Ads Design
  • Print Ads and billboards
  • Facebook Ads

There are many designers that specialise in certain fields. For example, there are many brand logo designers, that just draw logotypes while others focus on creating visual identities for the brands. There are different types of graphic design fields and being talented in one specific field means that the quality of that work will be better.

That’s just a small overview of what graphic designers do.

How much does it cost to hire a graphic designer?

The answer can only be “it depends”. For smaller things, there could be a freelance graphic design price list that’s a like a menu for ordering design work. Some designers have an hourly rate, other per projects and some also take retainers if it’s a big and ongoing project. Again it depends on the needs and the skill specialisation.

How much does it cost to design a logo?

Graphic design rates for a logo can be anything from $300 to $10.000 based on the companies size, revenue,… Cheaper is not always better, in most cases, small to bigger companies can’t just swap a logo as their visual brand identity consists of specific rules for each designed element. They’ve put hundreds of thousands to promote their brand and a sudden change would render that investment wasted. Also changing a logo could have additional costs like a new business card, stationery, store signs, car wraps,… It’s not something to be taken lightly. An experienced senior designer will have higher rates, but the quality of work and the results are worth it.

For a small company of one of the self-employed people, a $300 range for just a logo they put on a business card or a website can be a good deal.

How long does it take to design a logo?

Again it depends on the project scope. Some can do it quickly, but for a brand identity where a logotype is just a small part off, projects can take up to a year or more.

Hire a Freelance Graphic Designer

Need a graphic designer for your company or next big project? I’ve been a designer for +15 years and have worked with companies like Nike, Fox, Viasat. No need to do full-time hiring if you get more done by a expert design consultant on a contract basis.

If you’d like to focus more on performance marketing and results, you should also consider to hire a conversion optimization consultant.

Where can you find a great freelance graphic designer?

If you’re looking for a designer to work for a longer time (3-6 months or more) it’s a good idea to find a freelancer near your location. A good thing here is that sometimes it’s easier to talk about the requirements or do design changes in person. We usually talk about the same thing, but think about a totally different one so noise in communication can happen.

If you’re in need of a special style or price, like for example paper art, you’ll probably need to hire remote as your region may not have that talent. If a freelance web designer near me would be available and his portfolio is great, he’ll probably cost more, but he may be wortth it for his quality and specialized skill.

I’m currently looking for projects as a website and logo designer, but do variety of other things.

Get in touch

Contact details:

hello@darjanpanic.com

For each creative person it’s important we get some kind of input of information, knowledge or something that has some impact on us. Either we learn, are inspired or feel happy after. Generating new ideas is a process, and our brands are fantastic at creating new things or coming up with solutions, but they need information, the more, the better.

Learning or experiencing something new each day, can have a great impact tomorrow or at a later time, but each bit will help, and it’s impossible to know what information is needed to get great results. So take it all in and enjoy.

Best graphic design books of all time – better than tutorials

Here are some of the books I’d recommend. You’ll look through them many times as they will help you find new ideas, be better at design or get excited by great graphic design.

Book rating and curation of this list of top books on graphic-design

These books have a high rating on Amazon and are great for your design studio library.

Top list

Here’s a short overview of the top 10 list with direct links to Amazon:

1. How to be a Graphic Designer, Without Losing Your Soul by Adrian Shaughnessy
2. Studio Culture: The Secret Life of a Graphic Design Studio by Adrian Shaughnessy and Tony Brook
3. Make Enemies & Gain Fans by Snask
4. Thinking With Type by Ellen Lupton
5. Making and Breaking the Grid: A Layout Design Workshop by Timothy Samara
6. Grid Systems in Graphic Design by Josef Mülller-Brockmann
7. A Smile in the Mind: Witty Thinking in Graphic Design by Beryl McElhone, David Stuart
8. House Industries: The Process Is the Inspiration by Andy Cruz, Rich Roat, Ken Barber
9. Sagmeister: Made You Look by Stefan Sagmeister
10. How to… by Michael Bierut

How to be a Graphic Designer, Without Losing Your Soul by Adrian Shaughnessy

This is an excellent resource for students, but design veterans as well. It will motivate you and make you remember, why you’ve been pulled towards design in the first place. It has a lot of insight into what to expect from this industry and has a lot of helpful and practical information.

Best thing is, as your skills grow and you get experience, you will want to reread the book as you’ll know and understand more of it. It has many tips for the working designer like getting clients and what to do about personal projects.

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press (known and really good publisher)

View on Amazon

Studio Culture: The Secret Life of a Graphic Design Studio by Adrian Shaughnessy and Tony Brook

Imagine reading interviews with some of the best designers and talking about how they founder some of the best and most famous design studios of our time. They share their stories and experience. Get the first look on how it is a one-man band freelancer, five-man design studio or being a 200 person advertising agency (or something in between).

Each person is different, and each designer is different, and each of the skills we excel from logo designs to paper art can be used in different ways, clients of businesses. Some people prefer small 1to1 action; others prefer the Mad Men way of doing things under pressure. Reading this book will show you what you can expect in each of these paths. In my case, I’ve done it all (freelance graphic designer, in-house, studio, ad agency,…) and being freelance works best for me and my growth.

