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Design
Advice
Designing
a brochure or leaflet - important points to remember
Put
your selling message on the cover.
This is very important and often ignored. The
cover of a brochure works like the headline of an advertisement. Many
people will never look past the headline. Do not rely in burying your
sales message within the body copy of your leaflet or brochure. Tell
the world what it is that you have to offer.
Insist
on a "corporate identity" with your design work.
Even if you are a one-man business, the rest of
the world does not need to know that. Develop a theme for your literature
and carry it throughout your print and advertising design.
Use
a single illustration on the cover.
On a brochure, research suggests that one large
illustration is more effective than severa l
small ones. Do not skimp on photographs inside your brochure or on your
leaflet. A picture really is worth a thousand words. Product shots are
also very important. How is anyone going to be interested in your product
if they have not seen a picture of it?
Select
pictures that tell a story.
The right photographs will always express your
image and products better than words. Whatever you are marketing, pictures
can always illustrate important points. Good photographs are easier
to produce now that digital cameras are available. We are always happy
to assist and advise about photography - just ask us.
Always
caption the photographs.
Next to the cover, captions are the best-read
element of any brochure.
Don't
be afraid of lots of words.
If people have bothered to express an interest
in your brochure, they are prospects for the product or service you
are selling. Tell them everything they need to know. Make sure that
you have plenty of contact information.
Spotlight
the important facts.
Remember that one of the most frequent criticisms of brochures in general
is that they "do not give enough facts." Tell consumers what
is included, what are the costs, what are the hours. Graphic devices
can help to spotlight important information.
Use
plenty of photos instead of drawings.
Research says that photographs increase recall 26% over drawings. Photographs
suggest reality in the readers mind.
Make
your leaflet or brochure worth keeping.
Give your piece longer life, and longer selling power, by encouraging
the consumer to keep it handy.
Give
your product a first-class ticket.
In many cases, the brochure is your product; the "salesperson"
who represents you to the customer. Make it as good as your finances
will allow. Would you order from a company who left you with a crudely
photocopied leaflet?
Ask
for the order.
What action do you want the reader to take? Write, call, return a card?
Every piece of literature must contain a clear call to action. Tell
your potential customer what to do next.
What
types of images will work ok?
If you are scanning the images yourself from photographs it is essential
to save them in either tif, or eps format. These image formats will
preserve the color and sharpness of your pictures the best. All pictures
supplied for litho printing should be in CMYK format, rather than RGB.
We can convert them for you if you wish, but please tell us first.
If
you are taking photographs yourself, for a leaflet or brochure, the
ideal format for most work is 35mm transparencies or a good quality
digital camera file. Please use a good quality camera and make sure
that the lighting is nice and bright. Photographs taken on a dull, grey
day rarely do justice to the subject. If taking a product photograh,
always use a neutral coloured background, even if we will be "cutting
out" the product. A brightly coloured background will always cause
a colour cast to be reflected onto the product. If in doubt, just use
a sheet of newspaper as a background and we will digitally replace it
with something suitable.
File formats like gif or jpg compress the pictures color and pixel resolution
and this can cause color shifts and blurriness. Since jpg and gif are
the most predominant image formats on the web, it follows that it's
not really a good idea to simply lift an image from someone's website
and use it in your layout. The exception to the JPEG rule is when using
files from digital cameras, which usually save the pictures as high-quality
JPEG's. If in doubt, just send or bring the removable CompactFlash™
or SmartMedia™ card from your digital camera and we will copy the
pictures that you wish to use. Most people do not realise that you can
also download files to the card in a digital camera - it works both
ways. This can be an ideal way of moving files that are too large to
fit on a floppy disk.
If you are doing your own scanning (not recommended if you have an inexpensive
scanner) you should scan your images using a resolution of 300dpi at
the final dimensions you intend to use them so that your colors will
look smooth, and hard objects will look sharp. In other words don't
scan at 300dpi and then enlarge the picture by 200% in your layout program!
This is another reason why you should not use images that are lifted
from websites; they are probably only 72dpi in resolution and will look
very blurry if printed on a printing press. If in any doubt, let Centreprint
scan the images for you. We have many years of experience.
Supplying
artwork
If you are planning to supply your own artwork,
please ask your designer to read out technical
specifications sheet first, to avoid problems and extra costs.
For
help and advice on designing your leaflet or brochure or for an accurate
quotation on any printed work, please contact us. We are also very happy
to advise on photography, or even to produce product shots for you if
your products are small and portable.
Telephone
9 am to 5 pm 01902-402693, Fax us on 01902-491794
Email us at sales@centreprint.co.uk
Or
we will contact you - just fill in our simple enquiry
form for help, advice or a quotation on your requirements. If you
know what you want a price on, please look at our quotation
page
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