Brochure Design 101: 8 Simple Ways to Make An Effective Brochure

Whether it’s for simple business promotion or to announce the launch of a new product, effective brochure design plays an important role in projecting the identity of the company/product. An effective brochure should be able to catch people’s attention and make them stop to read what you have written. It helps if it looks good, but apart from being aesthetically appealing, it should also do its job well – inform.

If designed improperly, even the best idea can fail miserably because no one reads anymore. Here are 8 ways how you can make sure that your brochure design doesn’t suck:

1. Good Brochure Design Uses Legible Fonts

This means that it shouldn’t be too tiny or difficult to read. Your audience shouldn’t need to squint their eyes and get a magnifying glass just to see what you’re trying to say. And the font should also not be too big such that your brochure looks like an eye chart. The text should be in between these two extremes, easy to read but not boringly small. Here are some basic hints:

Note: Size matters – Aim for 10-12 point type size at least and even bigger for titles and headings if possible because they grab attention and add value to the visual impact. Headings help break up the text into digestible chunks.

2. Your Company Brochure Should Have Few Fonts

Be stingy with your font collection especially if you’re a beginner designer because using more than 2-3 different types could make your design look messy and thrown together without any real design consideration or planning. Stick to one main typeface (serif or sans serif) for body text and perhaps another complementary typeface for headings.

3. Use Your Company Logo on Every Page of Your Product Brochure

Wherever your logo appears, it should be visible enough for people to recognize at least 2 feet away from their face. So make sure you use big and bold logos as well as those which stand out from the rest of your brochure’s visuals (colorful logos work best).

It doesn’t matter what color or size your logo is as long as it captures attention and adds value to the overall design of your brochure. Plus, using the same logo on every page makes it look like an official company publication which improves brand recognition and memorability.

4. Mix Up Typography Carefully

Typography is the art of arranging typefaces, especially for design purposes. Designing with fonts means that you’re making them work together to achieve a certain goal – visually appealing results (or at least your intention).

If you stick to one font alone, everything will look monotonous (and boring) because there’s no variety in styles or sizes. Using different colors on each page can make things more interesting but only if you do it right! You need to learn what works best with what first before doing this otherwise it’ll be like throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing what sticks.

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5. Use Subheads to Break Up the Text in Your Digital Brochure

Too much text can make any brochure look like a school textbook (boring!) so you need to break up the text into smaller chunks which should ideally be no longer than three lines.

This helps people scan your brochure faster because they’ll know exactly where each section starts and ends, giving them an idea of what interests them before they decide whether to read on or move on. Just remember to use contrasting colors (different from your main font color) for subheads because that’s how they stand out best, otherwise, everything will just blend in together into one big blob of design mess. 

6. Use Page Borders Sparingly

Page borders can be used to make your brochure design look pretty but it is easy to overdo this. Like most aesthetic effects, page borders can add or take away from a brochure’s visual appeal so use them with care and discretion because too many borders look messy and unfinished rather than good.

Less is more when it comes to embellishments if you want your audience reading your content instead of staring at another piece of art. Unless that’s the goal then go ahead!

7. Use One Theme for Your Entire Online Brochure

Even if you’re just designing a simple one-page flyer, you still need to have the main theme – an overall purpose that ties all the elements together into one cohesive unit. This makes it easier for people to figure out the purpose of your brochure right away, making them want to read on without scrolling through unnecessary information.

A unifying theme can be anything – it could be the use of color or your company logo, depending on what you choose for your design’s focal point.

8. Ensure Readability by Maximizing Spacing

Brochures are meant to be read so always keep this in mind when designing yours otherwise no one will bother trying because they’ll find it visually exhausting. Layout matters too because certain layouts don’t accommodate text very well at all (lots of tiny words crammed together is not good).

Make sure that there’s enough visual breathing room between each line, between paragraphs, and even between pages. It may make your brochure design seem a little less “busy” but that’s a good thing because it makes reading easier on the eyes.

Conclusion

There you go, simple ways to make an effective brochure. Do this and you are going to reap the benefits of an effective marketing tool!