Brochure Design Ideas That Will Spark Your Creativity

The global print media market is worth around $326.52 billion as of 2023. Brochures make up a big part of this market. Many people think that brochures are obsolete now that there are so many ways to market digitally, but this is not true. 

Physical brochures can still be very beneficial, but only if you choose a good brochure design. But what kind of design options are there? How can you make sure that your brochure printing looks good and modern?

Keep reading and check out some of the creative ideas for brochure marketing below.

Use More Images

If you want your brochure to stand out, you need to make sure it looks attractive and catchy. You need to make sure that your brochure will be something that people will look at more than once. The goal is to attract someone’s attention enough that they pick up the brochure and read it. 

This is harder than you might expect. This is because there are many ways that brochure design can go wrong. The first mistake that people make is using too much text and not enough images. 

Having a wall of text on your brochures will do the opposite of attracting potential readers. It will instead drive potential readers away. This is because most people won’t want to waste their time straining their eyes on a big passage of text. 

Having a lot of text crammed onto a brochure also makes it hard to read. This is especially true if the text is very small. You can solve this issue by using more images. 

If your brochures only have an image or two, they likely aren’t going to get very much attention. But if you prioritize images over your text, the brochures will be far more attractive to potential readers. This is because humans are very visually-driven creatures. 

The Details

People are more likely to look and be interested when they see images with interesting colors or shapes. But won’t your brochure lose its purpose if you prioritize images over text? 

Not necessarily. You can still put all your main points in the brochure without having to fill the pages with text. When you browse brochure ideas online, you will notice that most of them use more images than text. 

The text that is used may be layered over the images. The text may also consist of a few lines here and there, but those lines are very meaningful. Packing the point of your brochure into a few lines is a great way to catch a person’s attention. 

The mark of a good business person is conveying a point with only a few sentences. This is important because there isn’t a lot of space on a brochure. You will have no choice but to keep your text short and catchy.

You can get inspiration on how to do this by looking at other brochures while you’re out and about. This allows you to see how they balance text with images. It may also give you ideas about formatting and other aspects of brochure design. 

Mix and Match Different Colors

Colors are very important for brochures. Using the right colors can make your brochures very attractive. Using the wrong colors can make people avoid your brochures like the plague. 

Colors are strongly linked to emotion. Marketers often use color psychology for their marketing strategies for this reason. Consider bright, warm colors like yellow, orange, and red. 

These colors are all associated with energy, friendliness, joy, and passion. Then consider colors like blue, green, and purple. These are cooler colors that are seen as more relaxing, formal, and intellectual. 

There are also neutral shades such as gray, black, white, and beige. These shades do not have very strong emotional connections, but they are often seen as formal, clean, and cold. Understanding the science behind color psychology can make or break your brochures. 

You can get inspiration from other brochures and how they use specific colors. Consider a brochure advertising an amusement park. This brochure will likely use bright and exciting colors like red and yellow to catch a person’s attention. 

These colors also match what the brochure is marketing. Then consider a brochure advertising a yoga and meditation retreat. This brochure would be more likely to use calming colors like green and blue to reflect what is being marketed.

Using colors randomly throughout your brochure won’t do much. It might catch a person’s attention for a moment, but it isn’t likely to do much more than that. Most brochures also use a limited set of colors. 

They may use three or four colors at most. This is because using more than that will make the brochure look too crazy and random. Using too many colors may make the brochure look unprofessional and poorly thought-out.

What You Need to Know

The brochure may also be hard to read if there are too many bright colors in the way. This is why it is best to choose a set of three or four colors to make your brochure look good. If you are using photographs, this will allow your brochure to have a wider scheme for natural colors. 

But any illustrations or text you have should complement the rest of the brochure. You can experiment with colors that match and contrast. Both options look good, but you have to be more careful when choosing contrasting colors. 

Some contrasting shades look good while others may look muddy or unusual. Consider purple and orange. These colors often do not look good when placed next to each other, but there are rare circumstances in which they can work. 

Contrasting shades are best if you want to bring extra energy to the brochure. This is often done for brochures advertising fast vehicles, rollercoasters, and so on. If what you’re advertising isn’t energetic or fast, these contrasting colors likely won’t fit. 

