6 Booklet Design Elements That Will Get Your Customers To Take You Seriously

Have you ever gotten a catalog that made you think “Yeah, right—like I’m going to buy from a company whose brochure looks like it was thrown together by a 10-year-old!” Huge fonts of differing typefaces, blurry photos and cheap paper are just a few factors that make a booklet or catalog look amateurish. Cheap catalog printing can be done without looking cheap, however.

If you want customers to see you as a serious, legit business, you need to give them a booklet or catalog that shows your best work. Booklet printing isn’t hard; it’s the design that will trip you up! Here are some elements to include in your booklet design that will make you look like a pro:

Maximum of Two Fonts
By using only two fonts throughout your entire booklet, you ensure a clean, consistent look. Use one serif font and one sans serif font—use the serif as your body, or main, text and the sans-serif font for your headings. Serif fonts are easier to read at a smaller size and sans serif fonts stand out from serif fonts, making them the perfect element to bring a reader’s eye into your headings, and therefore into your body text.

Using a different font for each page will confuse the reader because each page will feel like it came from a different company. Pick fonts that are used in your other print marketing communications, like brochures and letterhead.

Sharp Photos
Your product photos are the main element in your booklet that will catch customers’ attention. This is definitely not an area to scrimp on. Be sure to hire a professional photographer who has professional lighting equipment and the tools needed to provide sharp close-ups and clear far shots. Photos, not product descriptions, are what sell a product.

Logo
Don’t forget to include your logo on the back panel of your booklet. You might also choose to place a small copy of your logo on the front cover of your booklet, but be sure that the logo isn’t the main attraction on your cover. A logo won’t interest people to open your booklet like a great photo will.

4-Color
Booklets that are printed using a 4-color process are always more impressive than any black-and-white booklet could be. Four-color printing also allows your photos to look more lively and sharper.

Quality paper
It may not seem like a design element per se, but the quality of your paper speaks volumes about your professionalism. A flimsy, see-through paper tells the customer that you are either: cheap, or don’t have the money to use better paper stock. Either way, customers won’t want to jump on your seemingly sinking ship. Use at least industry-quality catalog paper to ensure that your customers feel quality as they’re browsing through your booklet or catalog. Use at least a 70-pound paper stock.

Small blocks of text
The worst design element mistake has to do with the writing. If you write in big, long paragraphs, those paragraphs will look especially long on a booklet. With the smaller page dimensions, one sentence might wrap to 3 lines, making it look longer and therefore more tiresome to read. That means people won’t even bother reading it.

Write in short sentences and small paragraphs that the eye can easily digest. This makes each chunk of text seem more readable.

By using these six elements in your next booklet design, you can rest assured that your booklet looks professional and that it will give your readers the confidence needed to order from your serious, stable company.