Hi
I wrote a small article on flyers a little while ago, never published it or submitted it as I never got round to 'polishing it' ready for submission, may be of use to some though, a few obvious points and a few 'good practices', let me know if its any use......
The Power of Flyers
Before I design a flyer for a customer, I always ask a standard set of questions and will seek answers from the client before designing. By asking these questions I can formulate in my head the end goal of the campaign, this then draws up a number of challenges for the design. The sorts of questions that I ask tend to be:
Who is your target audience for the flyer i.e. age group, generation (for example 18-30 year olds)?
What is the aim of the campaign i.e. launch a new product or service, spread awareness of your existing business?
Are you including an offer on the flyer? Say, 10% off on production of this flyer
Is your Flyer to be themed around an event or season i.e. Easter, Christmas or Valentines?
How will your flyer be distributed? By hand, in the mail or in with a local newspaper?
By asking these important questions I can then plan a draft design taking into account the questions that have been asked.
But why is this important part of the process?
Without finding out important information such as the questions above, the end goal of what the flyer is out to achieve is blurred. This in turn leads to a design that is poorly thought out, will be designed to completely ignore the target audience and will ultimately fail in its attempt to secure you more business or awareness.
So by establishing a clear set of rules I can develop a flyer that is targeted to your needs, rather than a random poorly thought out design.
Is this all, surely theres more to a flyer design than just answering a few questions?
Offer something back to add value to your flyer
There certainly is. In my opinion a flyer must offer some tangible value to the holder. They must feel that what they are holding is of some worth to them. Its similar in nature to how store coupons work, they have a value that makes you cut them out and keep them pinned to a notice board or stuck on the fridge. This worth is what makes a good flyer hang around; it offers someone something that they wouldnt get if they didnt have the flyer. What the flyer offers is down to you. It could be simply 10% off when you show this flyer or invite someone to visit your website with the promise of a discount code to use during the checkout.
Without this incentive, your flyer is in danger of ending up in the recycling bin as it gives no incentive to be stuck on a notice board or stuck to the fridge door. What youre trying to achieve is your flyer to be kept handy for as long as possible.
AIDCA A simple formula for good design
AIDCA is a well used acronym from my days as a designer for a newspaper. It actually stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Conviction, Action. It is a theory that if your design grabs the attention and interest of the recipient it must then create the desire and conviction which results in an action and the action is hopefully to contact you about what youre selling or promoting.
By looking at the design uses the AIDCA formula it focuses the mind on the structure and content of the flyer or leaflet. If the design is unattractive or poor, this will lead to a lack of interest; however even a good clean design can fail on the desire part. With no offer or tangible value there will be no conviction or action.
Keep it simple, keep it clear.
You have very little time to make an impact with your flyer. Most are consigned to the recycling bin in an instant. The trick is to capture their attention with a great strap line. The best strap lines are those that have a double meaning, at first glance they appear suggestive or rude, but upon further reading they are quite innocent, see below for some examples:
Get laid with us!
This would feature nicely on the front of a flyer for a carpet fitter or carpet retailer.
Get plastered!
Would go nicely on a flyer for a plastering company
Would you like to go to bed?
Again, this would be a good strap line for a bedding company
Of course these are merely examples, but hopefully you get the idea that a good strap line will work wonders for your flyer. Once you have people attention, draw them in with some well structured content.
Good photography goes a long way
Blurred, pixelated or just plain bizarre pictures wont do you any favours. However, good quality meaningful product photos or nice relevant stock photography will serve you well. If you dont have the budget for an expensive photo shoot consider doing it yourself. A simple home studio can be created for peanuts. A few bright desk lamps, some white card or paper and steady hand or small tripod is all you need to create some clear product shots.
For some inspiration try finding relevant stock photography on some of the following sites, some of the sites are free, others charge a small fee (usually a few pounds) per image, but the results can be stunning and well worth the small investment.
http://www.istockphoto.com
http://www.sxc.hu/ (free)
http://www.shutterstock.com/
http://www.fotolia.co.uk/
There are literally hundreds of sites offering free or inexpensive stock photography. But please do check the licence agreement of the photograph before use, and if necessary check with the copyright owner before using.
A few simple rules to follow
There is no perfect design, and certainly no magic formula to follow to achieve design greatness. But there are a few simple rules to follow to achieve a well thought out and readable flyer.
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Choose a font and stick to it! Its easy to get carried away with fonts, theres so many to choose fromn and theyre great fun to design with, but to many in a design will quickly clog-up the design and make it confusing to the eye and less readable. Try to use a maximum or two or three (three being the most). Dont be afraid to experiment with different weights of the same font to make something stand out.
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Choose a colour palette thats aimed at your target audience. Try and understand your target audience and what they will appreciate. If youre pitching an over 50s holiday flyer, then using a grungy, moody palette of colours will fail. If youre promoting a fun day then using bright colours makes sense and will add to the fun nature of the flyer.
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White space is not dead space! This rule is in contrast to what some people believe. Giving your text and images space to breath can be a good thing. Dont try to cram in as much information as you can. A flyer is not like a newspaper, youre not competing for column inches, youre promoting a service or product, so give your pictures space to breath around some well constructed copy.
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Give your flyer some value. As mentioned above, by adding some value to the flyer it will give the recipient a reason to keep it handy, thereby keeping your contact details close at hand. A percentage off is always a good idea and means the flyer is likely to be stored until a time it will be used or passed on to a friend or relative who may find use for it.
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Apply the AIDCA principal before signing off your artwork. When you get the design back from a graphic designer. Try applying the AIDCA principal to the design yourself. Does it grab Attention? Does it hold your Interest? And would it motivate you to take action? If not, its back to the drawing board.
Hope that helped some.
Cheers
Steve
