Design 101: Layer It Up

We’ve been a little behind on the blog front for a while now, but we’re returning this month with a brand new series. Whenever we first started The Digital Shore in 2015, one of our main services was graphic design. Even though we have moved into an hourly realm with that particular service, it is still a passion of ours. We love discussing the different elements available in design, so it seems like there is no better topic to delve into here. While there are four different aspects we’ll cover on the blog, let’s start with layers. 

What are layers? 

In all honesty, layers are not just utilized in graphic design; they’re utilized in a lot of creative fields, but for our purposes, we’ll be focusing on graphics. While layers are kind of difficult to define singularly, we’ll just say that layers are different levels of a design where graphics and other elements can be placed on it. In design applications like Photoshop or Indesign or Pixelmator, you can find them all in a layer panel (which we have a screenshot of to the right). They allow you to work on one piece of a design or image without affecting the design as a whole. 

How can you utilize them? 

The truth is that designs are kind of impossible without layers. There are layers for adding text, adding images, and adding groups so that other layers can be stored within it to make one big composition. With layers, you can add shapes, add blank layers for paint, erase unneeded items in an image, or do something as simple as change or add color. All of these tools are extremely useful in a design; it’s how you give a design texture and depth. 

So, to give an example of how to utilize them, we’re going to analyze a quote graphic template that we’ve used for our own social media. 

First, notice the image as a whole at the top. There are a lot of different elements going on, and each one of those elements is a layer. 

So starting at the foundation of the graphic, there is an image. It’s of a person filming on their phone, although you can’t totally see that once the entire graphic is assembled. However, we’ve scaled it all back to show it here. This is our bottom layer, and everything else will be built on top of it. To help keep a consistent color scheme, we colorized that multicolor photo to an orange tinted color. Notice that when we colorized this, we were able to colorize only the background photo instead of the graphic as a whole; that’s one of the benefits of layers. 

Now, colorizing the photo wasn’t enough; it still had too much white in it for our purposes. So, our next layer was a square. We filled the square with a color that we matched to a shade of orange from our branding palette. In doing so, our background was finally where we wanted it to be.

Our next layer was this rounded square shape that our text would be placed on. This layer was followed by an orange rectangle where our logo would be placed. 

From there, each element is a layer on its own. We have a text layer for the quote itself and another text layer for who said the quote. Admittedly, we could have combined them into one, but this allows us to space the text in a way that is visually pleasing. We have a layer for the colored quotation mark at the top, and of course, our logo is a layer as well. 

So, this simple design is a design that contains eight layers. 

Not every design is so simple. In our infographic that we made for April, that design contained over 70 layers. No matter how many or how few, though, none of these designs would have been possible without layering.

Helpful tips:

No matter what tool you’re using to design graphics all of them will contain a layers toolbar of some kind. We highly recommend familiarizing yourself with all the different tools that your application offers. However, here are just a few ways that we like to use layers to enhance our designs in a simple way. 

1. Colorize an image and adding a shape

When you’re adding text on top of an image, it’s easy for the background image to be too overwhelming and make the text hard to read. So, we often use tools to colorize an image or just change it to black and white. From there, we can add a colored or gradient shape on top to fit the color scheme we want or need. 

2. Shapes, shapes, shapes

We’re kind of obsessed with shapes when we’re designing, but they’re just an easy way to add texture to a graphic and anchor text in different ways. You don’t have to just use a filled square to stabilize a background. Use an outline of a shape or use it as a way to anchor text like in the example to the right. 

3. Use Multiple Text Layers

Spacing is everything. Don’t be afraid to utilize as many text layers as you can. It may seem like a pain at the time, but you’ll be grateful to only have to adjust one layer when the time comes to edit your design. 

We hope you find these tips and explanations helpful. Stay tuned to the blog throughout August and September as we lay out more aspects of design, and if you are in need of graphics, check out how we can help here.