Brochure design agency: things to consider
A brochure is a different beast to a leaflet, report or magazine. A brochure tends to be an asset that details a company’s offering, service or product range. It’s more likely to be printed as something that you might leave with potential clients or hand out at exhibitions. Kinda old school, but still relevant.
That is not to say a brochure cannot be digital (a PDF, for instance) or a PowerPoint presentation, but for the purposes of this article, we are staying old school and we are going to discuss a printed item.
There are situations when a printed item – that you can hold in your hand – has more impact than a digital asset. It may be easy to offer up a QR code or point a customer to a webpage, but in a face-to-face situation, a brochure in the hand can be worth more than a long-forgotten link.
Many digital brochures, particularly PDFS, are still designed as if they are going to be printed items. This is wrong. It is time to shake off these traditional approaches when designing a digital document. I cover that in other articles.
For now, we shall immerse ourselves in brochure land.
Define what you want it to do
A typical enquiry that comes into Navig8 is along the lines of ‘We want an eight-page brochure that explains our service, the process and benefits. Can we have an estimate for printing 1,000 copies please’? Yes of course, and we duly put in an estimate as with most new business approaches we are up against other agencies.
But to produce the best results for a client we need to question the content, understand the audience, read and understand the process and benefits, as an eight-page brochure may not be the best format to elicit the best response.
What are the best responses a client can ask for? A sale? A call from the sales team or direct purchase. These questions and many more are key to understanding what you want the ‘user to do’. It sounds obvious but it is often neglected when we are approached.
Format and content
Once we understand what you want the brochure is trying to accomplish and what you want the user to do, we need to look at the content. Some clients supply the content and that’s it, get on with it. That’s fine, but in our experience, a professional, outsider's view can bring a very different vision to the content and how it is delivered. Clients know their own business, but new customers may not, especially when dealing with industry terms or unfamiliar language.
For instance, an accountant might be highlighting IR35 issues and not everybody knows what the implications of IR35 are. Perhaps it would be better to say ‘We will advise you on best practices when dealing with freelancers and contractors and the tax issues that may arise’.
We will review the content and advise on the best way of communicating to your audience. It comes at a cost, but you may be surprised at how little that cost is.
Now we know what you want the brochure to do and what the content is, we can advise on the format. With the greatest respect, clients tend to be a bit verbose when it comes to talking to potential customers. Unless you are buying a rocket of a stately hall, eight pages of A4 is a lot and most people won’t read it.
We’ll draw out the important messages and devise a format that presents the content in the most engaging and memorable way.
Production: understanding costs and delivering benefits
The format should fit the content and purpose and with a deep knowledge of paper and press sizes, there are so many more options available. An interesting format can bring a simple flyer to life, by die cutting into a shape for instance or an unusual fold can turn a brochure into a masterpiece.
When considering different formats, costs and usability are key. For small print runs, we may even consider hand finishing.
Some examples of interesting formats we have produced are:
An A2 sheet concertina folded to 420 x 99mm
An A4 document with short covers and inner pages falling halfway across the page (105mm x 297mm)
A ‘webcard’ 148mm x 55mm, 4 pager
We have the experience of gauging the level of content, the print run and the right production to maximise the budget and deliver something truly memorable.