Brochure Design. How to create an effective brochure

Transcription

1 Brochure Design How to create an effective brochure

2 Designing a professional brochure A brochure is a printed booklet or pamphlet that promotes an organisation, business, event, product or service. Brochures are an effective way to communicate information in a simple, eye-catching format that attracts prospective clients. A well-designed brochure is a professional and affordable way of delivering vital information to your target audience. It should grab your readers attention and inspire them to take action. So how to do you create an impressive brochure that informs, educates, or persuades your audience? Before you launch into writing content for your brochure, you should spend some time planning the overall layout design including the images, written copy, headings and captions. By following the simple points outlined in this ebook, you will be easily able to create a printed brochure that looks professionally-designed and achieves great results for your business. Page 1

3 THE PLANNING STAGE Determine the purpose of your brochure In order to determine your reasons for creating a brochure, you first need to ask yourself several key questions including: Why do you want to create a brochure? What opportunity or problem is your brochure aiming to address? Is the purpose of your brochure to persuade or inform? How can you best communicate your main underlying message to your audience? Having one primary purpose or approach is more effective than producing a generalised brochure that tries to cover a large range of topics and therefore lacks focus. Stand out from your competition What special features do you offer that other companies, products and services do not? What image and impression do want your audience to perceive about your business? Make sure that your brochure contains content that emphasises the unique aspects of your business. Decide on your call to action A call to action is written or graphic information that invites your target audience to do something. In your brochure s call to action, provide the reader with specific examples and/or detailed instructions to help direct them to take the desired next step. Create interest and connection with your audience Although getting your reader s initial attention is the most important step, keeping them focused on your topic can be difficult. This is where most brochures fail, thereby losing prospective customers. Create interest by making sure you appeal to potential clients emotions and business needs. Page 2

4 GETTING STARTED A well-designed brochure should be clear, concise and attractively presented. The general appearance of a brochure affects how likely a potential customer or client is to read it. The overall design including layout, size, colour palette, font and images are all important elements which have a significant impact on the finished publication. Size and format The size of a brochure is usually determined by the amount and type of information you want to include, and your printing budget. Brochure formats are determined by the way in which the printed page is folded. They can be folded in a variety of ways to complement your design aesthetics. There are a range different format options for brochures such as: A simple postcard or flyer that is printed front or back with no folds. A pamphlet with four (double fold brochure) or six (tri-fold, gate or Z fold brochure) panels. A very detailed brochure with eight panels or more (parallel or accordian fold brochure). Different format options for brochures Flyer Single fold Tri fold Z fold Accordian fold Parallel fold Gate fold Page 3

5 Written Text Most people prefer to read concise, well-written content and lack motivation to read dense lengthy text. To help to determine how much written information to include in your publication you should: Consider your brochure to be an appetiser. It should offer readers a small taste that makes them want more. Cover a maximum of ten key points. Only include the most important information in your body copy. Use sub-headings, text boxes and bullet points to break information into small, easy-to-scan chunks. Where possible use pictures, charts and tables rather than words to more clearly illustrate your information. Page 4

6 Illustrations and Photographs While images are not an essential element of your brochure, they add interest and help to further clarify the written content. If you do decide to incorporate graphics into your brochure, the following points will help you to achieve a polished result: Ensure all photographs are high resolution so that they will print without looking blurry or pixelated (300 dpi for print applications). Avoid using clip art as it can make the final result look amateurish and home made. When using your own photographs, watch the quality of the lighting. Don t use poor quality photos just because you own them. Consider purchasing royalty-free stock photographs from photo libraries. If you can afford it or if you need specific shots you can t find elsewhere, hire a professional photographer. This way you will end up with high-quality original photos that you can use repeatedly over a long period of time. Page 5

7 THE DESIGN PROCESS When considering how to best display information in your brochure, you should organise all of the content into a front, middle and back section. You need to understand where section breaks naturally occur within your written copy so that you can appropriately cluster all the relevant material together. The front section The front section of your brochure should include the title, a sub-title, and if your business has a tag line or positioning statement, it can be placed here. For a simple one-page flyer, your title should be at the top and your positioning statement and logo placed at the bottom of the page. A vibrant, high-quality image (or images) can also be incorporated on the front. The middle section The middle of your brochure should contain all your written copy, plus any additional images you wish to include. Try to achieve a suitable balance between the amount of written content you need to include to adequately cover the topic and the need for sufficient white space to help your audience readily assimilate the information. The layout of your brochure should be interesting but don t let this aspect take precedence over readability. A beautiful layout design is useless if the text is overshadowed. Remember to keep your font size appropriate to your audience. The end section The end section of your brochure should include your contact details and your call to action. Don t use this section for any information that is central to the objectives of your brochure. If you still have important points you want to include here, your brochure format may be too small for the amount of information. In this case, you may need to chose a different format option. Page 6

8 FINISHING TOUCHES Ten additional points for achieving good results with your brochure design: 1. Create accurate mock-ups for your brochure. Cut and fold your brochure to size. Use the same type of paper that you will ultimately print on, and review your work. 2. Most readers initially only read headings, subheads, and captions. These should motivate your readers to want to read the rest of the copy. 3. Remember that your brochure copy will frequently be read out of order. Each page or panel should act as a self-contained unit. 4. Check spelling, punctuation and grammar. Don t rely on your computer s spell checker. Get someone else to proofread your written copy. 5. Be concise. Try not to use more than two or three sentences in each paragraph. 6. A separate textbox adds impact on a page. Consider incorporating content such as Frequently Asked Questions or testimonials within a box for more effective brochure design. 7. Stick to two typefaces, and strictly limit your use of bolding, italics, underlining and capitalisation. Select simple serif and sans serif fonts. 8. Make sure your body copy is the correct size for your audience. Text between 9 and 12 points will ensure optimal readability. 9. Use white space wisely in your brochure design. Crowded copy is hard to read. Your images will lose their impact, and the layout will appear out of balance if you don t use enough white space in your design. 10. Conservative brochure design is boring. Create a brochure that is easy to read and interesting to look at. A busy brochure design can often work better than a well-balanced one because it keeps the reader involved. Design is a vast field. If you are keen to create your own brochure, then you are bound to find this ebook helpful. For more professional assistance with brochure design, contact Kirsty at Epiphany Editing & Publishing. Page 7

9 CASE STUDY: Professional redesign of client s pest control brochure The illustration below demonstrates how, with expert knowledge of design principles, we were able to transform our client s mediocre brochure into a professional-looking publication. Front Cover Before Client s original brochure KEY ISSUES: Cluttered appearance; too many images used creating a disjointed appearance Title and subtitle are hard to read; merge too readily into background Front Cover After Client s pest control brochure professionally redesigned by Epiphany Editing & Publishing PROFESSIONAL DESIGN SOLUTIONS: Cohesive layout; good placement of images that have a relationship with each other Clear, easy-to-read title and subtitle Consistent colour palette that unifies design Everything You Want To Know About Household Pests Consumer Information on Household Pests Banish the bugs! Consumer information on household pests Page 8

10 This ebook was written and designed by Kirsty Ogden Looking to make a great first impression so you can win new clients or close more sales? Need to add a professional finish to your brochure so you stand out from the crowd? Book a complimentary 20 minute phone consultation and get valuable feedback on your brochure design including layout, typesetting and copy editing. Call Kirsty on to book your appointment Website: kirsty@epiphanyediting.com.au Facebook: Page 9