It is instead better to choose colors that complement each other. If you don’t know what colors complement each other, try neutral shades. Neutral shades go with everything. 

The main mistake people make with neutral shades is using them too much. Using too much black, white, and gray can make your brochure look boring. It is best to blend them with a real color like blue, green, and so on. 

Adding colors like these to the mix helps the neutral colors stand out. 

Play With Unique Shapes, Fonts, and Angles

While colors for your brochures are important, they aren’t everything. Shapes and angles play a large part too. You can convey certain emotions with different designs. 

Round shapes and designs are seen as calmer and more welcoming. Sharp angles are instead associated with energy, strength, and force. Sharp angles are also very modern and sleek. 

It is important to consider how these different shapes will affect your brochure and what you’re advertising. If you’re advertising yoga classes, you won’t want to have a bunch of hard, sharp angles. Soft, rounded shapes would better complement what you’re marketing. 

You will often notice that corporate companies use sharp angles and shapes. This is because these shapes amplify the power and modernity that these companies have. Small businesses and more relaxed companies often use round shapes to be perceived in a friendlier way. 

Using different angles can also bring more attention to certain parts of your brochure. If you want to make sure that people read a specific part of your brochure, have the brochure’s design lead the eye to that area. You can do this with specific angles and designs. 

You don’t need to have arrows pointing to important text to attract people to it. You can accomplish the same effect with sweeping designs and fluid illustrations or pictures. The font you use for your brochure is also important. 

What to Know

Many people don’t realize that choosing the right font is very important. Some people make the mistake of using many different fonts. This is always a bad idea. 

This is because using too many fonts can make your brochure look unprofessional. If you look at any successful brochure, you will find that there are one to two fonts. Most only have one. 

This is because using one font creates consistency. It also makes the brochure look more professional. Using two fonts is sometimes necessary if you want to distinguish between the title and the body of the text. 

The type of font you use is also important. Some people might be persuaded to use fancy cursive fonts, but this is not very effective. This is because fancy fonts are hard to read for most people, especially when viewing the brochure from afar. 

Using these fonts for small text is also frustrating to read. It is better to use plain, bold text that everyone can easily read. Plain text is also easier to read from a distance. 

There are many different options for plain text, so there is no need to settle on an option that you don’t like. 

Pick a Theme

It is always a good idea to choose a theme when designing your brochure. Suppose you want to create brochures to advertise your new Japanese restaurant. When people think of a Japanese restaurant, they think of images such as bamboo, cherry blossoms, kanji symbols, and so on. 

While these images might be somewhat stereotypical, they are important for customer perception. Choosing a Japanese theme for your brochure will ensure that people know what kind of brochure they’re looking at. They won’t confuse your brochure for one advertising an amusement park or a Mexican restaurant. 

It is important to have a theme no matter what you’re advertising. Themes can sometimes tell a story too. Suppose you want to advertise your French travel agency. 

Your brochure can have pictures of people packing, getting on a plane, and going to France for the first time. This is a great way to immerse the reader in your content and what they can expect from the process. You can also include images of passports, important landmarks, and so on. 

These themed images will make what you’re advertising feel much more present. They also work much better than generic and unrelated illustrations or photos. You don’t need to go crazy with themed images either. 

What Else Should You Consider?

Using a few illustrations and photos throughout your brochure should be enough. The goal is to get your company’s message across to potential customers. You shouldn’t have a problem as long as your message is clear and easy to understand.

Next day leaflet printing services can make sure that the brochure comes out correctly.

Using a slogan is another good way to emphasize what you’re marketing. A slogan or motto isn’t always necessary, but it can help bring your brochure together. Many brands use a motto to act as a focal point for the entire brochure. 

If you use a slogan, choose one that captures what your brand is all about. Slogans should be short and catchy. This makes it easy to fit them on any portion of the brochure. 

Once you start incorporating these details into the brochure, it should all come together. You should then see that all this hard work will lead to your brochure’s success. 

All About Brochure Design

Brochure design is important if you want these pieces of paper to get attention. You can make sure they succeed by using the right colors and designs. Using nice fonts and themes can help too. 

To learn more about how it works, check out the other content on our site.