How to Design Brochures for a Print Store
When you design a brochure for a print store, you have the power to make customers hungry for more or send them into the hands of competing stores. Print shops have a unique challenge in that different design styles go in and out the door every day. You will want to represent the store brand with its own look and feel, while appealing to a variety of customers. And you will need to expose customers to new possibilities for printed products so you can bring them back for repeat business.
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Instructions
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Jot down the topics you would like to cover in the brochure. You should include the products offered by the store and a short benefit of each. Plan to accompany each item with an image, so keep the text brief. You may include a section about finishing options and about qualities that keep customers coming back, such as customer service and quality guarantee.
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Review the text you've written down. Cross out any mention of "we" or "I," and replace those with statements about "you." For example, delete "we offer photo books in multiple sizes," and instead write, "your friends and family will love it when you replace your Christmas letter with a photo book of this year's adventures!" In this way, you speak to the customers directly and show them the benefits of your product.
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Find sample print pieces that correspond to the topics you've written down. Ask the store manager for samples that have come through the store, and have him get permission from customers to use them in the brochure. If you don't have samples to correspond with enough product types, begin mocking them up on the computer, using stock photos on simple colored backgrounds with interesting titles. Next, consider what types of paper and binding you will recommend to the printer and whether you would like to add pockets or cutouts. Using the brochure as a portfolio of the store's capabilities will help show, rather than tell, the customers what they can do.
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Bring the brochure together into a final file on the computer. Now that you have several sample images of the store's print capabilities, you need a design "wrapper" to tie it all together. Color and textures are great ways to do this. Choose a color from the store logo, or from other marketing pieces, that will become a dominant feature on the cover and play a role on every page inside. To see examples of this, go to YoutheDesigner.com. (See link in Resources.) Try adding color to headers and callout boxes, and fill pages with texture if they are light on content.
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Use common fonts for headers and body copy. Generally, the cover will include a large title that is different in size from the rest of the brochure type. On interior pages, all titles should be the same size and font, and all body copy should be the same size and font. Limit your number of fonts to two or three, but then explore the various uses of that typeface. For example, all-caps headers can draw the eye. Italics look nice in callout text, and bold is a common treatment for subheads.
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Finalize your design file. If any of your graphics go to the edge of the page, be sure to build bleeds --- or a slight enlargement of the page size, usually .125-inch on all sides --- into the file. Make sure all images are color mode CMYK and high resolution. Export a PDF from your design program. Now send the final file to the printer.
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Tips & Warnings
Multipage brochures are easiest to design in page-layout programs, such as InDesign or QuarkXpress.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images
