When you see some of the leaflets which you are handed on an almost daily basis as you walk through town; there’s no surprise that a lot of them simply aren’t effective and most likely fail to generate much new business and many enquiries at all. If you’re going to spend time and money designing and printing leaflets to advertise and promote your business, brand or product…make sure they look great! That’s not making sure they look good; that’s making sure they look great! When you think about it, what’s the point of putting together a leaflet which just doesn’t cut it against your competitors?

As such; we thought we’d put together our 5 top tips for designing and creating effective leaflets for your business:

1. Make Sure Your Leaflet Ties In With Your Branding
   If you’ve already got a strong brand image and logo; make sure that your leaflets are centred heaving around these. At the end of the day; you’re wanting to promote your brand or business and as a result, it’s vital you use your brand image; that’s everything from colours and fonts to logo’s. When carrying across branding in this way, it ensures people recognise the leaflet’s purpose and will be more likely to take a read than one which looks completely unconnected with your current business brand.
2. Keep Things Brief
   No one wants to read a 500 word essay on a leaflet or flyer they’ve been handed! Keep things clear and concise and where possible, use images and calls to action as opposed to large blocks of text. You generally only have a couple of seconds to get your message across so keep things brief and easy to understand by readers. Trust us; less really is more in many cases!
3. Include A Special Offer
   You need to have a reason for readers to act upon your leaflet. It’s no good simply giving a leaflet saying ‘here’s our business…come and visit.’ You need to give people a reason to visit you or buy your products and including a special offer coupon on a leaflet is a brilliant way to do this. For example; you could offer 20% off a purchase when presenting the leaflet. That way, the reader holds onto the leaflet and it gives them a reason to visit your store in the near future.
4. Include Happy Customer Testimonials
   Readers want to know that other people love your products too; especially if its a product or brand they’ve never come across before. Take some happy customer testimonials and add them onto the leaflet. That way, readers can see what other people are saying about your offerings and it’ll hopefully sway them to give it a try or to come and visit you!
5. Ensure The Printing Is Of High Quality
   It’s all too easy to be tempted by the cheapest option available; however quality is of uttermost importance. What would you do if you were handed a low quality, almost photocopied leaflet? Probably throw it in the nearest bin! You need to take time to find a leaflet printers who can offer leaflets of the very highest quality! That way; you can be sure the stand out from the crowd and  have a better chance of actually being read!

Being a designer isn’t necessarily about having certain skills or talents, or even practicing until you have the ability, it is simply about changing your perspective slightly when it comes to looking at the world around you. To design, you also need to be able to deconstruct the world around you, like the techie who used to pick apart old electronics as a kid. Once you start looking at your surroundings as a series of conscious design choices you see that you can often split things into the aesthetic and the functional. Have your surroundings been designed to look good, to function well or to reduce the cost of production. If it’s done well, it might just be a combination of all three.

Functional Design

This is a process that is used to determine the ‘human factor’ of all of the things we use everyday and when examined, there is so much more of this consideration in every aspect of daily life. If you look at the door handle of your house, you can ask several ‘human factor‘ design questions to determine how ergonomic it is. Is it a handle or a knob? How high is it from the ground? As you stand, where is it on your body? Can everyone use it perfectly? When you start to ask these questions you notice all of the key decisions that went into the creation of such a simple object and it is important to remember that the very pinnacle of success in this field of design, is to go unnoticed. Not noticing the design of a functional object means it is working so naturally and intuitively that you never consider it. The same is true of course when it comes to website design and user interface online.

Reducing Costs

This element of design is fairly self-explanatory, but is still an art form of a type because designers have to work on how to reduce the cost and increase the value of a product in a way that isn’t noticeably trying to achieve these things. From a design point of view this relates to materials used, product shape and size but it can also relate to aesthetic design. The most effective way to reduce costs is to do so in a way that combines with an aesthetic decision.

