Most businesses will put out a lot of printed materials, even if they aren’t in the publishing industry themselves. This will take the form of headed letter paper, of fliers and posters and of other promotional materials and documents like adverts and instruction booklets. What’s important to recognize is that in any of these cases, that printed material will serve as an ‘ambassador’ for your company – if they look shoddy then the assumption is that you won’t be able to do a good job with your work and vice versa.
As such then, it’s rather important that what you put out be high quality. Here we will look at some of the ways that you can ensure it is.
Your Logo
Every company needs a good logo and it’s precisely times like these when it will prove to be incredibly important. If you aren’t confident in your logo then, now is the time to make sure it looks as good as it can and perhaps to consider a redesign by getting a professional design company to help you make something that will be eye-popping. Make sure it’s as versatile as possible to be used in a variety of different contexts but also striking.
Design
The design of your materials themselves is an important consideration that will help to make sure your materials look professional and glossy. That may sound like a no brainer – but you’d be surprised how many companies knock out promotional materials and leaflets without really giving much thought to where each element will go on the page or even including any original imagery.
Make sure that you have professional photos and images to include in your promotional materials but at the same time think about the way you are going to put it all together on the page. Make sure that everything points toward the central focal point of your pages and follow the golden rule – communicate, don’t decorate. In other words, it’s crucial to ensure that any images and design elements you include serve a purpose rather than just needlessly cluttering.
Quality
Finally, you need to think about the overall print quality of your work and how you make the finished product look as good as it possibly can. If you use a print company then this will be taken care of for you, but otherwise you should make sure that you have a high quality printer and that you have the best possible toners. You also need to think about the setting you put your printer on (quality – not ink saving) and you need to make sure that you use a glossy paper. Of course this will depend partly on the context, but note that there will be a clear ROI for all the money you put into your quality prints. The better they look, the better it will reflect on your business and the more people will want to work with you as a result. Make sure that nothing just gets ‘knocked out’ and that you treat all your output like a product.
Andy Whittle is a businessman by profession. He owns a printing press and is renowned for his high quality flyers. He considers printing materials like flyers and pamphlets extremely important for growth of a business. An avid blogger, he voices his opinions on various issues.