13 Brochure Design Tips To Create The Perfect Brochure
Unless you live under a rock or some obscure place, you’ve definitely received brochures before. Perhaps while in traffic, the mall, gym, restaurant, or just about anywhere. We’ve all received a brochure at one point or another.
When it comes to a successful brochure, the design is everything. The design of your brochure sure can significantly affect how it performs.
When it comes to brochures, it’s all about the design. A great design will compel your audience to read all about what you’re doing. A less-than-stellar design will end up in the trash can.
Just how, precisely, do you design an incredible brochure? Never fear, we’ve got the ultimate guide to brochure design. At the conclusion of this post, you’ll have all you need to create, design, and print an excellent brochure that drives results and makes a lasting influence on your target audience.
Designing the best brochure can be daunting. Along with all the design factors you usually think about, you will discover a few things that are specific to printed projects. In this article, we’re going to look at ten useful tips for enhancing your next brochure design!
1. Understand Print Specifications
In contrast to designing for screens, you should know precisely what your budget permits with regards to printing. This could affect quantity, size and paper stock and effects.
Begin by establishing specs for the brochure to ensure that as you design and style on the screen ( probably in Adobe InDesign), you are developing just what you need from the start.
Take into consideration paper size, folds and bleed. It’s essential to be familiar with the capability of the printer before you decide to get too deep into the design process. For thick, more pamphlet style brochures, you may also want to think about the assembly of pages.
2. Think About The Audience
The shape and circulation of a brochure design ought to represent the target audience who will be receiving it. Even designs that look like conventional paper brochures could be transmitted digitally with engaging capabilities in a PDF.
If you happen to be passing out a brochure to individuals on the go, take into consideration a size and structure that’s simple to put in a pocket or bag. ( Trifolds and postcards can be excellent options . )
Lastly, for stakeholders or key partners, thicker or more durable brochures with several pages or in much bigger might be suitable.
One last thing to consider with regards to the audience: Take into consideration the age of recipients. Are they younger or older? This can have an effect on type size and overall feel of the design.
3. Everything Should Be High Quality
You can’t get away with low-quality components when creating something for print. A low-res photo or illustration will eventually become apparent fairly quickly. A demo typeface that’s not made for print will break apart.
You should employ high-quality, high-resolution everything to make sure that your brochure design looks terrific. Which includes images, illustrations, icons and logos, typefaces and sharp color palettes.
Even though precise specs will be different a tad bit by project and print canvas and method, normally you want images and design factors to be at least 300 dpi on screen in the size they will be used. ( None of the 72 dpi web images will work. Don’t even attempt. )
4. Use Texture
There are lots of physical features you could incorporate in a printed brochure design. These components can certainly help add perceived worth to your message as a result of high attractiveness to readers.
Take into consideration these effects :
- Foil: Shiny lettering or feature for a particular part of the design
- Spot UV: A unique gloss or matte finish on the part of the design
- Letterpress: Printing that renders an imprint on specific elements of the design.
- Folds: Bi- and tri-folds aren’t the only option; fascinating fold patterns can motivate user engagement
- Paper: Paper types with various textures can set the tone of a project
- Die Cuts: Cutting out parts of the design, so something else shows through creates a send of mystery
5. Call-To-Action
Indeed, one of the components most typically left off in printed publishing is the call-to-action. What is the objective of the brochure? What should customers do as soon as they see or read it?
Make that action very clear to them. Whether it be to go to a particular place for an event, or tear off a card and mail it in or call a phone number, set up what people are supposed to do and motivate that behavior for the duration of the design.
The more pages or panels the design consists of, the more times you will need to repeat the CTA.
6. Think About Display
Exactly where will prospects see or get your brochure?
Produce a style that actually works in that environment.
Just about the most common problems with brochure design are forgetting that lots of brochures fit into some kind of container for display. ( This is extremely common with brochure designs such as tri-folds or maps . )
Make certain vital visuals and messaging are obvious to see and read before they are yanked from the container.
The other crucial consideration is size and scale. How large is the brochure? Just how far away will it have to draw in the interest of individuals who need to see it? Design components ought to be scaled appropriately.
7. Stick to a Visual Theme
White or high color? Single design or numerous versions?
Locate a theme for the brochure design and stay with it. This is true regardless of whether you are thinking about the design from page to page – yes the cover and inside pages ought to adhere to the same theme – or if perhaps you intend to develop several versions of an identical brochure, such as the example above.
A strong theme sets the tone for the brochure and offers a consistent user experience for readers.
8. Proofread
There’s nothing more humiliating – or costly – than discovering a typo or error in a brochure design after it is printed.
Print and proofread the design. After that give it to another person and do it again. You can never proofread your brochure too many times. Errors in print as quite costly.
9. Use High-Quality Paper
The paper choice you make could certainly affect precisely how users receive the design. Furthermore, it could affect the methods utilized in the design process.
As a rule of thumb, heavier stock papers accommodate a lot more flexibility with color and printing tactics. They feel higher priced and amazing to users; however, that doesn’t always necessarily mean the thick paper is better.
Occasionally you might want a lower stock print run, specifically for high print quantities or mass circulation to a broad audience.
When choosing a paper stock and style, think about what it says about the message the brochure is meant to convey. Do they match?
10. Design For Printing
Don’t forget to design your brochure for print. Also, you should use CMYK color, create a bleed as needed, pay attention to how elements will look across breaks and folds.
At times it can be difficult to picture how a complicated print design will look when it actually comes to life. Make a practice copy as best you can – even if you agree to need to cut pages and tape them with each other – to make certain that components and pages in the brochure look as intended.
Occasionally effects like letterpress can look comical on the back, or a die cut can cause a strange space for design components on the complete opposite page. Take notice and try to look for special factors that you should address in the design process so that your print job is successful.
11. Keep It Simple
It can be easy for us to over complicate our brochures. However, a brochure shouldn’t be complicated; it should get straight to the point. So, if you want your brochure to be effective and successful, try to keep it simple. You want to get people’s attention in a short amount of time. So, the simplicity of your brochure design will lead to more people responding to your brochure.
12. Think About Functionality
The functionality of your brochure is important. A brochure should be easy to use and navigate. Potential customers should know exactly what your brochure is about. So, how the brochure looks and feels when you open it is crucial to its success. So, take this into consideration when designing your next brochure.
Conclusion
Designing a brochure can be a lot of fun. However, you have to take into consideration everything that the brochure design process entails.
If you’re not sure, go for a simple design that works within your budget and will help you reach your business goals and objectives.
Now that you’ve learned all of these excellent design tips, you’re going to need a way to print and mail them. Here at LetterHub, we provide businesses with brochure printing and mailing services. Get in touch with us today to learn more.
