1.4.15

Brochure Design That Can Work for You

Many small business owners may feel that their tight budget does not give them room to afford some basic marketing materials like brochures ... thumbnail 1 summary


Many small business owners may feel that their tight budget does not give them room to afford some basic marketing materials like brochures or websites. Brochure design and website design should not be options for small business owners. Without some great digital art and eye-popping brochure design and website design it will be hard to grow most businesses. Many business owners are just not aware what these items cost or how to get them designed.

There are several ways for business owners to get professional brochure design or website design. If money is no object then the business proprietor can hire one of the many top advertising agencies or boutique design firms in their area that cater to this type of client. They should receive great service and award-winning design for the exorbitant price they will be shelling out. For most small business owners however, the prospect of hiring a professional design or advertising agency or design shop is way beyond their budget and means. They need to find other, less expensive alternatives if they are going to end up with the brochure design that they need to jump start their business.

There are many freelance graphic designers or digital artists out there and before you decide on one you should really make them bid for your project. First off you can place an ad on Craigslist or in your local paper asking for artists to reply with rates and links to their online portfolios. Any artist that is worth anything will have a lot of their prior work posted and displayed on their own websites or on one of several artist portfolio websites. One of the best of these sites can be found online at http://www.alphaomegadigital.com/. Check out all of the awesome online portfolios from some very talented artists.

Hiring a freelance designer can be somewhat expensive as well and you may not end up with the kind of quality work you really want. Make sure to review all portfolios carefully. The artist you choose should have some samples of brochure design that they did for their other clients with businesses that are similar to yours. With freelance designers and artists you will probably have to pay a deposit before they start producing artwork for you. They should give you several different designs to choose from. Three design alternatives are usually enough for the client to decide what they like best or what the best direction is. Freelance artists should be able to take the project all the way to completion and that would mean overseeing the actual printing process as well. You dont want to end up with a design that just wont print right so you want the artist to take some responsibility for the final outcome of the printing. Get any agreements to this effect in writing whenever possible. A short contract should not be out of the question.

You can also make the brochure design yourself if you are creative, but we recommend letting the professionals handle it. No matter how much you think you know about graphic design in general, unless you have studied Graphic Design at the college level or worked in the field for many years, your efforts will probably not be very attractive and wont bring you any more business and could even potentially lose you customers. People can react very negatively toward what they perceive as bad or amateurish design and advertising.