In today’s fast-paced digital environment, effective and appealing design has emerged as a crucial element to businesses’ success.

Tech icon Steve Jobs was famously one of the first to embrace design as a crucial element in the advancement of his products, and it’s clear that many look at design as an extension of the business itself. After all, it’s hard to deny that first impressions and appearances are actually quite important, and even if one is peddling an amazing product, their “book” will be judged by its “cover”—in this case, when referring to both print and website design. Here Shweiki Media Printing company has created a list of five design tools built to enhance the look of one’s print advertisements and web design graphics.

Kuler

Kuler is an app built by Adobe and designed for iPhone that allows one to use their camera phone to capture and edit color palettes. Once one snaps a picture, Kuler allows them to either extract color from the image itself or insert an alternative color selection from their color wheel. The result is a vibrant, enhanced photo that can be synced with graphic design tools such as Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop. This is useful to everyone, but can be particularly useful for a company that doesn’t have the money in their budget to spend on professional photography.

GIF Images

GIF images are one of the more popular forms of media that have emerged and taken the Internet by storm. Not only are GIFs aesthetically more pleasing and exciting than a still photo, they are proven to enhance click-through rates and even improve social sharing statistics. GIF creation companies such as Cinegif provide a platform for any business owner to easily upgrade their web design with a beautifully flowing online image.

Google Rich Snippets

While Google Snippets do little to enhance the overall design of one’s site, their addition drastically revamps a business’s initial credibility. To pretend that one is relevant without Google-backing suggests a large misunderstanding of one’s audience (and quite possibly some Microsoft-Bing brainwashing). Not only do Google Snippets feed one’s site with more viewers, but users consistently take the site more seriously after recognizing the mutual link. All in all, it’s a great way to get on Google’s good side while simultaneously gaining the trust and appreciation of one’s audience (both current and potential).

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality is a budding medium made famous by Google’s development of Google Glass. Currently, AR is being used in print advertising much like a GIF image is used on the web: it’s a way to bring the medium to life. Its aesthetic charm, technological upside, and revolutionary ability to integrate live links and videos directly into a print ad, all combine to make AR a go-to tool for any business invested in print advertising.

Lorempixel

Lorempixel is a great tool for web designers who need to fill a specifically sized space on their page. The (free) tool features a vast databank of pictures ranging in sizes from multiple categories. Lorempixel’s value relies on serving as a placeholder, allowing one to fill the space that needs to be filled with a quality photo (random or selected) and even add custom text on the selected picture itself. This allows companies to not only fill dreaded white space or dead space on their web page, but it enhances the aesthetics of the page with something relevant and visually appealing as well.