I have two pieces that arrived in an envelope sitting on my desk. It came from a national organisation offering expertise, support and motivation for business owners. One is a personal letter. The other piece is a brochure, inviting business owners and company directors to sign up.
Saying this may seem a bit tough, but it really looks like the design team went to great lengths to figure out how to create a brochure that is as difficult to read as they could. Seriously. The strong burgundy stock combined with the black copy is VERY difficult to read. While I am only guessing as an outsider looking in, my guess is that it was a complete waste of money. The cost of design, copywriting, printing and postage for this brochure would have been considerable.
This type of graphic design madness is very costly - yet is easy to avoid if you remember your audience and cast a critical eye over what is being done.
The number ONE rule of brochure design: remember your audience.
While SOME of the recipients of this brochure will be youngsters, MOST are going to be aged over forty. The will be very busy people. While a number will have excellent vision, the majority will be like me - oldies who wear spectacles. And as someone in this category, I can tell you that reading this document was a real challenge.
So, with that in mind, a simple, clean design with black text on a white background is going to be safer than the design that was used.
The tragedy is, many business owners who would have gotten a lot from signing up would probably have made an effort to read it - and then given up. Or put it in the 'later' basket. And as you know, 'later' rarely happens in direct mail!
True, the burgundy IS a strong colour. When laying on a desk, there is denying that it is easy to see. HOWEVER... all the bright, impact-full colours on the planet won't help one bit if the target market can't read the sales pitch! And that's the problem with this piece. The black text on the burgundy paper is nearly impossible to decipher.
I don't know the guidelines for this job, but the other reason why it may have been used is that the visual identity of this organisation includes burgundy. Not that you would know from this brochure, as the logo is too hard to see against the sea of strong, dominant color.
The lesson? Use colour by all means. But be sure the colour doesn't override your message. As any graphic designer worth their salt will tell you, colour must SUPPORT the message. There are many ways to include colour to make a brochure stand out, but it must ALWAYS make the content easier to read, not more difficult.
Saying this may seem a bit tough, but it really looks like the design team went to great lengths to figure out how to create a brochure that is as difficult to read as they could. Seriously. The strong burgundy stock combined with the black copy is VERY difficult to read. While I am only guessing as an outsider looking in, my guess is that it was a complete waste of money. The cost of design, copywriting, printing and postage for this brochure would have been considerable.
This type of graphic design madness is very costly - yet is easy to avoid if you remember your audience and cast a critical eye over what is being done.
The number ONE rule of brochure design: remember your audience.
While SOME of the recipients of this brochure will be youngsters, MOST are going to be aged over forty. The will be very busy people. While a number will have excellent vision, the majority will be like me - oldies who wear spectacles. And as someone in this category, I can tell you that reading this document was a real challenge.
So, with that in mind, a simple, clean design with black text on a white background is going to be safer than the design that was used.
The tragedy is, many business owners who would have gotten a lot from signing up would probably have made an effort to read it - and then given up. Or put it in the 'later' basket. And as you know, 'later' rarely happens in direct mail!
True, the burgundy IS a strong colour. When laying on a desk, there is denying that it is easy to see. HOWEVER... all the bright, impact-full colours on the planet won't help one bit if the target market can't read the sales pitch! And that's the problem with this piece. The black text on the burgundy paper is nearly impossible to decipher.
I don't know the guidelines for this job, but the other reason why it may have been used is that the visual identity of this organisation includes burgundy. Not that you would know from this brochure, as the logo is too hard to see against the sea of strong, dominant color.
The lesson? Use colour by all means. But be sure the colour doesn't override your message. As any graphic designer worth their salt will tell you, colour must SUPPORT the message. There are many ways to include colour to make a brochure stand out, but it must ALWAYS make the content easier to read, not more difficult.
About the Author:
There is lot to think about when you plan your brochure design for your business. The team at Crockford Carlisle have many great ideas on making a persuasive business brochure and we recommend you vist their site and read their marketing ideas bank.
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