Design terms you pretend to know

Like all industries, the world of design does have its dictionary of fancy words. Leading tracking, bleed, hierarchy, vector. We drop these terms into conversations like everyone’s fluent in ‘design speak’. But unless you use Adobe Creative Suite every day, some of this stuff can feel like a secret club with its own code. Even now we have moments where we smile and nod at the new terminology that keep emerging!

So, what does it all mean? Here’s a quick, plain-speaking guide to a few design terms you’ve probably nodded along with too.

Tracking

What designers say: “The tracking looks off.”
What they mean: Tracking is the space between the individual letters. If it ‘looks off’, it’s normally because the space is too tight or too loose. Tracking is a specification that many brand guidelines will cover to make sure everything is consistent. Get the tracking right and words feel balanced and easy to read, as well as matching the other brand elements.

Bleed

What designers say: “Make sure you include a 3mm bleed.”
What they mean: Bleed is that extra bit at the edge of a print design that extends beyond the size of the paper, banner, advert etc. That’s the bit that gets trimmed off when it’s printed. By including a bleed section, you stop those weird white lines appearing on the sides of your brochures or business cards. Think of it as a safety zone for your colours and images.

Hierarchy

What designers say: “The visual hierarchy needs work.”
What they mean: In all aspects of life, from marketing to safety signs, your eyes need to know what to look at first. Think of a newspaper article. You have the big headline, the smaller sub-heading and then main article in the smallest type. That’s hierarchy doing its job. Without it, everything is trying to grab your attention at once, and key information can get overlooked.

White space

What designers say: “It needs more whitespace.”
What they mean: Often empty space can be seen as wasted space, but that isn’t the case. White space is what makes your design breathe. It helps elements stand out, makes things easier to read, and helps stop your brandlooking chaotic.

CMYK vs RGB

What designers say: “Is this for print or web?”
What they mean: CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key (aka black. Key is an old printing term for the ‘key plate’ of colours. Also stops it being confused with blue if B was used). RGB stands for Red, Blue and Green. CMYK is the colour mode for print and RGB is for web. The reason why they’re so important is because if you use the wrong one, your colours might look totally different from what you expected.

Vector

What designers say: “Do you have that as a vector file?”
What they mean: A vector is a file that can scale to any size without it becoming pixelated. They’re a bit like an SVG or AI file. The vector is an alpha of the file types for logos. A JPEG or PNG? Not quite so much.

Although we never assume our clients are familiar with these terms, knowing them can make design discussions clearer, feedback more focused, and the whole creative process feel a lot less daunting.

And if you ever hear a term you don’t know, just ask us to explain. There’s no such thing as a stupid question. At Form, we’re always up for translating the design speak, no jargon, no eyerolls, no judgement.