What is brochure?

The brochure is one of the best ways to present your company. There are tri-fold brochures used to advertise a new product or service that your company offers, or there are bi-fold folders that are used to present your company projects outside or inside it. There are different brochure types, and every type has a different way to be designed. The criterion adopted to design a bi-fold brochure to present your company projects for internal use would be different from the one for external use.

A well designed brochure is the best way to introduce your company to your potential customers.

A brochure has three functions:

what is a brochureInformative function: a brochure is usually used to inform your potential customers with regards to your company. This information is related to your company presentation, a new product or service that your company offers, or a recent change in your company name, etc.

brochure designAdvertising function: a brochure is really important as an advertising tool, which attractively allows you to promote one or more products or services. For further details this function will be analyzed in the section called Advertising aspect.

brochure designersIdentification function: a well-done brochure design allows you to maintain a same criterion through all your company brochures. If this criterion (sometimes called concept) is unified in all the brochure types, it will make your company to be recognized automatically. It will give to your company prestige and credibility. It is important for your company brochure not only have a “concept”, but also to have a logo: a well designed logo is essential for any company, is one of the first steps to start an advertising campaign.

These three functions should have an interaction. The brochure should be the result of that interaction, otherwise it won’t be effective. Maybe one of those stands out more than the others, but this shouldn’t affect your brochure design. For example, if your company launches a new product and decides to have a brochure designed for this launch, the function that will stand out on your brochure would be the advertising one, even though this brochure could have information regarding the product and at the same time represent your company.

But if your company presents a project to another company’s executives, the function that would appear at the first sight in this brochure is the identification one, which makes your company to be seen secure and prestigious, while the advertising and the informative functions would be in a second place.

The brochure is very important when we talk about your corporate image. You have to discuss with your design company what would be the best brochure format to choose, since that choice is decisive if you want your company to be identified in an efficient way. An advertising brochure could be colorful and have big typography, but those characteristics aren’t the right ones for a project presentation, since that project could have a simple, austere and formal brochure design. Morphologically it’s not the same presenting a project with a tri-fold brochure than with folder with inserts. Maybe both options ate right, but you have to decide which one will be more convenient and if it will maximize your benefits.

You could find out more about this morphological aspect in the section called Brochure types, where we’ll be showing you different brochure formats.

In a few words, to plan your company brochure you have to:

bifold brochure designThink about your brochure objective and function.

trifold brochure designStand out one of its functions, like informative, advertising or identification functions.

what is a brochureCheck if those functions are in the brochure, even though one stands out and the others don’t.

brochure designChoose the right brochure format based on its objective.

Cool business cards to inspire you

Business Cards, the Calling Card …with their everyday and ephemeral nature but also as a keepsake - a token of remembrance. This is the most important element of your visual identity. It's the first thing people see when they meet you. Here is a collection of cool business cards to inspire you.

7 Practices in Business Card Design

Good business card have supplying key contact information and piquing my curiosity or jogging my memory about that person

Here then is 7 list of Business Card Best Practices:

1. Have a Credible Email Address -- For example, I have a business card from a Realtor, from someone whom I am presumably going to engage in incredibly expensive transactions that might involve me assuming debt for 25 years or longer. Yet their address? Something very similar to hername1234@comcast.com. Does that instill trust? Do you feel instantly that she's a professional more than capable of handling my large business transactions? Or the chap who forgot the .com at the end of his email address. Not a huge error, but checking for typos is #2...


2. Avoid Typos -- Again, another basic one. Proof read, proof it again, and ask someone else to check for spelling mistakes, grammatical glitches, typos in email addresses or domain names, incorrectly use of punctuation, and whatever else can sneak up and ruin your business card. Remember, this card is a tiny little billboard and every time someone looks at it or pulls it out of their wallet / desk, you want to give the very best possible impression.


3. Don't Include Too Much Information -- Most people get this one right, but one of the cards I received has a company name, a seven word slogan, then a thirty word paragraph explaining what the business is about! I love so-called elevator pitches as much as the next entrepreneur, but I'm just not sure that needs to take over the front of a business card. Oh, and sticking it on the back isn't much better either.


4. Add Some Color - I know, not everyone can afford color business cards, but it's really hard to have an attractive card that's just black mono-font material on a white background. If you're just distributing contact data, that's probably fine, but if you want to have it stand out, to really help convey your unique value to your potential client / customer / JV, then consider a color logo, color rule line, color fill, or photograph. There are lots of splendid - and remarkably inexpensive - choices for great color cards.


5. Leave The Back Blank -- I believe pretty strongly in having the back of business cards blank so they're space for notes. People are going to write notes on 'em anyway, why not give them some space? Further, this means that your fancy slick glossy finish is a problem (people can't write on them) and that any color other than white or a very light yellow or grey for a quality paper stock is a real problem. For about a year I had a card with a lovely dark blue back color, until I realized that every time I gave someone a card they ended up writing on the front of the card since the back was essentially useless.


6. Have Business Cards -- Explain this one to me: four people paid the money and spent the time to come to a weekend conference about online business success, but had to write their name and contact info on a piece of scratch paper because they "didn't have any business cards yet." That's no excuse at all, in my eyes. You can pop into somewhere like Kinko's or use an online service and get a small box of even the most rudimentary business cards for $20. Everyone in business should have an up-to-date business card. Everyone. Yes, even you.


7. And A Special Category For PR Folk... -- There's a special spot reserved for PR folk who think that we care about the name of their agency and its logo. We don't. We care about the companies that they represent and work with, yet I have never seen a card from a public relations person that listed, on the card, the companies they rep. Or a card from the company they work with that lists them as "Public Relations, XYZ Agency" and has the appropriate contact info. Surely this can't be too hard, but my stack of cards includes many, many PR cards that I've had to deface by scrawling "Phillips", "Nintendo", "Microsoft", "Symantec" or whatever other company they work with...

Hopefully can help you to design

Best brochure design for YOU

via : www.allgraphicdesign.com