LOGO DESIGN

Brochure Design by Rob Kirby

There are infinite approaches to designing your brochure and an endless variety of styles a brochure can take. I’ll leave it up to you to decide what works best for you from a marketing standpoint, but there are a few cardinal rules you should remember for any brochure design that will help it be more successful.

Make it Untossable

Okay, untossable isn’t a word, but let’s face it: most brochures get thrown away. It should be your designer’s main priority to make sure yours doesn’t—at least not right away. By using basic design techniques: placement, contrast and color, your designer should make your brochure stand out and be recognizable right away.

I call this approach the billboard philosophy. You only have about three seconds with a billboard on the freeway to send a message before drivers pass it and move on to the next ad. If you have a simple message with strong graphic design, people will remember yours. Use the same mentality on your brochures, and people are more likely to actually open it and see what you have to offer.

A brochure that’s interesting, shocking, funny or different in another way will always be more successful than one that looks professional but not engaging. Give your designer some room to be creative.

Clear Messaging

Now let’s address the next important point: clear messaging. For brochures, good writing is as important as graphical layout. Many organizations try to cram way too much information into a brochure. Your text ought to focus on just one or two main points. Succinct, clear writing is an absolute must.

From a layout perspective there are a few things you should note also. First, distribute the text throughout the brochure in bite size chunks. It’s easier to follow and people are more likely to read it. Also, limit each line of text to eight words and keep paragraphs down to two or three sentences.

Third, use action verbs and active voice in text. If you don’t know what this means, you probably need to hire a good writer.

It’s a good idea to have your writer and graphic designer work together. That way they can coordinate how to send a unified, targeted message to your audience using text and graphics.

Make it Actionable

Now let’s explore perhaps the most important part: making it actionable. By this I mean leading your audience to do something now that they have some information.

What is your call to action? Do you want them to walk into your store, call your 800 number, log on to your website, refer a friend, etc? If your brochure doesn’t make it clear what you want your audience to do and provide a way they can take the next step, it will be useless. You need to create what I call an Actionable Invitation.

You should design your brochure around that desired action. Consider these questions:

• What colors will draw people to my Actionable Invitation?
• What words, styles, fonts, shapes, and feelings appeal to my target audience?
• What do I want them to see first?
• What do I want them to see last?
• How will the brochure be opened/browsed?
• How personal will it be?
• How direct should it be?

As you can see, there’s a lot to think about from a designer’s perspective. But thinking this way will allow you to produce a valuable brochure that will make a difference in your company.

Roby Kirby writes a design blog for Ducttapemarketing.com.