The word brochure seems so bland and boring, although, if you design yours well, it definitely will be everything but drab! Brochures are a helpful marketing tool and are amazing for getting your brand out there, if done right. To make sure your brochure is as flawless as possible, see below for six creative tips for brochure design.
1. Know Your Purpose
A brochure is meant to be visually appealing, but it also has a purpose to its recipients. Try not to get caught up in the appearance until you’ve identified what the purpose of your brochure is. Once you know your purpose, you can create the information that you’ll put into your brochure that supports the purpose.
Remember, you want to catch the customer’s eye first then educate them with the information in the brochure. If the information isn’t there, your brochure is essentially useless, regardless of how pretty it looks.
2. Don’t Go Crazy on Fonts
Too many fonts can be overwhelming to the reader. To simplify things, you should have three types of fonts: a heading font, a subheading font and a body text font. Using these three types of fonts, you can play with the style and appearance of the text. Now is your time to get creative!
3. Keep Your Target Audience in Mind
While it would be great if everyone would be interested in your product or service, chances are your target audience will be the only individuals seeing your brochure. Target audiences are very specific, your brochure should appeal to the specific tastes of your target audience.
If you’re having trouble envisioning what the target audience would like to see in a brochure, make a list of their characteristics and qualities. This should help you get in their head space to better understand what kind of visuals they like and information they want.
4. Make Use of Simple Statements
When it comes to brochures, the simpler the better. Simple statements tend to stand out more than complex ones. Keep in mind that you want to get your point across to the customer as quickly and easily as possible, simple statements are the best way to do this.
If you want to add more detailed information, be sure to add it deeper into the brochure. The first thing a customer sees shouldn’t be something that will confuse them or is difficult to understand.
5. Focus on First Impressions
Think about a time when you got a brochure. It likely wasn’t a company you knew about already and you probably judged the company based on your glance of the first page. In addition, the pictures, colours and general appearance of the brochure likely shaped your opinion of the company heavily.
This is how the majority of customers perceive brands, be sure that your brochure will give customers the first impression you want. As an example, a charity doesn’t want to have a glamourous and shiny brochure like a luxury car company would.
6. Use What Works
When designing a brochure, you’ll incur thousands of ideas and concepts in the process. However, not all of these will work for your target audience. Try your best to focus on what works, as opposed to being the most unique and wacky brochure out there.
7. A Picture is Worth a Million Words
Sure, reading can educate people on a lot of things, but nothing is more inspiring and eye catching than a great photo. Often, customers don’t read a brochure through, they rely on the pictures and general appearances before they decide to deep dive into the text. Make sure your brochure is visually attractive enough to flick through!
