10 Things to Consider for your Brochure

There's a lot to think about when creating your company brochure.
So we at childsdesign thought that we'd give you a few pointers to help you along the way...

1. LOOK AT EVERYONE ELSE
What's everyone else in your market place producing? What makes one better than another?
Study other brochures (in and out of your marketplace).
Look at what stands out to you and question that it's the right message that's standing out - is it the information that you need to make you use their services or products.

2. SIMPLE MESSAGE
Keep your message simple. Any image that you use to illustrate your message should be questioned -
does it enforce your message?
does it confuse your message?
Just because you understand the relevance of an image, doesn't
mean that your audience will.

3. MORE OR LESS 
Or less is more. Decide what information is necessary and ensure that there is a story and flow of importance when laying out the pages.
The clearer you are about your message, the better your brochure
will be.

4. AUDIENCE AND TONE
Who are you trying to reach and how do you want to come across to them?
Think about your tone of voice in an copy you produce.
Choose the right fonts and keep your message clear.
Don't use more than 2-3 font styles.
Use size and weight as part of the design to highlight, seperate and enforce information.
Avoid underlining at all costs.

5. PANELS, BOXES AND BORDERS
Use sparingly. Anything ornate will distract. Anything too big and bold will distract. Importance is the important thing - use these elements to create flow and to enforce only what needs to be enforced.

6. WHITE SPACE 
Space helps your information to breathe.
By using space you can draw the reader to something important, move their eye from one point to another and move them around the page stopping at information that you want them to see.
White space affects the overall tone of your layout -
heavy, light, balanced.

7. COLOUR 
Can be applied as ink as well as using the colour of the paper itself. Some of the best brochures have been produced in one or two colours.
Just remember that you're designing an eye catching, information selling brochure - you are not making a coat for Joseph!

8. BIG AND BOLD
Consider how to treat each element of your design. The most important elements should be easily read, but should they really always be bigger and bolder or is there another way to make them stand out?

9. STOCK (or paper)
Paper comes in all colours and textures. Using a recycled paper can say something about your company's environmental policies,
on the other hand recycled paper can increase your costs because it is generally more expensive than regular paper.

10. READ IT! 
Proofread your brochure more than one or twice, and then get someone else to read it too. Don't rush this, spend some time and remember - "Once it's printed, it’s too late".
Always double check contact details - especially telephone numbers and email addresses.
If you're selling and including prices, always, always check these -
a £500 item is a cheap bargain at £50 and hugely over priced
at £5000!

This is only the start, there really is a whole lot more to producing brochures than this. Hopefully there have been a few things here that will give you food for thought when you produce your next one.