A BASIC DESIGN CONCEPT

The One-Third Guide For a one- or two-page piece (each page is one side of a sheet of paper, not the sheet itself ), allow approximately one-third of the space for each of the:

• One-third for headlines and subheads, plus information about ordering or a coupon and your logo—that is, the special way you identify yourself. Frequently, your logo is also the way your name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, and website appear on your letterhead.

• One-third for illustrations, including charts, and captions.

• One-third for general copy; that is, the “body” of the ad. For three pages or more, use the two-page guide for the first page and the last page, and then divide the remaining space so that you use half for copy and half for illustrations. Of course, these are suggested guidelines only, but they will give you a balanced approach to an inviting presentation.

Page Size Guideline Keep your page size 81⁄2_ _ 11_ (letter) or 81⁄2_ _ 14_ (legal size). Either one will fold into a standard No. 10 business envelope and is flexible for multipurpose use.

WRITING THE MANUSCRIPT: THE IMPORTANCE OF FEATURES

AND BENEFITS

The Features/Benefits basics of writing for flyers and brochures are no different from writing for general advertising. The key additions follow.

•The offer. Tell your readers how to order or to get whatever you have to provide. If there are options, explain them. Make it easy. This is not an IQ test for your customers. Make the information complete. Restate the offer, its benefits, and its price. Include toll-free phone, fax, and e-mail, if available. Give the address to write to. List a specific department for information if there is one. Include anything that will expedite a response.

•Picture captions. Copy for picture captions must be orchestrated just as carefully as that for any other element. The illustrations are there to help get across the overall message. Like your subheads, pictures and their captions should tell your basic story all by themselves.

LAYOUT AND DESIGN

With the guidance offered here, you can produce your own manuscript (“copy”). But few of us are given the skill to create our own professional-quality design or layout— that is, the overall visual impression and detailed specifications that make a flyer or brochure work. Unlike newspaper and magazine advertising, for which you can find an existing model to follow, printed pieces tend to be too individualistic for that approach. So use a design studio if you can afford it. If not, you have several other options. All but one are quite inexpensive. However, the somewhat more costly one will also be the easiest for you and give you more time for other things.

•Use an existing promotion as a model. Do this with great care, as you must make certain that the model really fits your needs. Never follow competitors’ highly stylized versions. Not only will your product likely be mistaken for theirs, adding to their promotional impact rather than yours, but you’ll probably hear from their attorneys as well.

•Use digitized design. Use one of the layouts that may be built into your computer program or that are available on inexpensive disks.

•D your own layout. Let your honesty about your skills guide you.

•Use a design studio or freelance designer. No matter where you are located, there are dozens of studios and freelancers close by, eager to work with you if only they know of your needs. For studios, check with your business association and advertisers whose ads you admire. The easiest way to find freelancers is to place a classified ad in the Help Wanted section of your local newspaper. Tell the studios or freelancers what your project is, what your time frame is, and, if possible, your budget for design and final art. If you have no way of estimating design costs, interview a few of the designers first, and then arrive at a figure based on their quotations. Make sure to schedule the interviews. Tell the candidates they will have 1 hour: 20 minutes to present samples with their charges for everything they show; 20 minutes for you to present your project; and 20 minutes for them to ask any questions. An hour should be adequate with the likely candidates. For simpler projects, allow one week for quotations. For more complicated promotions, allow two weeks.

Cost Factors in Working with Outside Designers Whether you work with a freelance designer, a design studio, or an advertising agency, the following factors will affect your costs:

1.Time available to complete the project. Begin by asking potential suppliers their normal time needs for a project such as yours. What you consider a rush project may be their regular schedule.

2.Quality of manuscript. Has your copy been given final approval, or will there be repeated copy changes that will require new layouts? Because you pay for each new version, find out how they are charged.

3.Number of versions required. Many clients want to see two or three (or more) designs from which to choose. For major projects, this is a recommended procedure, but get costs quoted in advance. For routine flyers or brochures, get a single design. It will be the one the designer considered the best of the several he or she attempted before deciding on the one you are shown.

4.Degree of layout “finish.” This refers to how polished the layout must be. There are three generally accepted variations: “rough,” “semicomprehensive,” and “comprehensive.” What these three terms mean varies with everyone who uses them. Have prospective designers show samples of each kind of finish and explain the difference in their costs. With most commercial art now prepared on a computer, the differences may be minimal.

5.Preparation of disk or new

2art. Most designers prefer to do the new art. Let them do it. Not only will you get a better end product, but you will have a happier designer, eager to work with you again in the future.

NOTES ON THE FLYER/BROCHURE CHECKLIST

1.Quotations. The total of all quoted and/or estimated costs accepted from outside suppliers, plus the known or estimated internal out-ofpocket costs. This is the amount given for budget approval in #2.

2.Budget approval. The amount either accepted from #1, or otherwise determined as a fair cost to do the project. If lower than the figure in #1, costs may have to be renegotiated with suppliers or the project modified to fit the dollar allocation.

3.Project approval. Once the project can be done for the amount in #2, a decision on whether the project is worth the cost, no matter how “fair” the individual charges may be.

4.Target audience. Are you trying to force different audiences’ needs and interests into a single piece? You’ll probably lose more in sales than you gain in promotional savings. Do this only if you have no way to reach each group individually.

