Get the Look Corporate

OK, get out the big guns: you want to design a professional, corporate, expensive look. This graphics template will help you get started.

Download the Guides

Download Corporate Part 1 / Colors and Fonts / 42 kb
Download Corporate Part 2 / Techniques and Wrap-up / 75 kb

Colors

Corporate colors are bold and bright, but not so bright that they’re fluorescent or hard on the eyes. Almost any color can be made to look professional simply by decreasing the luminosity (the lightness or darkness in the color).

Use bold colors like red, blue, and green to imply that your company is strong and stable. Tans and beiges will reflect the professional aspect of your company. By mixing subtle colors with bold colors you’ll get the best of both worlds.

Fonts

As you can see, corporate fonts are very simple, and almost elegant. Both serif and sans-serif fonts will work, although sans-serif fonts will give your site a contemporary touch. Stay away from gaudy, decorative fonts — I know it’s tempting to use them, but trust me, they almost always look unprofessional, and leave your company looking untrustworthy.

Techniques

1. Tab navigation

Probably one of the most popular looks on corporate sites, this will give your design a professional edge. Experiment with the shapes and colors of the tabs: have them stick out from the top or side of the page. The main idea here is to experiment — there really is an endless number of things you could come up with.

2. Enough white space

Not too much, but not too little — sites that are cluttered appear unprofessional and sometimes tacky. Leaving white space gives your content room to breathe and will make it stand out. This is a case of ‘less is more.’

3. Dotted or dashed lines

This is another extremely popular technique. Dashed lines will make your site unique and stand out. Use them for content division or to outline tables and cells. I simply used text (- – -) to create these dashed lines.

4. A central image that explains the company

Use this as a sort of center-piece that everything will revolve around. Here you can put all your graphic skills to work. Include images that are associated with your company or reflect a positive attitude, a tagline, short and to-the-point reviews, the URL of the site, and the company name. Don’t make the mistake of excluding this essential information. If you do, the image will only act as a distraction from the rest of your site. You want to make this something that the person can recognise and gather basic information from when they first enter the site.

5. Extremely simple logos; nothing gaudy

Corporate logos usually consist of text and basic shapes. These, along with some simple effects, can produce very professional logos. For example, with the ‘teleCommunications’ logo, I used many small effects to produce the final product:

• ‘tech’ is normal and ‘Communications’ is bold
• ‘tech’ is highly kerned
• ‘tech’ is red and ‘Communications’ is black
• the dots of the ‘i’s in ‘Communication’ are red and there is a thin, arched line between the dots.

Here, a basic shape (the arched line) represents something much larger (communication between people and things). Notice that I didn’t use any complicated effects to make this logo: it’s another case of ‘less is more.’

6. Clean and simple navigation

Do you see a pattern forming? Here we have yet another example of ‘less is more.’ Don’t get me wrong, extravagant navigation can look professional, but the beauty here is in the simplicity of it. Use a clean font that looks good at small sizes. Experiment with the bullet shape: circle, square, triangle, cross, diamond. Notice the beauty in the subtleness of the different bullet colors.

7. Navigation across a block of color

Extend the block of color completely across the page, from border to border, but make the text take up a small amount of room, again, leaving breathing space. Play with different bullets for your links. Also, split the block up into smaller boxes on either or both ends. It helps break up the design a bit, and adds a very professional touch.

Putting It All Together

I made an example ‘corporate’ Website using every technique that I mentioned above. Notice how the ‘less is more’ theory comes together to form a very professional looking site. See what you can come up with!