Creative
Creative

Establishing your startup’s creative and design direction

Design and copy aren’t just about looking good—they’re how your brand speaks. For startups, creative work should feel consistent, reflect your identity, and support your marketing goals.

This page walks through the basics of startup creative, from visuals to voice, so you can create materials that connect and convert—even without a full design team.

    Establishing your startup’s creative and design direction

    Design and copy aren’t just about looking good—they’re how your brand speaks. For startups, creative work should feel consistent, reflect your identity, and support your marketing goals.

    This page walks through the basics of startup creative, from visuals to voice, so you can create materials that connect and convert—even without a full design team.

    Tips for your startup’s creative strategy

    (Click linked headings for guidance)
    • Visual Identity
      Develop a cohesive visual identity that reflects your brand personality and resonates with your target audience.
    • Branding Elements
      Incorporate consistent branding elements, including logos, color schemes, and typography, across all marketing materials.
    • Graphic Design
      Invest in professional graphic design to create eye-catching visuals for digital and print collateral.
    • Website Design
      Ensure your website design is user-friendly, visually appealing, and aligned with your brand aesthetics.
    • Content Presentation
      Pay attention to how content is presented in your startup’s creative strategy; use visuals to enhance the message and improve engagement.
    • Consistency
      Maintain consistency in design elements across various platforms and marketing channels.
    • Responsive Design
      Prioritize responsive design in your startup’s creative strategy to guarantee a seamless user experience across different devices.
    • Creativity in Campaigns
      Infuse creativity into marketing campaigns to capture attention and leave a lasting impression.
    • UX/UI Principles
      Embrace user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) principles for digital assets and platforms.
    • Storytelling through Design
      Use design elements in your startup’s creative strategy to tell a compelling brand story and evoke emotions.
    • Adaptability
      Be adaptable and open to design iterations based on data, feedback, and evolving market trends.
    • Collaboration
      Foster collaboration between the marketing and design teams to ensure a unified and effective approach to your startup’s creative strategy.
    • Print and Digital Harmony
      Whether in print or digital, maintain a harmonious design language to reinforce brand recognition.
    • A/B Testing
      Implement A/B testing for various design elements to optimize the performance of your startup’s creative.
    • Design Software Mastery
      Equip your team with proficiency in essential design software for efficient collaboration and execution.
    • Budget Allocation
      Allocate a portion of your budget to quality design, recognizing its impact on brand perception.

    Tips to get you started with your startup’s creative strategy

    (Click linked headings for guidance)

    Visual Identity
    Develop a cohesive visual identity that reflects your brand personality and resonates with your target audience.

    Branding Elements
    Incorporate consistent branding elements, including logos, color schemes, and typography, across all marketing materials.

    Graphic Design
    Invest in professional graphic design to create eye-catching visuals for digital and print collateral.

    Website Design
    Ensure your website design is user-friendly, visually appealing, and aligned with your brand aesthetics.

    Content Presentation
    Pay attention to how content is presented in your startup’s creative strategy; use visuals to enhance the message and improve engagement.

    Consistency
    Maintain consistency in design elements across various platforms and marketing channels.

    Responsive Design
    Prioritize responsive design in your startup’s creative strategy to guarantee a seamless user experience across different devices.

    Creativity in Campaigns
    Infuse creativity into marketing campaigns to capture attention and leave a lasting impression.

    UX/UI Principles
    Embrace user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) principles for digital assets and platforms.

    Storytelling through Design
    Use design elements in your startup’s creative strategy to tell a compelling brand story and evoke emotions.

    Adaptability
    Be adaptable and open to design iterations based on data, feedback, and evolving market trends.

    Collaboration
    Foster collaboration between the marketing and design teams to ensure a unified and effective approach to your startup’s creative strategy.

    Print and Digital Harmony
    Whether in print or digital, maintain a harmonious design language to reinforce brand recognition.

    Video and Multimedia
    Leverage the power of video and multimedia for dynamic and engaging content.

    A/B Testing
    Implement A/B testing for various design elements to optimize the performance of your startup’s creative.

    Design Software Mastery
    Equip your team with proficiency in essential design software for efficient collaboration and execution.

