Top 10 Tips for Brochure Design

What else but the brochure could community condensed information to a targeted community in such an interesting manner but the brochure – yes that two-sided, folded document that is your very important marketing tool.

The brochure performs the important task of introducing your company to your prospective customer. It is the executive summary of your operations and offerings. The brochure is the marketing tool that lets you present your credentials and a good brochure is one that leaves a lasting impression on your target customer.

But what is a good brochure? A good brochure design is brief in that it communicates the most important fundamentals about your business and products or services in a way that will communicate with, reach and move a prospective customer. A good brochure is the soliloquy that will build that trust between you and your customer and a good brochure will have to be both informative and interesting so that the reader, in this case, a prospective customer will want to learn more about your company. According to a reliable brochure design company, a good  brochure design should also project a visual feel about who you are and what you do. It should serve as both a door opener before a sales call and a reminder afterwards for a sale follow up.

Count back from 10 to 1. Crosscheck all the steps and you should have a brochure that will give your competitors a run for their money.

1. Carefully study other designs especially those done by your competitors. A comparative analysis of what makes one design more visually appealing than another will help.
2. Choose your voice and target audience. Once you have decided on your target audience you can choose the font that will speak to them in the voice that you desire whether it be professional, humorous or casual depending on the nature of your company and brand. More than two or three font styles can distract from your message and excessive underlining can cause clutter and poor readability. Of course, the font size should be varied according to the comparative importance accorded to the different segments of the copy or text.
3. The principle of “Less is more” should also be applied to brochure design. Once you have decided on the purpose of your brochure you should be absolutely clear about the order of importance within your information. Once this is done you could reposition the various elements in your design to see how it is affected.
4. Use bars and boxes sparingly as they cause clutter and confusion. Instead, explore your options for grouping and separating.
5. Use “Negative Space” positively. The “empty” space on the page can be used judiciously to create a meaningful relationship between the page and its contents. Specific information on a page can be brought into focus by adjusting the space around it.
6. Simplicity is the key to good design. Keeping your essential marketing message in mind, ask yourself if those graphic ornaments you are using draw or distract the reader’s attention.
7. The most important items in your brochure should be bigger, bolder and brighter so that they stand out to get the reader’s immediate attention.
8. Color should be used wisely. Often only two colors can create an appealing and effective design. Black and white brochures can be more dramatic than color. The cost of printing is an important factor when deciding on the color. Remember that brochure is a major element in brand identity design. So, if you have a brand color that you may have used in your website or other promotional materials, use the same in your brochure design to trigger memorability.
9. When selecting the paper on which the brochure will be printed the size, color, text and the cost of printing should be the deciding factors.
10. AS the popular saying goes – there’s many a slip between the cup and the lip – so proofread your design several times before approving it for final print. Read your lines backward and take your time to look critically at the overall layout.

Finally, something needs to be mentioned about printing as it can make or mar the design.

• Know your print size: it does not make sense to create an 8.5 x 11 layout and submit it for printing on 8 x 10 paper
• Allow for print bleed: Designing the brochure with an extra 1/8th inch of coverage beyond each edge of the page borders allows for solid ink coverage from edge to edge.
• High-resolution images allow for good print. An image resolution of at least 300 dpi should do fine.

Start designing your brochure today.