Good Visual Design

[sara farr]

I was just asked for advice on how to make a good flyer. Here are some of my thoughts:

FLYERS...
...are visual forms of communication used to capture someone's attention and share information. When designing a successful flyer, follow these simple rules and you can't go wrong:

1) Hierarchy - What is the most important thing the viewer should get from your flier? The second most important? Etc. The most important should be "greater than" the other stuff -- bigger, brighter or bolder, higher on the page, more separated out from the others, etc. Lesser important stuff can lesser in design.

2) Keep it legible -- don't use fonts that are "crazy" just to be "crazy" -- use fonts that can be read from far away. You are trying to capture someones attention, not confuse them. Don't use more than 2-3 fonts. Keep within the same font family -- bold, italic, & regular versions of the same font. Sans serif fonts (without the tails on the letters) are easy to read, but they're also more informal. Ask me more about fonts if you need more info.

3) Keep It Simple -- put the MOST IMPORTANT stuff on your flier ONLY; have a website to go to or number to call for more information. People are LAZY! If your flier is too crowded with stuff, people will get bored/tired and not read it.

White space is very powerful and can help direct the viewers eye to something important. Don't get rid of all your white space. Keep a balance of information and empty space.

If you're using color, keep to a simple 3 color palette, with 2 colors being analogous (closely related, like blue and aqua) with the third being an "accent" color -- something very different from the other two and used sparingly.

4) Capture the Mood -- Besides information, you are usually trying to communicate an emotion. Identify what emotion you are going for and you can probably enhance the appeal of your design by including colors, fonts and images that support the emotion. However, don't go crazy with this stuff (see rules 2 & 3).

In design, round or curvy things are friendly & fun. Boxy things & things that align with the edges of the paper are calm, authoritative & safe. And sharp pointy or jagged things are fast & aggressive.


As far as software is concerned, I would use Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. A graphic designer might use Page Maker.

Hope this helps.