    Budget Allocation
    Allocate a portion of your budget to quality design, recognizing its impact on brand perception.

    Legal Considerations
    Ensure designs comply with copyright laws and industry regulations.

    Getting your creative right—design, voice, and visuals—is key to building a brand that sticks. When your marketing looks sharp and sounds like you, it doesn’t just get attention—it helps your message land.

    Getting your creative right—design, voice, and visuals—is key to building a brand that sticks. When your marketing looks sharp and sounds like you, it doesn’t just get attention—it helps your message land.

    Design Resources

    Essential online resources to help kickstart your startup’s design work

    Design Resources

    Essential online resources to help kickstart your startup’s design work

    Designing for Scale

    Don't design for your users - From Adobe

    Designing for AI

    Designing for AI: beyond the chatbot - From Medium

    May require Medium registration

    Design Principles

    4 design principles I use every day to avoid bad UX and create products that work for everyone - From Adam Silver

    Design Blog

    50 of the best graphic design blogs for inspiration - From Creative Boom

    Design Systems

    What's a Design System & What Components Is it Made Up of? [Examples] - From HubSpot

    User-Centered Design

    User-Centered Design: What It Is and How to Do It Right - From HubSpot

    Design Fundamentals

    Design fundamentals every creative should know - From Medium

    May require Medium registration

    Inclusive Design

    13 Inclusive Design Changes to Increase Your Digital Marketing Engagement - From CMS Wire

    Image Compression

    How to Resize and Compress Large Images in Bulk (and Optimize Them) - From Imagify Blog

    Design

    Copying is the Way Design Works - From Matthew Strom

    Style Guides

    50 brand style guides for inspiration (plus free templates) - From Canva

    Design Principles

    11 Principles of Design (& How to Use Them) - From Dribbble

    Insipiration

    The Best Instagram Accounts To Follow For Design - From Fast Co

    Design Patterns

    Design Patterns Are A Better Way To Collaborate On Your Design System - From Smashing Magazine

    Working with Designers

    No More “Make it Pop”: A Marketer’s Guide to Giving Better Design Feedback - From Fenwick

    Design Trends

    Trend List: Documenting visual trends in graphic design - From Trend List

    Inclusive Design

    Inclusive Design - From Nielsen Norman Group

    Visual Identity Systems

    Visual Identity Systems: What They Are & Why They Matter - From HubSpot

    Emoji

    The power of emoji: An interview with Jennifer Daniel - From Figma

    Button Design

    Button Design - UI component series - - From Medium

    May require Medium registration

    Inspiration

    Top 20 Online & Offline Inspiration Sources for Designers - From Dribbble

    Case Study

    How Industrial Design and Weird Swag Helped MailChimp Find Success - From Wired

    Design Tests

    The blurry-eye test - From Medium

    May require Medium registration

    Design Templates

    A Branding Expert Shares: How to Use Design Templates Like a Pro - From Buffer

    ChatGPT in Design

    How I use ChatGPT as a UI/UX Designer - From Medium

    May require Medium registration

    Packaging Design

    The Best in Packaging From 2023: Dieline Awards Winners Revealed - From The Dieline

    ChatGPT Templates

    Creating ChatGPT prompt templates for Design System Documentation - From Medium

    May require Medium registration

    Designer's Block

    A Writer’s Guide to Overcoming Designer’s Block - From Indeed Design

    Accessible Design

    Accessible Design vs. Inclusive Design (With Infographic) - From Toptal

    Email Background Images

    Tutorial: How to Add Background Images on Emails and Landing Pages - From Email Design & More

    Brutalist Web Development

    The Split Personality Of Brutalist Web Development - From Smashing Magazine

    Psychology

    106 Cognitive Biases & Principles…that Affect Your UX - From growth.design

    Conversion-Centered Design

    How To Create Emails That Sell With Conversion-Centered Design - From Litmus

    Design Systems

    What's a Design System & What Components Is it Made Up of? [Examples] - From HubSpot

    Icon Design

    7 Principles of Icon Design - From Medium

    May require Medium registration

    Design System Case Studies

    7 impressive design system case studies by Dribbble's latest graduates - From Dribbble

