Don’t reach for colors or effects just yet; look first at the spacing. Spacing isn’t just wasted space. Spacing is design. If you don’t like the colors, change the colors. Don’t rely on a shadow to do what white space should do. When the white space is bad, you might not be able to fix it with colors. You just have to try harder to find out what goes together.
You may have a feeling that your basic layout is incomplete, so you add another color or a border, gradient, texture or shape as if this were the last ingredient missing. But if your margins are too small, your body text is touching the image, or if every block in the design has equal space between its edges and neighboring elements, you have a design issue. Adding effects won’t help you fix that problem; in fact, they can only make what is most crowded louder.
Instead, review your design without style before you add it. Use a neutral background, a muted color palette and focus on the distance between the elements. Headlines need enough space to stand out as important and body text needs to be close to the headline to establish they go together. An image should have a relationship to the text; don’t just let it fill up a gap in a corner. Spacing also plays a role in visual hierarchy; the size of the headline is not the only thing that affects how you see it; if it is crowded even a small headline will feel crowded, while a large headline can feel clear and clean when it has room. The eye sees space as part of the design; an element with more space is important, similar elements should have similar amounts of space to indicate they belong to the same group, elements that belong to different groups should have different amounts of space between them. Uneven amounts of space, especially around the edges and between text and images, can make the layout feel chaotic regardless of how pleasing the colors are.
Try making a copy of your poster or social graphic. Then remove all of the effects in the second version. No shadows, no outline shapes, no extra shapes and no texture or pattern. Make only space adjustments; margins, margins, margin padding, distance between elements. Pull the copy a few pixels this way or that. Give the image crop a bit more room on the other side. Expand or decrease space between the title and the body copy if they feel too crowded, too disconnected or too close. Then compare the two versions and see how the spacing changes the message.
Once you get the space right, the colors look better. A little highlight color becomes much more useful when there is already a way to read the layout. A shadow will add depth when the layers make sense. A border will be effective when its inner padding is sufficient. When the space is bad, they are just decorating. When the space is good, they are just finishing the job.
Before the layout is done, check the outside edges, space between the sections, and the most dense part of your canvas. If it still feels crowded, don’t add any more effects. Move, crop or increase space first. Clean designs start when space begins to function.