Small Tweaks. Big Impact.

5 subtle design changes that make a big difference for your business brand and are easy to implement.

You don’t always need a full rebrand to make your business look — and feel — better. Don't get me wrong - I love working with clients who want to evolve their brand identity but sometimes, it's not that your brand is broken; it's just out of tune.

Over the years of working as a freelance graphic designer, I've seen the same small design issues crop up time and time again. They're not even major issues, just little things that make a brand lack finesse.

The good news is, they're all easy to fix and if they were to be summed up in one overall theme - less is more.

1. Simplify your colour palette

Just because you can use every colour, doesn't mean you should. A messy colour system makes your brand feel inconsistent and chaotic. As a general rule of thumb, try and stick to:

• 1 or 2 primary colours - use these as the core colours that anchor your brand

• 1 or 2 secondary colours - these should be used sparingly as accents or highlights

• 1 or 2 neutral colours - white or light grey work well here, just to add some depth

Try and use colours that reflect the vibe of your brand. If you're friendly and approachable, use warm, soft colours. If you're energetic or tech-savvy, use bright colours. If you're more sophisticated or premium, try using deeper, darker colours.

2. Pick a strong typeface (font) and stick to it

I absolutely love fonts. I used to joke on saying that I could name any possible typeface that was put in front of me. The fact is you could say anything as long as you said Serif or Sans Serif and it sounded legit.

Like colours, your fonts say a lot about your brand too. Using too many creates an instant visual confusion.

Picking a solid font family with multiple weights (like regular, medium, bold) is all you need to create more hierarchy and structure in your designs.

Again, think about what vibe you want to give off. Where do you position your brand in the market? Is it sophistcated? Bold? Subtle? Fun? Premium? Aggressive? All of these can be captured by the typeface you choose.

If you think of Nike - their campaigns are always BOLD CAPS with lots of full stops. JUST DO IT. It's punchy, it's fierce and no fluff. The typeface is a pretty standard Serif font, nothing much too it but works so well.

On the other hand - think of Rolex. Their typeface is Serif font - a typeface with small decorative 'flicks' and 'feet' on each letter, like Times New Roman. It's classic. It's sophisticated. Paired with the deep green and gold colour palette, it says wealth.

Designer's pick: give Bebas Neue Bold and Area a blast. They work well if you want some clean, punchy headlines and easy to read copy.

3. Consistency beats creativity

You don't need to reinvent visuals every time you post on Instagram. In fact, it's repetition that builds recognition.

• Try and place your logo in the same place

• Use the same colours in the same way - eg call to action buttons could be one colour, headlines another

• Align text and spacing evenly across the post

You can still develop different style of posts, but do a handful and pick and choose - but try and each one in the same way each time. You could have:

• Bold, headline caption

• Image only

• Iconography

• Image and text

There's a whole bank of templates on the like of Canva, so loads to choose from - just pick ones that work well for you and rinse them until you literally can't even stand to look at the same template anymore. That's consistency. Fair play if you get that far.

4. Declutter your designs

If everyone shouts, no one gets heard. It's the same for your designs.

Leave breathing room. Use margins (this is a fixed area around the edge of a page that no graphic element should go into). You can always tell when a design has been done by an amateur, whether that be a post for socials, poster or presentation, when elements such as the logo or text, go right to the edge of the page.

On an A4 page (210x297mm), I'd say give yourself 15-20mm margin and don't let anything go past this with the exception of the background colour or imagery. It will make the visuals look so much cleaner.

Don't be afraid of white space - it doesn't literally need to be white, it just refers to empty space - background. People think they need to do more, fill the page, add as much as they can to 'get the most' from the page, but actually, the art of good design is knowing when to stop. Cut out 20% of what's on your page and the design will instantly look stronger.

5. Use your brand everywhere

Don't spend time, effort and money into creating an awesome brand and then just have it on your website or social page profile pic. Alright, I'll hold my hands up and be the first to say... I'm guilty of exactly that. I spend so much time on my client work, my own marketing, website and socials get neglected.

Your brand should show up consistently across:

• Social media

• Invoices and proposals

• Packaging and uniforms

• Email signatures

• Presentation decks

Take pride in the stuff that you put your brand on, because it reflects on your business and in turn, the business owner. Even if it seems like a small thing, do it to the best you can.

I was known for having extremely thick (don't go there) business cards. They were like ninja stars. One client even said jokingly that they keep my card in their bedside drawer, in case anyone was to break in through the night, they'd have a sharp object.

Sandance Creative: Banging Designs that Stop Crimes.

The fact is, I wanted my business card to feel so substantial that even if someone didn't want my details, may never use my services, they'd feel bad for throwing out this 85mm piece of card. And it worked. So don't be afraid to get your branding on everything you do - every customer touch point. But do it in the right way.

The Takeaway

Good design doesn’t have to be complicated — but it does have to be consistent.

Every colour, every font, every layout decision tells a story, gives off an emotion. It shows how much care you put into your business.

If your visuals feel disconnected, your customers won't feel connected with your brand either. Don’t jump straight to a full rebrand — start with small fixes.

And if you’re not sure where to start, that’s where Sandance Creative can help.

Sometimes it just takes a designers eye to spot whats missing - and what's already working.