Design Considerations for Tri-fold Brochures

25 Oct Design Considerations for Tri-fold Brochures

It’s no secret that printing handsome, well-designed brochures can increase your company’s sales efforts. Additionally, tri-fold brochures and pamphlets are a cost-effective and easily distributable way of promoting your business and attracting new customers. When designing a brochure that looks great and helps you achieve your goals, you should pay special attention to these design considerations for your tri-fold brochures.

The Tri-fold Brochure Layout

The tri-fold brochure layout can be confusing the first time around, and there are a few layouts to choose from based on how you want your brochure to be folded. Accordion folds and gatefolds are among the two most common types of folds and which one you choose will then translate to where each panel needs to be placed in your design. Start your design process with how the brochure will be folded in order to ensure the proper order.

Catch Attention with Cover

The cover is your primary chance to catch the customer’s attention and so this should be your main focus during the design portion of your brochure. An effective brochure covers include the company logo, an image and a captivating tagline in large type that motivates the potential customer to pick up the brochure and investigate further.

Utilize White Space

White space, also called negative space, is the empty space between your graphics, margins, or copy and is an important element of superb design. Utilizing white space can help your other elements, such as content, stand out and be easier to read. Additionally, white space creates balance and amplifies order in your pamphlet. By utilizing white space, you also more effectively focus the customer on your call to action, encouraging them to follow up on the information you have given them.

Use Your Logo as a Base

Using your logo as the guide to develop your pamphlet will allow you to control the consistency of your marketing material. A commonly accepted design practice is to use your logo as the basis for choosing colors and fonts for the tri-fold pamphlet. Doing so will also allow for more immediate brand recognition when a potential customer reads the brochure.

Consider Using High-Quality Textures

Textures may not be available with all printing companies but can significantly add to the perceived value of your brand. Consider using special gloss, a matte finish, foil lettering, die cuts, or letterpress to ensure your design stands out and is visually attractive.

Use Die Cuts

Die cuts can create some outstanding designs that add an element of individuality to your tri-fold pamphlets. Die cuts can be added to your brochure design using registration lines that tell your printing company where to cut. Your printer will print your pamphlet and create a custom die for your specific print job. An insider tip here is to ask your printing company if they have any unique dies already created that aren’t specifically reserved by other clients. This will save your printer time and save money on the job.

Use Unique Photos (Please)

There are quite a few websites out there that will allow you to use stock photos that are free to download and royalty free for use commercially. These are great to use for mock-up purposes, but how many other competitors saw and like the exact same picture from that site? If your goal is to stand out with your pamphlet, use custom photos that you or a photographer took. If you already over budget, one professional tip here is to download the highest resolution of the stock photos that you can and crop out portions of them to create a unique photo.

Bonus: Design for Customers, not the Company

This tip doesn’t pertain specifically to the design elements of tri-fold brochures or pamphlets but is important nonetheless. While you’re proud of your company and want to promote it by putting a picture of your company building on your brochure, this should be avoided. The space you have on your tri-fold brochures is limited and so you should save that space for content that answers customer questions and helps facilitate the buying decision, not how large or new your building is.

Digital Printing for Small Jobs

Speaking of saving money, if you are wanting to do a small order of pamphlets you want to contact a printing company with digital printing capabilities. Digital printing offers faster turnaround time and is the lowest cost option for shorter print runs of less than 500 or so.

Contact Professional Printers

If your company doesn’t have an in-house marketing team, the learning curve for designing marketing material can be tremendous. While you can still help pick the colors and fonts, consider using a printing company that provides design services. Acme Printing has the capabilities to not only provide customized tri-fold pamphlets and other marketing material design but is also a trusted digital and offset printer that can take your project from an idea to a finished, printed product. Contact us today at 855-581-8528 or online via our contact form to start your tri-fold pamphlet project.