    Mobile UX Design

    The Mobile UX Playbook: 8 Tips for Design Success - From Dribbble

    Dark Mode Greyscale

    Why is making a dark mode greyscale so hard to get right? - From Dan Hollick

    Styling Lists

    Creative list styling - From web.dev

    Design Systems

    What is a Design System? - From Dan Mall

    Inspiration - Design Portfolios

    The 23 Best Graphic Design Portfolios We've Ever Seen, & How to Start Your Own - From HubSpot

    Design Principals

    20 Important Design Principals Explained With Simple Illustrations - From Digital Synopsis

    Email Design

    Subject Line—How to Approach Email Design - From Toptal

    Email Design

    Foundations of Email Design - From Litmus

    Design Projects

    All design projects should start in a Google Doc - From Medium

    May require Medium registration

    Design Process

    This 6-Step Graphic Design Process Drives Results (Infographic) - From Brafton Agency

    Design Asset Resources

    Online design asset resources to use in your design work

    Design Asset Resources

    Online design asset resources to use in your design work

    QR Codes

    How to create a QR code (and QR code best practices) - From Zapier

    Alternative Creative Interfaces

    33 alternative interfaces for creating and editing images and text - From Constraint Systems

    Lorem Ipsum Generators

    List of Lorem Ipsum Generators to spice up your designs

    Design Resources

    Creative Market - Good source for creative resources

    QR Codes

    What is a QR Code + How Does It Work? Everything Marketers Should Know - From HubSpot

    Hand-drawn Illustrations

    Open Peep: A hand-drawn illustration library.

    QR Codes

    How to Make a QR Code in 5 Easy Steps - From HubSpot

    Stock Images

    Free Images: 41 Best Stock Photo Sites to Find High-Quality - From Search Engine Journal

    Graphic Design Resources

    100 essential free resources for graphic designers - From Creative Boom

    SVG Shapes

    120+ basic SVG shapes for your upcoming project

    GIFs

    How to Create & Add an Animated GIF to an Email - From Litmus

    Stock Photos

    Gratisography - Truly unique. Usually whimsy 😉 Always free

    Design Assets

    Free design asset downloads - From Creative Market

    Asset Sizes

    Image and Video sizes for Social Media. - From SocialPilot

    Watermarks

    Watermarks: Why You Need Them + 6 Easy Steps to Create One - From HubSpot

    Image Resizing

    The Quick and Easy Guide to Resizing Images Online - From ShortPixel

    Stock Photos

    Artist-owned stock photography

    Product GIFs

    How to create remarkable product GIFs - From Super Human

    GIFs

    3 advanced animated GIF techniques to uplevel your email designs - From MessageBird

    Infographic Creation

    How To Create An Infographic In Powerpoint [+Free Templates] - From HubSpot

    People Images

    Mix-&-match illustrations of people with a design library - From Humaaans

    Graphic Design Resources

    25 graphic design resources everyone needs to know about - From Vista

    Generated Photos

    Unique, worry-free model photos

    Infographic Design

    24 Infographic Design Tools to Help You Create Your Own Infographics [Infographic] - From Social Media Today

    Data Visualization

    Tips and Examples to Inspire You

    Color Resources

    Online resources to guide your work with colors in developing your startup’s creative strategy

    Color Resources

    Online resources to guide your work with colors in developing your startup’s creative strategy

    Color Palettes

    Color Palette Generator - From iColorpalette

    Color palette generator

    Huemint uses machine learning to create unique color schemes for your brand, website or graphic - From Huemint

    Color Psychology

    Color psychology: The logo color tricks used by top companies—and how to design your own - From Canva

    Color Combinations

    26 best color combinations for your next design - From Webflow

    Color Combinations

    A Dictionary of Color Combinations - From Wada Sanzo

    Color Science

    50 Hard Science-Backed Facts About Color - From Creative Market

    Color Combination Accessibility

    Who can use this color combination? - From WhoCanUse

    Color Psychology

    Color Psychology: How To Use it in Marketing and Branding - From HubSpot

    RGB Monitor Colors

    The 954 most common RGB monitor colors, as defined by several hundred thousand participants in the xkcd color name survey - From xkcd.com

