Guidelines to Brochure Designing

1. Brochure Design
Design Guidelines for You and Your Brochures
Promotion is one of the tools in marketing you can use to create a buzz for your offered products and services. It
would give you more opportunities to reach potential customers. One good example is through handing out
brochures and will also act as an aid to your sales team with their sales pitch. The content of your brochure is
correlated with the brochure design. Design is essential for attracting your customers while content persuades
them to go forward into buying. Make your brochure design should create a lasting first impression to your target
audience.
<Insert sample UP brochure>
Before diving into making your brochure, you should know the purpose of your brochure. Use this as the building
block of the design concept and theme of your brochure design. Keep in mind that your brochure design is
important because this is one of the deciding factors of potential customers if they will take or disregard the
brochure.
Parts of a Brochure
Logo – Your business' name and soul. Put time and effort with your logo because it will carry your brand. Place
your logo in a noticeable position and on the front and back cover of your brochure.
Cover – In the absence of human interaction, this will serve as your substitute sales person. The cover should save
your brochures from going into the trash. This should contain your business’ name, logo and slogan (if you have
any). Avoid having a crowded cover to keep your customers from being confused.
Features/Benefits – This is located inside of the brochure. This is the part of your brochure where you tell your
audience about your products/services.
Photos – Found inside the brochure; provides visual support of the features and benefits. Using pixelated or blurry
images is a big no-no.
Call to Action – Include discount schemes like coupons to give a reason for your potential customers to take action.
Highlight these calls-to-action for it to be seen easily.
Contact information – Usually placed at the back of the brochure containing all the contact information of your
business. (I.e. email address, address, telephone numbers and mailing label)
Typefaces
It’s challenging to choose the right typeface for your brochures – it’s best to use no more than two. To help you
choose, listed are two sets of typeface divided into formal and informal styles.
Formal typefaces are used to establish a sense of authority. They complement the overall design without drawing
attention to themselves. The majority of formal typefaces have serifs because they guide the eye for readability.
The following formal typefaces are usually used in dental, real-estate and academic brochures.
 Century Schoolbook

2.  Century Expanded
 Georgia
 Palatino
 Geo Sans Light
Informal typefaces are most commonly found in restaurant and theme park brochures. These fonts are fun to use
because they give a more casual impression. The idea behind these is to give off the feeling of enjoyment. Included
in this category are:
 Sailor Larry
 Coney Island
 Amperzand
 CAC Pinafore
 Bolton
Color Matches
The colors present in your brochures affect the impression you make. These act as non-verbal cues between you
and your potential customers.
White – This is a neutral background color signifying cleanliness, purity or softness. This color is most commonly
used in hospital brochures.
Green – A warm color that symbolizes nature. The easiest color on the eye, it actually has both a warming and
cooling effect. This is found in nature-related product/service brochures.
Black – The ultimate dark color that represents authority and power. Black is popular in the fashion industry
because it is elegant and stylish at the same time. You will see a lot of fashion brochures using black as their main
color.
Red – A color that signifies power. The most emotionally stimulating color used to grab attention. It is often used in
restaurant and other food-related brochures because it is also an appetite stimulant.
<Insert color wheel image here>
Use color combinations to avoid having a boring brochure design, but be careful of going overboard with the
combinations. Don’t forget to look at the color wheel when deciding on your color combinations. There are three
types of color combination:
Analogous – These are created when three adjacent hues are used together which creates a comfortable look.
Triads – A triadic color scheme uses three colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel, resulting in
vibrant combinations.
Complementary – Colors that are opposite to each other on the color wheel. The contrast can create a vibrant
look, but manage them carefully so the effect is not jarring. Remember not to use complementary colors on your
texts to avoid overwhelming your customers.
The Right Paper

3. Your choices of paper options and finishes should be consistent with your design concept and purpose. The two
kinds of paper that are used are paper stock and card stock. Paper and card stock is measured using pounds and
points respectively. Paper stock is for bulk printing because it has a lower cost. Tourism is an industry that uses
paper stock more for their travel brochures.
Card stock is thicker than paper stock and more durable compared to paper stock, and so has a more high-quality
feel. For businesses who market their products and/or services as premium items, we recommend using card
stock.
After choosing a paper type, select your paper finish for the added effect. Matte has a subtle appeal that suggests
exclusivity and a first-class feel. Gloss gives a shiny finish that helps your designs pop off the page.
5 Types of Brochures
Leave-Behinds - “After Sales Pitch”
Include complete descriptions and benefits of your product and/or service in these brochures, and then give them
out – after meeting with potential customers to make a lasting - and hopefully profitable - impression. Use these
brochures when you want to get the word out there about your business.
Point-of-Sale – “Over the Counter”

4. You encounter these brochures when waiting in line at the bank. One look should be enough for your customers to
know what your brochures are all about. The key to point-of-sale brochure is to have catchy headlines and images
to attract attention. Its purpose is to spark interest so that your potential customers would ask about your
products/services. These types of brochures can be seen over the counter at groceries with information on
products/services typically related to food and nutrition.
Respond to Inquiries – “Answer the Query”
Make these brochures for potential buyers who inquire about your business. This is a great opportunity for you to
seal the deal because the customer is already interested in your product/service. Along with more information, put
a call-to-action like a registration form to help them in the next steps of the buying process. Emphasize on content
over design.
Direct Mail – “Post Box”

5. This type of brochure is mailed out to local residences without prior knowledge if they are your target audience.
State a very attractive offer to your recipients because it’s very easy to be categorized as junk mail and thrown
away. Think of it as a sales pitch on paper, content should be capture and design should attract.
Sales Support Tool - “Sales Kit”
Sales support tool are like leave-behinds but have larger photos, pages and headlines. These are used as sales aids
to help your team deliver their pitch better because of their size. These will keep your audience interested and
help them retain the information after the pitch is delivered.

6. /brochure-printing-design.html
Brochure Design
1. Introduction
a. Importance of brochures
i. Determine the main focus of your brochure - Market? Educate? Entertain?
b. Importance of the brochure design
2. Overall Design
a. Parts of a brochure/layout - logo, body, cover, white spaces
b. Professional Fonts
i. When to use specific fonts – informal vs. formal
c. Color Matches
i. Light vs. Dark
ii. Good and Bad Color Combinations – Analogous, Complementary or Triadic?
d. The Right Paper
i. Paper stock or card stock?
ii. Matte or gloss?
3. 5 Types of Brochures (each with accompanying sample image)
i. Leave-Behinds
ii. Point-of-Sale
iii. Respond to Inquiries
iv. Direct Mail
v. Sales Support Tool
b. Different application of these brochure types
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