Aesthetic Design

This is the most enticing and attention commanding form of design and is usually what a lot of people think of when they try to imagine ‘good design’. Products and design evolve over time and these aesthetic decisions can be very related to style and personal taste. That being said, there is no greater joy than surrounding yourself with well designed, aesthetically pleasing items as they leak into your home and your life. Designer wallpaper, attractive technology, matching kitchen sets, these are the types of products that create and individualise a home that owners are proud of.

Whether you created it or not, it can be an incredibly enriching experience to deconstruct the environment around you and re-populate it with a world of conscious design choices.

Interested in a Career in Graphic Design?

These days, talented and creative graphic designers are in high demand as more and more people are creating their own websites. Whether it be a personal website, business website, or anything in between, people are constantly looking for designers to come up with site designs, banners, and other images. And with society’s dependence on the internet only projected to increase over time, graphic design is a booming field to get into and offers a promising future.

However, not just anyone can become a graphic designer; there are various skills and qualities that one must have in order to be successful in the field. So if you are interested in a career in graphic design, what should your next steps be?

How to Become a Graphic Designer

Perhaps the first and foremost quality that a great graphic designer should have is creativity. Everything else that is needed to work in this field can stem from this quality alone, but it is difficult to be successful if you do not possess this. Creativity is vital because, as a graphic designer, you may very well be expected to come up with various concepts of a graphic for your clients. For this reason, you need to be inspired and have the ability to come up with various ideas to suit your client’s needs.

Aside from creativity, however, a graphic designer must also possess self-discipline and motivation. After all, many design jobs these days are freelance, which means that you may not necessarily be working 9-5 in an office setting. Instead, you will find that you must work on your own time in order to meet deadlines. In addition, you may be working from home, so being able to overcome distractions and get your work done is vital. For this reason, many graphic designers (especially freelancers) set up their own home office.

Of course, as with many other jobs, there are technical skills involved in becoming a graphic designer. At the very least, you will to be proficient in the latest Adobe Photoshop program, as this is what you will likely use to create your images. In addition, you will probably want to learn how to use other popular design programs, such as Adobe Illustrator.

How to Pick Up the Technical Skills

There are many different ways to go about learning these programs, depending on your ideal learning style. Many people who want to be graphic designers go to a design school. There, not only do you learn everything you need to know about the programs you will be expected to use as a graphic designer, but you can also build a portfolio and have an official degree in the field, which is appealing to prospective clients and employers.

However, you do not need a degree or official schooling to become a successful graphic designer. In fact, many designers teach themselves the skills they need over time and never set foot inside an art or design classroom. There are a variety of books available out there for those who want to learn how to use the programs necessary to become a successful designer. In addition, you can find all kinds of written and video tutorials online, so there is never a lack of helpful information.

Overall, becoming a graphic designer takes hard work and dedication, but if you are a creative and hard-working person who wants to get into the field, keep the above information in mind as you build a portfolio and work your way up in the design world. Good luck to you!

Tips by NicheDesign, web design agency from Cairns, Australia.

Most web designers will be able to tell you that creating a website also involves a great deal of graphic design, particularly the website being made is particularly visual. How a site looks can be extremely important in determining how effective it is as people are likely to navigate away from a site that is particularly unattractive or confusing. Because of this it is extremely important to make sure that the site is as visually appealing as possible.

If you are planning on including photographs on your site then it is important to ensure they are of a high standard. Many people will hire professional photographers to take the images they want appearing on their website, particularly if images of products to be sold are required. Photographers are likely to use high spec equipment such as the Leica D-Lux4 to achieve excellent results. The images taken with a digital camera such as the Leica D-Lux4 can then be altered using digital imaging software to produce various different results.

Many people will agree that when designing the visual aspects of a website such as the layout then simplicity is important. Keeping things simple is rarely a bad thing in these situations as a visually over complicated site can be confusing to people visiting it. Simple and effective designs that don’t make use of particularly garish colours or designs will tend to be the most effective.