View on Amazon

Make Enemies & Gain Fans / by Snask

Snask is one of the most known and one of the most fun places to work. Fredrik Öst, Magnus Berg created a culture, and you can say they’ve become rock stars of the design world. This a relaxed, funny and motivational experience.

It’s a story on how they met, started their studio, found design work and achieved global domination. If you want to jump in the world of creative entrepreneurship, it will inspire you to start your studio today. It will also make you laugh hard when you read how some of their projects ended badly. This is one of the best graphic design books you can read to the motivation needed to start your career.

In my opinion of one the best graphic design book (high rating as well) that doesn’t talk about the specifics of it, but more about the adventure, emotions and how to live it.

View on Amazon

Thinking With Type / by Ellen Lupton

Type is one of the basic skills any good designer needs to master. Period. Knowing which font to use for the message or brand can make or break things. You need to know your serifs from your sans-serifs, sizes, font pairings, harmony,… It’s an art.

One of the best books that has a lot of great examples of graphics with laid out type and text documenting the principles of typography. Great for design beginners.

View on Amazon

Making and Breaking the Grid: A Layout Design Workshop / by Timothy Samara

Designers work in many different mediums from print to digital web design, each having their sizes and rules. Layouts are one of the core principles of a design process which would help you create better work on any format.

This good book is a complete layout design class teaching the grid (and even gridless) layout concepts. You will learn the history of the grid and end with the modern design practice. It’s excellent for other creative people like architects, not just designers alike.

Rockport, as a publisher, is well known for a variety of design books on a lot of topics so make sure to check them out.

View on Amazon

Grid Systems in Graphic Design / by Josef Mülller-Brockmann

Another book on grids, but this one is more about systems. The best thing is, it’s written by a German, so it’s nicely structured as expected. Some of the examples can be a bit dated but are still used today by different creative industries.

The start of the book is quite simple, but as you’re turning the pages it will get more difficult, but the theory behind it is very informative. It’s a timeless classic.

View on Amazon

A Smile in the Mind: Witty Thinking in Graphic Design / by Beryl McAlhone, David Stuart

What’s even better if a graphic design work looks perfect? It’s if it makes you smile. Wit is one of the best ways to make your work memorable and enjoyable. The examples of this playful book show the thinking behind creative processes and case studies used to create some of the best work out there. Phaidon is also an amazing publisher.

The book has many categories, so It’s great to come back to it if you have a specific problem. There’s a chapter devoted to holiday cards that were made by advertising agencies showing what amazing work can be created if a graphic designer and a copywriter work together as one.

Definitely one of the best graphic design books ever.

View on Amazon

House Industries: The Process Is the Inspiration by Andy Cruz, Rich Roat, Ken Barber, J.J. Abrams (Foreword)

This is one of the most beautiful covers I’ve seen, print and craft of it are top notch, and the book is amazing. It tries to answer the question about how to find inspiration and tries to answer it with helpful lessons and stories. Its case studies from different topics and fields(fonts, craft, fashion and even space technology) and very informative as well. Ideas are waiting everywhere; we just need some mindfulness to receive them.

View on Amazon

Sagmeister: Made You Look by Stefan Sagmeister, Peter Hall

A brilliant book by a brilliant designer. It’s one of those top books that contain some tricks. You will read some hilarious stories, see beautiful work and read some of his best graphic design quotes he’s known for.

Stefan is anything else but boring, and his work shows that really well, that’s why he’s one of the most famous graphic designers out there. It may make you want to quit your job and start to work on “real design” projects.

View on Amazon

How to… by Michael Bierut

This is the first monograph of Michael Bierut, one of the worlds celebrated graphic designers and one of Pentagrams partners. The book shows 35 of his most outstanding projects made throughout his career. It offers insight and inspiration for anyone interested in how words images and ideas create unforgettable experiences. It will show you his design process, so you will see how he thinks and how he produces. That will help you understand his and other great work so you will be able to appreciate design even more.

View on Amazon

Books on design are going to always be a great investment for designers

I know owning design books can be pricey, but a great graphic design book is an investment worth making. You don’t need to get 50 books right away, add them as you go and create your library of inspiration and knowledge.

Why collect the best books on the graphic design

it’s simple, the more input you get, the better the output you will create. Even our brains work that way, you think about a problem and research to gather the information, our brain processes that data and creates possible ideas as solutions to that problem.

With time you will collect a database of visuals and be able to use that to make better graphics or artwork. Top graphic design books really make your career better and will increase the quality of your work. You can improve your skills in visual identities, portfolios, branding, logo design, websites,…

Learn, connect and network with designers in a book club

There may be some interesting groups in your area and if you’re in a big city, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to find book club designers and professionals. Connect, learn and grow together. Information retention of reading books is also increased by a lot if you teach others about what you learned.

You can learn not only about design books but software, business, print or digital design,… Anything is possible.

Conclusion about top books about good design for your studio library

Good design is not easy to do.

What are some of your favourite graphic design books that inspire you and make you a better designer or teach you top designing techniques?