How to Adapt Text for Graphic Content

How to Adapt Text for Graphic Content Combining text with graphics is an essential part of effective message delivery although, not always easy. Learn How to Adapt text for your graphic content.

Combining textual information with images, graphics or visualized data can be tricky.

Whether you are a freelance designer or a marketing agency content creator, your clients will often require you to combine text with graphics. However, finding the best way to integrate the necessary information into whatever canvas and content you have available isn’t easy.

After all, the final product will serve the purpose of advertisement, customer engagement or B2B marketing – all of which are important to get right on the first try.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at several tips and guidelines which can help you adapt text for graphic content whether you are a professional graphic designer, a copywriter or a marketing expert.

What Platform is the Content for?

Before you get started, you should think about what platforms and mediums your designs will be implemented in.

Different platforms require small but important tweaks to the overall text and image composition. Some of the platforms your clients might require you to design content for include:

• Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
• Company blog posts and in-article charts or graphs
• ECommerce storefronts and product description pages
• Multimedia advertisement via YouTube, Twitch and other platforms
• ELearning and employee training programs with presentations
• Any number of printed and offline promotional materials

What is Mandatory?

Clients will typically be prepared to meet you halfway when it comes to adapting text for their graphic content. It’s up to you to gauge the general legibility of their graphics and ask for compromises as soon as possible. Some of their visual elements might be purely cosmetic while others serve an important role in the content.

You can suggest a writing platform such as Trust My Paper for any editing or formatting needs when it comes to the text before implementing it. After all, you will soon realize that even a single character can make or break your graphic’s overall appeal. Ask your client to tell you how far you can go in terms of modifying colors, composition and general item placement on the provided graphic.

You might be able to achieve better legibility and communication by simply rearranging the existing graphic content into a more cohesive whole once the text is added. You won’t know that however if you don’t communicate your concerns and/or suggestions to the client.

Bold the Lettering

There are several ways to achieve contrast between your text and graphic content depending on the visual richness of the latter. You can bold your letters, italicize them or simply achieve greater text dominance through scaling and central positioning.

However, it’s good that both your text and graphic have similar levels of legibility and prioritization, meaning one shouldn’t appear more important than the other. Start adapting your text for graph content by selecting richer fonts such as Futura Bold or Impact. Avoid using serif fonts in order to achieve better readability and consult your client about which words or phrases you should highlight.

Modern design solutions avoid text underlines or strike through effects because they lower the credibility and professionalism of the graphic. In the end, it’s best to use common sense when choosing which fonts and their variations to use in your text for graphic content.

Use Minimalist Backgrounds

If you have a say-so in choosing the background textures and images for your content, you should make good use of the opportunity. Choose minimalistic background textures which complement graphics and text present in front of them.

Don’t add to the visual clutter by using images rich in details and color choice since they can overload the visual cortex of the target audience. Advise your client that any additional graphic content can only detract from the overall message and importance of their initial graphics which require text to be implemented.

Instead, lead your viewer’s eye to the important graphic content and its text by choosing a muted, minimal background which will contrast what is in front of it. This will create an appealing sense of professional content creation with the viewer, ensuring that they stick around and read through the graphic in more detail.

Place Hyperlinks Carefully

When working with digital marketing content, you can place URLs and hyperlinks into the text and graphics. However, this should be done sparingly and very carefully to avoid confusion or misunderstanding.

Remember that malware and viruses run rampant on the internet, and any form of hyperlink present in a graphic with visual information, charts or data can seem suspicious. Even more so since it’s your client’s reputation on the line, which is why you should clearly, communicate your intents.

Offer an asterisk explanation of the hyperlink or URL embedded in the content and elaborate your client’s reasoning behind its addition. Don’t add unnecessary backlinks or third-party URLs to the graphic content you create in order to keep it clean, concise and professional.

Minimize the Search for Text

The pivotal part of your design solution should be to minimize the end user’s search for text in the graphic content. As we’ve previously mentioned, you can achieve this effect by bolding the foremost text which will introduce the graphic to your viewer.

You can also test your design solution with coworkers, your client or someone from your social circles. If your client has access to A/B testing groups, your job will become that much simpler in terms of trying out different solutions.

Simply ask them about what pops into their eyes the most in regards to your visual solution and it should be enough of an indicator of what to do next. You will know that your graphic design solution is good once you achieve the wanted level of visual hierarchy in terms of your client’s wants and what is actually possible to pull off.

In Summary

If all else fails, you can resort to retouching your client’s graphics to match the tone and style of the text you were provided with. After all, it’s not enough to simply put two and two together with text and graphics.

Those two have to match perfectly in style, substance and information – all of which might be impossible without graphic editing. Once you find a solution that works for your client, make sure to match it throughout the rest of the materials you were provided with.

In time, you will learn how to deal with situations such as these and even be able to modify the text you were provided with to better match the graphics they belong to. Arm yourself with patience and you will pinpoint the right way to combine the two after some unavoidable trial-and-error.

The post How to Adapt Text for Graphic Content appeared first on Graphic Web Design & Brand Marketing Company Medford OR.

by Chris London of Pixel Productions Inc. The Everything Design Company