Site Schemes

Brochures can take many forms. They can be as simple as an informational advertisement or as complex as a product catalog. They can become a gift or contain a gift to potential customers: a calendar, promotional CD sleeve, free product samples, or even nostalgic photographic “albums.” Whatever form they take, brochures speak to your customers for you for weeks, months, even years later.

The most important aspect of brochure design is the impression of your business it leaves on your potential customers. During the twelve years I spent at the National Park Services’ Interpretive Design Center, one debate we repeated was one that revolved around whether museum exhibit, sign, or brochure design should be decided before its content. Should text be written to fit a predetermined structure?

At times projects need to be “designed” to sell an idea. Sometimes we stumble across a compelling ad,

brochure, or sign that causes us to want to create something similar that is ours. Very often a piece has to fit the overall design of another piece as when designing a newsletter where the same design is reused each month.

When a beautiful, innovative design is created without knowing its intended message, time and money can be wasted. It can take extra time to fix a design when its content doesn’t fit. Sometimes an important point has to be minimized to fit a pre-existing design. Very often the original design is altered beyond recognition and is no longer beautiful, just innovative. More time costs more money and sometimes innovative designs cost more to produce. The worst scenario: the job has to be completely redone.

The first step to leaving a good impression of your business with potential clients is to decide on the brochure’s content.

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About Site Schemes’ Virtual Assistant Update

Site Schemes brings you this newsletter to help you learn new ways to use your computer and the Internet, to get organized, to use the Web for research, to market your products and services, and to acquaint you with Site Schemes' services.

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