    Color Theory

    How Color Theory Can Influence Your Customers - From Medium

    May require Medium registration

    Color Palettes

    Color Palettes for Designers and Artists - From Color Hunt

    Color Picker

    Slider that provides HEX, HSL, and RGB #s for colors - From Chroma

    Color Contrast

    Color Contrast Checker - From Web AIM

    Color Theory

    Thinking about color - From Cloudflare

    Typography Resources

    Online resources to guide your work with fonts and typefaces in your startup’s creative work

    Typography Resources

    Online resources to guide your work with fonts and typefaces in your startup’s creative work

    Font Pairing Tools

    12 Excellent Font Pairing Tools For Designers - From Dribbble

    Online Reading

    Best Font for Online Reading: No Single Answer - From Nielsen Norman Group

    Modern Font Stacks

    System font stack CSS organized by typeface classification for every modern OS

    Font Origins

    Where do fonts come from? This one business, mostly - From The Hustle

    Fonts & Typefaces

    Font vs typeface: the ultimate guide - From Creative Bloq

    Typography Terms

    20 Typography Terms You Need to Know - From Design Lab

    Typography Tips

    Good design can change lives - From Chris Do

    Typeface Influence

    How typefaces influence you - From Fast Company

    Fonts & Wes Anderson

    Futura & Wes Anderson: a love story - From Linus Boman

    Brand Fonts

    A thread of fonts used by big brands - From Lumumba

    Typographic Hierarchy

    Typographic Hierarchy in Print, Web & App Design - From Pimp My Type

    Logo Resources

    Online Deisgn Asset resources to help you design logos

    Logo Resources

    Online Deisgn Asset resources to help you design logos

    Logo Refreshes

    So (Re)Fresh and So Clean—How Jessica Hische Brings New Life to an Old Logo - From Print

    Logo Design

    7 Principles of Kick-Ass Logo Design - From HubSpot

    Logo Redesign

    Thinking Of A Logo Redesign? This Is How To Do It - From Logo

    Logo Design Tips

    What makes a good logo? 10 design tips to follow - From Canva

    Logo Design Tips

    8 Tips to Design a Notorious Logo - From Medium

    May require Medium registration

    Develop and manage your startup’s  creative assets

    Develop and manage your startup’s  creative assets

    Canva

    Canva is a user-friendly design tool that allows marketers to create graphics, presentations, posters, and more with customizable templates.

    Sketch

    Sketch is a digital design platform for creating user interfaces, websites, and icons.

    Corel Draw

    Corel Draw is a suite of graphic design tools suitable for creating illustrations, icons, and more.

    Lunacy

    Lunacy is a free graphic design software with features for editing and working with Sketch files.

    Adobe Creative Cloud

    Adobe Creative Cloud offers a suite of professional design tools, including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and more.

    Pixlr

    Pixlr is a free online photo editing tool with features for quick image enhancements.

    PicMonkey

    PicMonkey is an online design tool for photo editing, graphic design, and collage creation.

    Adobe Express

    Adobe Express is a design tool for creating web pages, social graphics, and video stories.

    VistaCreate

    VistaCreate is a graphic design tool with customizable templates for social media, marketing materials, and other visual content.

    Visme

    Visme is a visual content creation tool for designing presentations, infographics, and other marketing materials.

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    Stencil

    Stencil is a simple graphic design tool for creating social media graphics, blog images, and marketing visuals.

    GenSpark AI

    GenSpark uses AI to help startups create stunning presentations and documents quickly. It’s a great tool for turning ideas into polished, professional materials without the usual design or formatting hassle.

    Figma

    Figma is a collaborative design tool that allows teams to create, share, and prototype designs in real-time.

    DesignWizard

    DesignWizard is an online graphic design software for creating visuals for social media, marketing, and presentations

    Venngage

    Venngage is an infographic maker that allows marketers to create visually appealing infographics and reports.

    Don’t let marketing slow you down—or drive you nuts. If you’re stuck, swamped, or just tired of Googling everything, Mathlete Marketing has your back.

    Don’t let marketing slow you down—or drive you nuts. If you’re stuck, swamped, or just tired of Googling everything, Mathlete Marketing has your back.