#DesignHack: When in doubt, round it out!

While graphic designers are super necessary players in the branding game, not all of us have access to one (or the funds to get one, if we're being honest). So until you reach the point where you have a graphic artist on call to "move that image in the header over to the right juuuust a smidge", use my design hacks to do-it-yourself!

My first tip in this series is a very simple fix: Round your images!

There is something about a circular image, or one with rounded corners, that just screams clean. Case in point, take a look at this image of an ice cream truck:

Cool truck! But boring, flat photo. 

Now see what happens after I round the image:

Now the image is more eye-catching, and looks a whole heck of a lot cleaner. 

Brightening an image, even just a tiny bit, also does wonders! Here is the truck lightened and slightly desaturated:

Uber Beginners: Use Pic Monkey to edit photos. It's online, free (for the most part), and easy!

For those who have a bit more experience, but no $$$ for Photoshop, use Gimp. It's totally free!