Quality brochure design is used by business in every industry to promote different brands, services or products. The advantage of a brochure over other marketing pieces is the printable area. The size of a brochure allows you to include more information and pictures to get the word out about your business.
Prior to the brochure design, essential information will need to be discussed with your graphic designer. If you already have an established corporate identity, you must inform your designer of your company colors, fonts, type treatments etc. You likely have a brand standards guideline at this point and now is the perfect time to provide this to your designer.
Now you will need to determine the purpose of your new brochure design. Here are a few questions you should ask yourself.
- Are you looking for a brochure to advertise or market a product/service?
- Do you want to educate or inform your readers of something?
- Is this brochure for entertainment purposes only?
- What mood or tone do you want the brochures to give?
- Who is your target audience?
- Are you looking to design something modern, formal, conventional, sleek or professional looking?
We suggest that you collect and study brochures from other businesses. Determine which elements you like and dislike throughout the brochure samples. This will help you with ideas and direction for you own layout.
Now it’s time to start gathering the text for your new brochure design. Decide on the necessary information, and arrange the components of your brochure in order of importance. Sometimes it is easier to do a mock up of a brochure to see how your text will layout. Remember, keep it simple. Include only what is necessary to get your point across. Once the text is provided to your designer, they will have a better feel for the amount of panels that will be needed.
Choosing images for your brochure is another important step. Usually the client will provide original images to the designer or stock imagery is purchased. If you are choosing stock imagery the designer can usually help you find good quality images. One thing to remember with images is resolution. All imagery should be high resolution which is at least 300 dpi. If you use low resolution images, your results will be soft, blurry, pixilated photos.
Now that text and images have been provided you are ready to decide the layout of your custom brochure. There are many options available for brochure design. There are standard layouts as well as unique designs which may include die-cuts or unusual folding. Your best decision here is to have an open conversation with your designer about your ideas and budget so they can work something out for you. Some print jobs will cost a lot when you start stacking in design rich features.
Decide how you plan to distribute your brochure. Will you be handing out the brochures or mailing the brochures? Size, paper, color, trimming, folding, special cuts and mailing will greatly affect the overall cost of your brochure. Discuss budget with your designer this will help determine your design and mailing options. Your designer can get quotes from various printers so you can see your options.
Once a final layout is decided the designer can begin putting everything together for the client. Usually a designer will send the client a few drafts before everything is finalized and ready for print. Remember to proofread all the text before printing.
Finally it’s time to go to print. The designer will send all your files to the printer. Within a few days you will receive a proof. A proof is your final chance to make any edits to you custom brochures. Once you give the ok to the proof you are going to print. Now you just have to wait for the final brochure printing to be delivered.
