1. How Many Ways To Fold
We all know what the average brochure or flyer looks like with the two folds but did you
know there are many other designs such as the z folding cards and the alpha type of card?
In fact, if you look on the internet there is a site where someone explains that from making
their own birthday cards for friends and relatives the hobby has developed into the position
where she is making about thirty different shapes of cards and still growing!
Everyone who has ever started a business from grass routes from a small shop to a window
cleaning round or a cake delivery service to organising a fete will almost certainly have
designed and had some brochures printed.
They are still one of the most cost effective ways to advertise and even big established
companies such as car hire companies and theme parks rely heavily on brochures to
promote their business.
The forerunner of the brochure some hundreds of years ago might have been the town crier
who would walk the streets shouting out the special offers at the market that particular day.
Believe it or not, exactly the same happens in many Middle Eastern countries today and that
includes every town and village in Turkey.
In these countries today there are loud speaker systems which the head man uses to
announce everything from a special sale of tomatoes to a reminder that electricity bills
should be paid or that the water mains will be cut off for a few hours.
The reason for the audio messaging is partly to do with illiteracy and there is obviously no
point in sending out informational brochures if half the population cannot read.
The Z card is one of those very neat folded cards that from end on looks like the letter Z. It is
a brochure with a bit of a twist and the print and fold is managed at the printers at no extra
cost to the standard fold.
Looking different is all part of trying to get the message across no matter what the product.
It is always worthwhile spending plenty of time thinking carefully about what message you
are trying toget across and how to do it in the most positive way. The trick with any sort of
brochure is first of all to have the right paper.

2. Should it be matt or gloss, card or paper?
The next difficulty is having the right amount of information without overloading it.
Sometimes less is best and any good website designer can tell you how important white
space can be and how little tricks of the trade like drawing the eye upwards and right can
help keep the interest onto the following page.
A perfect brochure is one that is so interesting it keeps the reader interested even if there is
not a hope in hell of them buying the product.