If you would like a brochure designed for your company, it should be a well thought out and calculated process. We will educate you from the beginning of your design process to the final printing. Our goal with all our clients is to create for them a piece of collateral that evokes professionalism.

Getting Started - The first question you need to ask yourself is "What does my company want this brochure to do?" or "What purpose will the brochure serve?" You may have multiple reasons for designing a brochure. Organize them in order of most to least important. Some reasons for a brochure might be for product exposure, direct marketing, business reply as well as many other reasons.

The following guidelines will be useful for both project managers and for us as we work together on your brochure design project. The list provides structure for the project. The project manager can assign work for groups responsible for providing information and the graphic designer knows what type of brochure needs to be designed and what it needs to do.

Content - If your company will be writing their own content, you must take the time to write quality content for the brochure. We can also write content for your brochure. We have professional copywriters who can both research and deliver your message with compelling content.

Brochure content should be written in relation to the purpose of your brochure. Are you promoting or offering special pricing on a product? If so, write content showing these special prices and include them on the cover and the back of the brochure. Most often you cannot control how the reader will receive your brochure, face up, face down or open. If you will be mailing your brochure you can bet it's going to be face down in the mailbox because postal workers deliver mail with the label up so they can see what address to send it to. Making sure your target market reads content is very difficult. Don't provide them an opportunity to miss your most important message. If your message is both on the front and back of the brochure, you increase the odds that your target market is going to see the special pricing you are offering.

Brochure Format - Once the content is completed it becomes clearer as to what size brochure is necessary for your project. Developing content before deciding the format of the brochure eliminates the problem of choosing a brochure format that is either too big or too small for the amount of content you have.

Images - Images and content should be discussed at the same time, for two reasons. First, images also play a role in determining the size of the brochure. Second, if a photo shoot is needed it can be done at the same time as the copy writing. This will save valuable project time.

Design - If the company has a specific look and feel they are going for, provide samples for the graphic designer. This will also save valuable design time. The design of the brochure can be the fastest or slowest part of the brochure project. If the company doesn't have a specific design in mind, we will encourage project leaders to discuss design concepts and look at brochure samples to eliminate designs the company isn't interested in and find what concepts they are more receptive to.

Paper Stock - The most common stock is a white gloss or matte paper. This is always the most affordable if your company is on a budget. However, if you're trying to impress your target market and portray quality, strength or any other feelings, there are many paper styles and weights to choose from that will help portray the image your company desires. We'll show you several of paper stock samples to choose from.

This concludes our brochure design tutorial. We hope we've provided enough information for you to get your brochure project heading in the right direction and gather the information needed to design your company's brochure. If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to contact us. We'd be happy to discuss your project and help you with any additional information you need. We look forward to designing your company's brochure.