What defines a good mock-up design? Many times, we only look at the ability to combine colors, shadows, and images, but mock-ups go beyond that.
A good mock-up is one that is not only aesthetically pleasing but also produces good results in terms of marketing, feedback, and brand awareness.
Now, if you are looking to go beyond making just a virtual model of your work to an effective marketing design that impresses both your clients, you must add certain changes to your design.
In this article, we share five tips for creating stunning mockup designs that will help you communicate your vision and create a realistic presentation of your design.
We also explore how to use both premium and free mockups from platforms like Yellow Images to get the results you want. Now, let’s delve into some tips that can significantly elevate your design process. They are:
Understand the Product and Message
The first step to designing a mock-up that not only dazzles your clients but also produces effective results is to understand the product and message.
While it may seem like an obvious thing to say, you must understand that mock-ups are not just virtual presentations of your designs but also marketing tactics.
Take the time to fully understand the product, who it serves, the problem it solves, and the message it’s trying to pass across before drafting a mock-up. If you are making a mockup presentation of a website, find out what the website is for and how your design can also communicate this.
After getting a clear picture of the Product message, choose a PSD template that effectively reflects the said message.
For example, let’s say you are designing a mock-up for an environment-conscious grocery store; you would want to use the mock-up of a reusable grocery bag as opposed to a plastic bag. To design effective mock-ups, you must look beyond aesthetics and try to communicate the brand’s beliefs and overall message.
Know Your Audience
Another trick to creating a mock-up that produces impressive results is to tailor your design to a specific audience. As a designer, it is easy to get lost in making your mock-up as aesthetically pleasing as possible, but that is not the most important thing.
A good mock-up is one that effectively showcases your design while speaking the same language as your target audience. To do that, you first need to understand who that audience is.
Have a grasp of their general preferences, but at the same time, be cautious of stereotypes. Let’s say you are making a mock-up for a brand whose target audience is nature lovers; your design should have elements of nature like trees, waterfalls, and so on.
Pay Attention to Resolution
As you design your mock-up, one of the mistakes you’d want to avoid is that of mismatched resolution. This is when there is a visible difference in quality between the main design or image and the mock-up template.
It is important to use only high-quality mockup templates alongside high-resolution designs. To achieve this level of result, opt for premium creative templates and images from platforms like Yellow Images.
On there, you can find anything from apparel mock-ups to Gadget mock-ups, billboards, and other high-quality templates.
See Beyond Design
We’ve established the fact that your mock-up design is a marketing technique, and it is important to see beyond aesthetics. In that case, you’d want to take note of the non-design elements of the mock-up. Beyond colors, shadows, and sceneries, take note of content too!
Let’s say you have a magazine mock-up; you would want to make it as realistic as possible by adding some content to it. What you have on your mock-up is almost as good as the design itself.
Depending on the platform you use, your mock-up template (pre-design) will likely include some “lorem ipsum.”
These placeholder texts don’t have logical meaning used to visualize the final design. You’d want to replace this with well-written content that is relevant to the design. You can always ask your client to provide the content to be used.
Have the Final Goal in Mind
Your reason for designing a mock-up can be anything from showcasing your designs to headlining a marketing campaign. Whatever the case may be, it helps if you keep your final goal in mind as you go through your design process.
Look at the bigger picture each time you commence design. If your mockup is part of a marketing campaign, then it is important that you use design elements that will capture your audience’s attention and give them a glimpse of the product in real-life settings.
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Conclusion
Mockup designs are a powerful tool for communicating your vision and brand message. By following the tips in this article, you can create exceptional mockup designs that will not only let you showcase your design but also produce more marketing results.
As you go about your design process, it is also important to know that a good mockup design will cost you time and effort.
To accelerate your design process and workflow, you should have in your arsenal 3D mockup platforms like Yellow Images that cater to your design needs. Whether you’d like to Buy their premium offerings or use the free ones, they have something for you.