5.Purpose. How the item advertised will be used and which use—if there are several—is the most important. Every other item on the checklist must keep the purpose in mind. 6.

Overall focus. What the message is to achieve as a whole. The general “feel” of the complete piece.

7.Headline focus. Based on the benefits keyed to the target audience in #4, the one thing you hope will make the reader stop long enough to

learn more about your message. Not the words—leave that to the writer in #10—but the thought!

8.Subhead focus. Sell here if you can. But more important, get across the focus message from #6, even if the subheads are all that is read. If #7 and #8 are a 10-second outline that tells your story, you probably have a winner!

9.Response. What you hope the reader will do after reading the piece. If the answer is “nothing special,” why are you producing the flyer or brochure? Make the offer a major reason to get the advertised product or service from you and to do it now, especially if a competitor’s options are available.

10.Writer. The checklist shows the person who appoints the writer. If certain things must be said in a specific way, let the writer know before he or she begins . . . and whether this is a legal constraint or a management decision. If the latter, management should be willing to at least consider alternatives. Specify whether you want “roughs” or a best effort “finished copy” as first draft. Better yet, ask the writer to produce finished copy, but treat it as a draft. But make sure that you let the writer know you are doing this. Writers tend to get hysterical if it comes as a surprise, after they’re done.

11.Designers. Will copy be written to fit the design, or will the design be based on the copy? If different persons do #10 and #11, make sure that they can work as a team. Good designers often surprise, so do not be hasty to say no to what you may not like at first sight. It is the designers’ job to know how to appeal visually to the targeted audience. They are right more often than they are wrong.

12.Typesetter. For reasonably simple styling, turn to desktop equipment and set your own type. Give your designer samples of your in-house type faces, so the copy can be marked to match. For pieces that require design skill, use professional typesetting, now most often supplied by your designers. Be sure they understand the importance of type legibility! Too often designers sacrifice “sell” for “award.” All other factors being equal, nothing heightens the appeal of your product or service like skillful professional typography! 1

3–14.Photos/Art. Determine who selects, orders, and supervises photography and art. In addition to know-how, it will probably take time. Unless the person doing or given the assignment is an expert not only in art but also in reproduction for commercial printing, this should be discussed with the prepress firm in #16 before any photography or art is ordered.

15.Final disk or “new” art.With desktop publishing, you’ll probably create simpler art and type on your computer. If you are new to desktop, find out how to make your work practical for use by your prepress firm. For outside production, this is the last chance to change anything at relatively low cost. Put every instruction to the prepress firm in writing. If another department or an outside service or agency does this the person who assigned the project goes over it with them. The prepress firm should be present also. Everyone involved must understand the instructions and understand them the same way.

16.Prepress OK. You approve the film by checking its proof. Check everything against the instructions on the hard copy, and check the job as a whole. Better yet, if you work in an organization with film and printing specialists, turn to them for help. It’s their job.

17.On-press OK. Go to the printer for on-press approval. If not, printers will “hold the presses” for approval and take the material being printed to you—at hundreds or thousands of dollars for press and staff waiting time. But what will you do if you want more on-press changes? Wait in your office again . . . and again. You go to the printer!

18.Page size. Take the original layout to the printer as soon as it is done. Ask your printer if a small decrease or increase in the page size can make a large difference in savings. If the printer says yes, and the new size is practical, tell the designers. It’s easier for everyone if they create the design with the new size in mind.

19.Number of pages. For ease of folding, the most economical number of pages usually is a multiple of four (4, 8, 12, and so on). Does deciding on the number of pages precede the creative effort or follow it? Why?

20.Color(s). Selecting colors is subjective, but it’s also an art. Accordingly, have it done by an artist if possible. Just make sure that the color choices work for sales as well as aesthetics. Not too many of us can read white type inside a light blue background or light blue printed on white.

21.Paper stock. Where only a specific stock will do, use it. Where options are possible, check your printer or paper merchant for what they have on hand. For some projects, the use of two different papers may bring dramatic savings. Ask!

22.Film preparation. If someone other than your printer prepares the film, be sure that the filmmaker knows that printer’s needs. Make certain that they speak with each other, not only through you.

23.Printer. Different printers have different capabilities based on equipment, experience, and expertise. Selection of a printer and prepress firm is best done by an in-house specialist, if one is available. If not, become one by asking your associates in other organizations. Visit their suppliers with them if possible. That’s how we learned most of what we know . . . and that’s how we continue to learn.

24.Distribution. Determine what “distribution” means: How many flyers or brochures will be used for mailing, shipping to staff, warehousing, and so on? Requests and orders for your pieces may come from anywhere. But for request approval and filling of orders, a single person must be in charge.

25–30.Mechanical checks. Someone has been assigned to check each of these items before anything may be printed. Make sure that they do check them and sign off in writing. In many organizations, the logo, address, and phone numbers are preprint or in an approved computer file, in a variety of styles and sizes, and must be used from that art, an excellent safety measure, provided that every such logo is dated and thrown out when there is a change. Experience has shown that practically no one really reads logos. Make yourself the exception.

31.Printed samples. Printed samples generally get wide distribution. Set up a system that won’t force you to reinvent the distribution list with every piece produced. As with newspaper and magazine ads, every piece must be coded and a permanent file maintained. I astonished a client by still having a mailing the client wanted to recreate and that the agency had done 15 years before.