Print Design TipsTips and Information About Printing

In part one we covered why books are still the main form of dissemination of information – more so than the internet, TV or radio and any other form of printed media.  Books have credibility and in-built authority which can be tapped into by producing booklets – a cut-down version of a book which contains nuggets of information and allows you to mix your sales message into the content.

Here we continue with Booklet Design 101.

A guiding principle is to add value to your reader and their investment of time in reading what you wrote.  Provide information which is practical and usable by the reader.  A good example is a home improvement company – give advice on how to fix a shelf; a garage – car care; a doctor – healthy living or how to give up smoking.

Maintain the “uniformity of message” and this means being consistent throughout the booklet – a simple way of doing this is to ensure you use the same images throughout the booklet or if you are using different ones, that you ensure they are all to the same consistent quality, subject and format.  If you use diverse images and formats, you will detract from the impact and allow the booklet to deteriorate into a patchwork of ideas which will become easily lost, not least because you will easily lose the attention of the reader.

It’s a good idea to allow for some space for your reader to make some notes – a “jotting pad” at the end of each section or page,   By doing this you are personalizing the booklet to your reader and this is especially effective if they make use of the invitation – people rarely dispose of a document upon which they have written some notes!

As with any business literature, make it easy for a reader to find your contact information.  It may not be possible for you to have your telephone, email address or mailing address on every page but it is certainly practical to try or to have contact information repeated throughout the booklet.  Do not ignore this because when a reader encounters a piece of information in your booklet, they are likely to experience a “Eureka” moment – that is, they understand how your information can provide a solution to an issue they have – when that happens, they will want to contact you quickly.

Though a booklet may not be a purebred sales document (although it can be), this does not mean that you abandon marketing principles – as a reader goes through the booklet, there should be calls to action provided.  Examples are: an electrician – make sure you perform an annual electrical equipment safety inspection; medical – contact your doctor for a cholesterol test on a regular basis; garage – make sure you rotate your tires every 7,000 miles.

There are many other issues to cover but just because the document is a booklet and not a full-blown book does not mean you should skimp on the creativity or thought behind developing it.

We will continue with Booklet 101 in Part 3 with more hints and practical tips for you to improve the effectiveness of your efforts.

The Internet has revolutionized all aspects of life around the globe but it is not unique is a technology in creating such a paradigm shift in mankind’s development – before the Internet, there was the book.  Even before the invention and distribution of the printing press, books held great power over those who could read them, and they in turn held massive influence and power over those who could not.  Books are the main mechanism for disseminating knowledge and information and no matter how hard other media tries to replicate or surpass this success, the alternatives always wind up competing against a front-runner that has dominated knowledge and information for centuries.

Form and content are crucial to getting your message across, and while form may not improve the content, failing to pay attention to form may simply result in your message never being heard.  Form is crucial to getting your message and information read, understood and acted upon.  Remember AIDA from sales courses – Attention, Interest, Decision, Action – form is involved in all four stages while content acts as the driver for each of these buying stages.

The humble booklet is a miniature book, usually of a smaller size, far fewer pages and using materials which are of lesser quality or longevity than we normally associate with a bound and printed book.  Nevertheless, a booklet conveys the same authority as many publications and has some distinct advantages over a brochure which is more closely associated with sales, marketing and selling generally – a book conveys information and is authoritative – a booklet capitalizes to a lesser extent on that credibility.

Booklets can also be smaller than a regular book and certainly a brochure – this is highly attractive to prospective readers who may come across the booklet precisely because it is of a size which makes it easily stashed in a pocket or purse and lends itself to being read on the train or during a lull in an otherwise busy day.  Bear in mind when you are designing your booklet to use a size of paper that complies with your prospective reader’s requirements – small but not too small so it can be read easily enough and there are no barriers to simply pocketing the booklet.

Booklets can be used as a simple selling tool, but they carry with them the credibility of a book, so you can use the booklet to enhance your own credibility.  Look to mix your sales message with educational and practical advice so the booklet becomes more rounded and informative to readers. This makes the possibility of the booklet being referred back to by the reader, or being passed on to other readers more likely and even better, motivating the reader to contact you for more information and help.

When putting a booklet together, you are not creating a work similar to “War and Peace” or “North and South” – you are summarizing information and encapsulating it into the booklet.  This necessitates a thorough understanding of the use and importance of headlines and sub-headers.  A headline is there to get the reader to read the first line, the first line to read the first paragraph, etc, etc, but making sure that the booklet is broken up into bite-sized portions of information within its body is vital and for this you need to make good use of headers.

This article will continue in Part 2

Using images and designs in your document can make or break the impression it creates.  With the advent of desktop publishing, anyone with a printer and computer felt they could now take their monthly newsletter in-house and wow their staff  and colleagues with computer know-how.  Unfortunately, many have felt that they can add some X-Factor with clients and prospects and this is a one-way road to disaster.

Clip-art has its uses but client facing documents and any document which is being used outside of a business is not one of them.  Clip-art is cheap and can be fun when it is being used for the club newsletter or to announce a family event such as a house move or a party.  Clip-art has no place in a document you seriously expect a potential customer to pick-up, read and then contact you with the intention of doing some business.

Clip-art is free for a reason – it doesn’t sell your document, your business or your services and products.

Using photographs is a double-edged sword.  Good photographs and images are usually not free; many images have a copyright restriction attaching to them and if you do not own the rights to the image or have permission to use it, you are in for a legal shock.  Using photographs without the copyright holder’s permission can lead to legal action for damages and compensation.  It can even lead to you having to go through the expensive exercise of throwing your document away in the trash because you cannot get permission at all.

