From logo designs and websites to registration forms and business cards, great design is imperative.

Custom design is one part of the equation that sets your brand apart from the competition. You must invest in it and ensure that it leaves a positive impression on audiences. 

What makes a great design depends on the brand itself. Design needs to be unique and customized to a specific entity in order to work.

That said, there are a few characteristics of truly remarkable design that all designers should infuse into their projects.

1. Memorability

One of the most important aspects of a good design is its memorability. Of course, it takes time to develop this skill. Designers need to understand what will make an impact on audiences and leave an impression.

One way to make a design memorable is to opt for simplicity. Simple designs don’t require too much thought. They simply exist, and that makes them easy to remember. 

2. Timelessness

Good design is timeless. A company wants their brand to grow and evolve with the times, and your design should too.

At the same time, however, your design needs to be timeless and effortless. It has to be just as relevant and engaging now as it will be in 50 years.

This means designers need to look at overall design trends and make note of the techniques that never go out of style. Black-and-white designs, simplicity, minimal imagery, and the like are all tactics a good designer will use to ensure a design is timeless and classic. 

3. User experience

Another consideration when designing is the user experience. Your design must lead users on a journey through web pages, apps, and even PDF documents.

Designers need to emphasize the user experience and ensure that it is pleasing and intuitive; otherwise, consumers will look elsewhere.

Take a PDF, for instance. If a PDF editor is confusing, users will stop interacting with it altogether. 

Users don’t want to have to teach themselves how to edit a PDF. Similarly, they don’t want to have to learn how to navigate a website or how to scroll through an app that wasn’t created with them in mind.

If there is too much work involved, users will leave your design immediately. That takes its toll on your revenue, conversions, and traffic.

4. Responsiveness

Today, brands need to make sure that all of their content is available online. That means designs need to work online — as websites, logos, images, PDF documents, and more. 

These designs need to be responsive; they need to adapt depending on the medium where they’re viewed.

For instance, a website will look different on a computer than it does on a smartphone. But that design needs to look good and function well across all devices.

Responsiveness has become the norm in design. That’s because there are always new technologies, inventions, platforms, and devices through which consumers interact with brands.

Therefore, a good designer should keep responsiveness in mind when designing. 

5. Brand relevance

The last thing any good designer should keep at the forefront when creating a design is the brand in question. Design can’t be good and can’t make an impact if it isn’t built with a specific audience and a specific brand in mind.

This is what will breathe life into the design and make it important. It has to add value to a brand. It needs to show off the core values, personality, and objectives of a brand in some way.

This establishes a design as a visual identifier of a brand that resonates with consumers and makes a lasting impression.

The Nike logo, for instance, embodies the emotions, drive, and excellence of the Nike brand. It’s a great logo. But it only works for Nike. Your designs should work for you in much the same way. 

The power of a good design

What separates great designs from ordinary ones is their ability to meet each of the abovementioned traits. If your design is memorable, timeless, user-friendly, responsive, and relevant to the brand it is promoting, chances are it’s great, and the client will benefit as a result.