Making Brochures: Customized Advertising For Your Business

When you are looking to introduce your business to people who might not know you or your representatives personally, making brochures is one of the best ways to make sure that they come away with the right impression.  You can think of the brochures as the smallest and most portable way to get word out there about you and your services, and, as such, it is very important that you put the time and care into them that is necessary.  Whether you are doing the brochure yourself from scratch or you are simply giving instructions to your own brochure designer, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind.

1.  Think of a theme

A brochure is small, and because it is small, you have to keep in mind that it needs to be clear.  A brochure that is confused or sends a conflicting message is something that you want to avoid.  Try to think of a one word impression that you want your brochure to make, whether that is "dignified," "worldly," or "creative."  Some companies will actually print out a series of different brochures, and although they all contain the same information, it will have a different mood or theme.

2.  Make good use of your whitespace.

The whitespace of a brochure is essentially an area that doesn't have anything in it, no matter what color the space actually is.  While some whitespace is necessary and keeps your brochure readable, other types of whitespace will leave your brochure looking unfinished or sloppy.  When you are making brochures, make sure that you sketch out a few different layouts.  These small designs, called thumbnail sketches, are a great way for you to figure out how you want your brochure to look.  You don't have to put all the text in, simply label each block of text with what needs to go there.

3.  Include lots and lots of pictures

Nothing puts people to sleep like a brochure that is primarily text.  You'll find that no matter how creative you are with it, a brochure that is only text is difficult to read, and chances are you'll find that people will put it down rather quickly.  Whether you put pictures of yourself or your product, or even of your office building on it, make sure that you have something to break up the lines and lines of text.

4.  Spell-check and proofread.

It sounds basic, but you'll find that by making sure that you go over your brochure a dozen times before it heads to the printer and by making sure that fresh eyes see it as well, you'll be much happier with the end result.  A printer will typically not redo something that is not their fault, so always double check.   Even professionals can leave in embarrassing typos, so go over your text with a fine-toothed comb.  When you are making brochures, you can never be too careful, so think about reading them out loud to make sure that the text sounds good, as well.