? 2005, Marsha Maung Email : marshamaung@yahoo.com Site :
http://www.marshamaung.com Feel free to reprint or publish this
article on your website, ezine, magazine, newsletter?etc. Please
include the bio, links and credit intact.
~~~~ Design is a very subjective thing, therefore, if you ask me
how to come up with a first class design for your marketing
collateral or publishing mediums, it would be very unfair for me
or anyone else to tell you what is a good design and what is a
bad design. But there are certain elements and principles that
we should look for in a design to determine whether the design
and layout of the material will be able to carry the message
across effectively to the readers and your potential market. The
main aim of every design material related to advertising or
promotion is either to sell something, promote something or
brand a company.
Keep the design and layout simple and clean The more cluttered
or messy the layout and design is for your marketing collateral,
the harder it would be for your customers to find the important
stuff. So, don?t overcrowd the design of your marketing
materials. First and foremost, it should be kept clean and very
simple. Yes, we all want to fit as much information as we can
into the design but hey, keep the purpose of the design of the
marketing stuff in mind. You want to design a novel or design
something that sells.
Design Colors If you have a set of corporate colors (like the
colors that you use on your logo, letterhead, envelopes?etc),
keep to the same colors in your design. You should present a
very simplistic, unique, corporate, professional, consistent
image, not a haphazard one. How can anyone rely on you when you
have that kind of image, right? It?s best that you not use too
many colors for your design. And another important point about
designing marketing materials is this; avoid using all the
colors of the rainbow in one design! You?re not trying to
confuse your customers, you?re trying to make it easy for them
to find information, attract them and urge them to buy something
from you! I would say using 2 or 3 main colors from your
corporate color for the design is good enough.
Fonts There are tons of free fonts (quite incredibly attractive
ones at that) that you can find off the Internet for the design
of your marketing stuff ? but the sad news is that it?s not
always possible to use all of them. Keep to one single font for
the content in your design, and if you wish to, you can use a
different (a bolder and louder font) for the headings and titles
in your design.
Images in your design Unlike web publishing, using images in the
design of your brochures, flyers, menus, company profiles is
always a good idea. Enticing your customers with useful pictures
or diagrams that illustrates your point or including pictures of
your products in the design of your marketing stuff is
encouraged. Be careful and weary of using stock photos from the
web for your marketing material. One, the resolution of such
images (those that you can get off the Internet) is never good
enough for printing purposes. Two, you?ll get in trouble with
the people who actually owns the rights to those images. So, if
possible, if you want to use pictures or illustrative images in
your design, it?s best to either get the pictures for the design
yourself (with your digital camera) or you should just purchase
it.
About the author:
Marsha Maung is a freelance graphic designer and copy writer who
works from her home in Selangor, Malaysia. She loves nothing
more than blowing bubbles in the park with her 2 kids, Joshua
and Jared. She designs apparel and premium items at
http://www.creativejooz.com and is the author of "Raising little
magicians", and the popular "The Lance in freelancing". More
information can be found at http://www.marshamaung.com
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