Very embarrassing and not recommended – always make sure you have permission or own the image.

If you are taking the photographs yourself, makes sure they are of appropriate quality.  Nothing speaks “amateur hour” more than a slightly out of focus shot or one where the subject is not properly positioned.  Using a photograph of a product is important because this is establishing the visualization in the mind of the reader – it pays to take the time to get the product positioned in the proper setting and to ensure you are capturing the detail necessary.

It is usually cost effective to hire a professional photographer to perform the shots for you.  Getting the photographs wrong may render your entire document ineffectual and force you to incur extra expense and delay in getting the shots done again.  Frequently, design projects are up against deadlines and tight schedules, and making this mistake leads to additional costs elsewhere in the production process which will more than outweigh the cost of a professional.

You must also ensure that the images produced are available in a format which will allow your print and design partners to manage and manipulate effectively.  Poor or incorrect resolution, ill-lit images or incorrect format can all lead to a significant deterioration of the finished product and may render them unusable when it comes to the final production run.  This just underlines how important it is to make sure that everyone involved in the creation of your document knows what they are doing and what is expected from them as well as the consequences of missing deadlines.

It is the words which are the primary factor in any document, especially for business or educational purposes.  Sure, a picture can paint a thousand words but it is the words which tell a reader where to find the image in the document (the contents and appendices), what it means and what context (the caption) and what it can do to solve whatever problem or issue the reader may have.

Do not let the design tail wag the word dog!

There are two aspects to the document text – the words.

The first is that the actual word content itself must be pertinent and of a written quality that leaves the reader in no doubt that it has been crafted by someone who understands the subject matter and English.

A simple example will suffice to make the point.

“a simple egzample will suffix to make the points”

How about this:

“Weird processor diction Aries should knot bee relayed on”

In short, you need someone with an excellent command of English, but this then brings forth the issue about technical knowledge and experience on the subject matter.  A writer may be able to put your thoughts and actions into excellent English, but will a writer with no engineering background be able to expound on the detail of Positive Vane Technology and use in Industrial Pumps?

The second issue is the typography – this deals with how the print is laid out, the font size and style, in essence anything that affects the appearance and ability to read the words which have been formulated.

Some fonts are a definite “No-No” when it comes to business documents – the weird and wonderful “Wingdings” or cursive scripts that are difficult to read and not effective in attracting prospects to spend their precious time in finding out what you have to say. If you are targeting people over 40, it is absolutely imperative that you are using fonts and font sizes which are easy to read.  This is not being ageist, simply practical because by the mid-40’s, most people are finding that they cannot read as well as they used to, it’s a simple fact of life.

The bottom line is that the words must dominate.  It is the words which carry your actual message and how to contact you to take the discussion forward and out of the document and into a face-to-face meeting or a telephone call to place an order.  The use of graphic and photographic elements are to help to attract the attention of the reader so they are enticed into the text of the document – no-one reads a passage and then looks at the photograph, they read the text because they have already looked at a photograph!

You must back up your use of graphical design imagery by appropriate use of headings – headlines and sub-headers.  A headline has one objective – to get the reader to read the first line of your piece.  That first line has one objective – to get the reader to read the first paragraph, and that first paragraph is used to suck the reader into the entire piece.  It’s a simple rule but easily ignored, but you can give your written work greater structure by using a headline and then splitting the piece up using sub-headers which in turn will help your document users.

Novice designers, and this includes those who are finding themselves tasked with a design project for the first time, are frequently floundering when it comes to some of the basics of print design.  New technology is making the task of putting together brochures and newsletters all the more easier, but it is the slight hint of amateurism which can detract from an otherwise highly professional looking document.

Here are some of the issues we frequently encounter when being asked to help out.

Make Sure You “Bleed”

The bleed is that part of the document around the edges which the printer uses to manipulate the document – imagine you need a space at the edge of a photograph which allows you to hold the photo – a printer uses the bleed to correct design inaccuracies and optimize print production.

You may sometimes have to dig around your software package to find the bleed settings but it is essential you make sure they are set at an appropriate bleed.  Typically, a 3mm is fine for most pieces of work.

Use Overprinting if the Budget is Tight

When the budget is constrained, it is usual for a client to restrict themselves in the use of color.  This can lead to a dull or lifeless finished product but many people, including printers and designers, forget that most of our color spectrum is actually a compound of three primary colors.  That being the case, try using overprinting to create great color effects using only the minimum of colors, you only need 2 colors to make 3!

Using this technique you can create great image effects using photographs and other images, so don’t limit yourself.

Expand the Mind and Think Outside the Paper

Our minds will fill in information we expect to see, so play around with the print subjects at the borders of the paper and even though most of the image or text may be missing, the reader’s brain will complete the gaps.

Here’s an example of how the human mind can do this – try reading the following:

“The hmaun barin si ecelxlnet ta flinlig gpas ni ttex”

You should be able to read, “The human brain is excellent at filling gaps in text.” – as long as the starting and ending letters are in the right position, it doesn’t matter what order the other words are in – we can still read it.

Don’t Be a Slave to Standard Paper Sizes

Using a standard paper size can stifle creativity and the impact of your finished document.  How about using a square paper shape to create an interest, especially effective for booklets?  If you are looking to motivate and persuade people to take your document away with them, use a small paper size so it fits comfortably in their pocket or cane be stashed quickly and easily.

Don’t restrict yourself when it comes to getting your project off the ground, there are lots of different ways in which you can inject interest and vitality into any document.  It does require a desire and ability to let go of some preconceived notions and think, quite literally, outside of the “box”, or at least, the sheet of paper!