Everyday Graphic Design
Learn the invisible mechanics that make slides, posters, and pages look clean and deliberate. Master hierarchy, spacing, typography, and color to turn amateur visual clutter into confident visual communication.
Like Duolingo, but for Everyday Graphic Design. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
A short one: 11 levels across 2 sections, about 22 minutes end to end, roughly 4 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Guiding the Eye and Setting the Tone. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Everyday Graphic Design
- Squinting blurs fine details like body text so you only see the major shapes, weights, and contrast blocks
- A successful layout passes the squint test if the primary focal point remains immediately obvious even when blurred
- If squinting makes everything blend into an even, indistinguishable gray or chaotic noise, the hierarchy is lacking
- Visual scale is relative: elements stand out only by being noticeably larger than the elements around them
- A layout needs a single dominant anchor element to direct the viewer's eye before secondary details compete for attention
- Giving two competing elements equal visual weight creates confusion about where to look first
- Items placed physically close together are perceived as belonging to the same group or sharing a relationship
- Increasing spacing between elements naturally communicates separation or a change in topic
- Uneven or accidental spacing confuses viewers by falsely linking unrelated elements
- Emphasis works purely through contrast against calmer, quieter surroundings
- Overusing heavy styling like bolding, bright colors, and badges creates visual noise where all elements cancel each other out
- To make an important element pop, the surrounding elements must remain relatively understated
- Uncluttered space around a focal element acts like a frame, drawing the eye directly to it
- Filling empty canvas with decorative elements divides attention and makes key actions harder to spot
- Aligning elements along a common vertical or horizontal axis creates invisible lines the eye follows effortlessly
- Mixing different alignments within a single grouping (like left-aligned images next to centered text) makes a layout feel haphazard
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Everyday Graphic Design the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
You squint at your new poster. How do you know it passes the squint test?
Get it right to open this lesson and 10 more in the app.
Where Everyday Graphic Design takes you
- 1
Guiding the Eye
- Establishing Visual Hierarchy
- Using White Space and Alignment
- 2
Setting the Tone
- Choosing and Pairing Type
- Applying Intentional Color
2 sections · 4 units · 11 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
Everyday Graphic Design is taught in the Explain Like I'm 5 style: no big words. promise.. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Everyday Graphic Design today.
Download Tomo, search Everyday Graphic Design, and play your first lesson in under a minute.