A great brochure design is certainly a hugely powerful piece of marketing. There is simply nothing like the feel of a beautifully presented booklet or brochure. The tactile sensations are definitely something that cannot be replicated with digital marketing. Additionally a brochure is a great way to convey a sense of quality. The consumer is able to feel the weight and texture of the paper and linger on the imagery.
Brochures and booklets are also a great opportunity to make an impact. Especially if they are retained by potential customers. They are ideal for high value commodities such as cars, bathrooms, and premium homes. Nothing else has the gravitas of carefully crafted brochure.
So what makes a great brochure design?
Start at the end.
Decide how the brochure will be distributed. Will it be used at an exhibition, within a showroom or sent out in the post? Printed collateral will generally go out of date quickly so having a strategy distribution certainly helps to maximise the effectiveness. It will also help you decide what quantity to print or what offers to publish.
Set the goal for the brochure design
Define what you want to achieve with the brochure. Are you entering a new market or do you have new products to tell your clients about? Do you need to include technical information or is this more of an emotional proposition? What information are your customers looking for and what style would appeal to them? Think about what you want a customer to do once they have read the brochure and make it easy for them to do so.
Consider a page plan
Planning can be really useful for ensuring that you have adequate space. Prioritising content is a very useful tactic and it helps to allow enough room for your content to breath. Ideally the brochure shouldn’t feel crammed full of information. Consider the critical information that you want to get across and ensure it aligns with the goal of the brochure.
Gather your assets.
Brand assets such as logos will probably be the first things on the list. If you have brand guidelines these will also be useful for a brochure designer. Next will be the written content and images. Written content, or copy, should be signed off prior to passing it to the design team. Images should be high resolution and high quality. Remember that images that are generally found on website’s will have a lower resolution. A brochure designer will most likely want the original images.
Brief the designer
You have everything you need to brief the designer. Provide them with the assets and ensure they understand the target market and goal for the brochure. Discuss the page plan and give them time to consider the project. Red Fred Creative prefer to create an initial double page spread and the front cover to set the style for the brochure. The client is then invited to offer feedback and approve the concept before we roll this out. There will be other opportunities for feedback but this method avoids costly reworking.
At Red Fred, we love creating graphic designs for annual reports, brochures and booklets. If you have brochure project you’d like to discuss with us please get in touch.
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