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Booklet Tips From Paulette

Writing, producing, and promoting tips booklets for marketing, motivating, and making money.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Booklet Designs - Path to Instant Insanity

It's always telling to hear and see people's reactions to the range of booklet designs they see during my classes, sales presentations, and at the online ebooklet catalog. There's no getting around the fact (and yes, it's fact) that people respond to what they (we) see, and go from there.

As you can well appreciate, there is an endless path of possibilities. The author (you) have your ideas of how you want the booklet to look. The graphic designer has their own ideas of how they want the booklet to look, which is often different than what you had in mind. And the client has their own ideas of what looks good to them, which could be some of what you or your designer were thinker, or not. Given that terrific trio, it's a wonder there's ever a sale or any agreement at all.

This is, of course, before we even get to the content. What do the words say? How useful is the content and design to the decision maker who is thinking about using the booklet as a promotional tool for their own product or service? You thought the words were the big deal, didn't you? Well they are. However they are not the sole element in determining the usability of your product.

One solution has been to keep the design stark and simple, explaining that it is an easy easel to customize. That makes sense for some people, and it goes right past the understanding and absorption of others. As soon as the design becomes any kind of elaborate or stylized, there is room for conversation about what does and doesn't work about it, hopefully arriving at a successful solution.

The best suggestion to offer remains to err on the side of simplicity and express as well as you can that you can customize the design any way the client would like. Then ask for examples of design elements that appealed to them and the best communication possible to short-circuit the journey to insanity for you, your designers, and your client.

Until next time,
Paulette -- reminded of simplicity often being the best answer
www.tipsbooklets.com

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