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Inventors High Quality Marketing Materials

Everyone wants to make great flyers, logos, websites, business cards and letterhead. Many entrepreneurs, inventors and small business people want to design these things themselves, but once they get started they often realize it is harder than they thought to create professional looking designs because there are little-known guiding principles to make easy-to-read and attractive materials.

Creating these images and layouts, which is called graphic design, has infinite possibilities and solutions, so that means there is plenty of opportunity for mistakes. I know I’ve made plenty throughout my studies and career—they’ve morphed me into a wiser designer. I put this list together to help expose many issues I often see with people’s work.

10 Common General Design Mistakes

1. There is no clear focus

Design should be more than words and images placed on a page. The information needs to be organized to support some kind of sales pitch. Think about the brochure rack at a hotel. There are dozens of pamphlets screaming for attention. If a few don’t clearly suggest what they’re advertising then they’re least likely to get picked up.

2. There is no hierarchy of information

This specifically relates to the order in which the information is looked at. Let’s continue with the hotel’s brochure rack. The top couple inches of each brochure is the only part you see at first, so that needs to be a strong focal point. A thick, bold font with a few words speaking the obvious and maybe a smaller supporting graphic would do the trick. “PIRATES’ COVE THEME PARK” with a skull and crossbones is to the point. Below that could be a nice cover image and a few key attractions or cleverly written copy as to why someone should seek adventure there. Inside the brochure should be a clear order of information: headlines to introduce blocks of copy, captions to define photos and so on. Consider the sales pitch to sell the reader in a step-by-step process. The spot you choose for pricing or the park’s location, etc. should all make sense.

3. There is a lack of whitespace

I work on a lot of direct mail advertising and all too often I have to coach clients into trimming down their copy. They have a lot to say and want to fit it all into their ad even if it’s only in 7-point size type. We typically don’t read through an entire ad anyway, so a ridiculous amount of information is going to bore the audience further. Again, your materials need a clear focus, so don’t cram your company’s entire life story into your ad. Sufficient margins and whitespace give readers room to breathe while allowing headlines and other information to be easily identifiable.

4. The copy is sloppy

There is a lot to mention in this section. Some of it may seem nitpicky, but it all really does help readability and make for a more professional looking piece.

Lack of space between lines of copy makes it difficult to read from one line to the next. If they’re too close, then readers might read a line, then go on to the next line only to find themselves reading the same line over again. That gets frustrating.

Widows and orphans are terms referring to short lines of type that look awkward. One example is where the last word of a paragraph is by itself on the last line. Another example is where the last line of a paragraph is by itself on the next page or column. Similarly, the last example is where the first line of a paragraph is by itself at the bottom of its previous page or column. Fine-tune the body copy to repair these issues.

Paragraph justification should be adjusted. Left justified paragraphs will have a jagged right side, so use (but don’t over use) hyphenation to help reduce the drastic difference between line lengths. Force justified paragraphs, where all the lines are equal in length, may end up having awkward spacing between words—sometimes the gaps are too big, sometimes the words are too crammed. Tasteful hyphenation will solve some of the problems.

Fonts bring another set of issues. Steer clear of the most commonly used fonts. They’re not unique enough to represent you. Choose an easily readable font. You don’t want to slow down readers because the body copy is too wacky or scripty. Don’t use more than a couple different fonts on your layouts. Choose one for the headlines, a different one for the body copy and maybe one more for any special areas that need to stand out somehow. Make sure all of those fonts don’t clash together. Avoid too much reversed type where a light colored font is on a dark colored background. This gets difficult to read especially with a lot of copy. Save it for smaller areas like captions. Don’t ever reverse fonts that aren’t bold enough. Don’t over use areas of all caps. Entire paragraphs of capital letters are difficult to read. Don’t stretch or squish type. There are plenty of fonts to choose from, so if you want a wide font, choose one that is already wide. Stretching fonts yourself distorts the letters. Don’t outline type in clashing colors or large areas of copy in any color.

5. Not enough contrast between the type and the background

Black type on a white background is always the easiest to read since it provides the most contrast. If you add a color behind the black type, make sure it’s light enough. If the type is a lighter color, make sure the background is dark enough. If the type and background are too similar in shades, legibility is sacrificed.

Be careful when overlaying text on photos. If it’s a caption, make sure that it’s strategically placed in one of the corners to provide the best contrast without covering important elements of the photo. Don’t use screened photos (lightened photos) as backgrounds behind type. It looks bad, the type is harder to read and photos should be treated with more importance anyway.

6. There is a lack of imagery

People like to look at pictures. They say a lot more than words. All forms of advertising and design should have a dominant photo or illustration which will be the first thing to attract the reader’s eyes.

7. No knowledge of photo resolution

Many clients tell me to use photos off of their websites for their printed ads because they’re unfamiliar with the drastic difference between the two resolutions. Web graphics are based on your computer screen, so they are set at 72 dpi (dots per inch). Printed graphics are produced with much more photo-like clarity, so they are typically set at 300 dpi or higher. That means a 4” x 4” photo on the web would convert to 1” x 1” in print. If the web graphic is printed at its original size, then it’ll appear fuzzy since you’d be able to see the individual dots that make up the image.

8. The design is heavy on text effects / Photoshop filters

This is a great way to look amateur. When someone first experiments with Photoshop or similar programs, they apply all the effects like drop shadows and bevel/embosses or the filters that make their work look watercolored or plasticy. These “out-of-the-box” tools need to be handled with care. Beginners don’t know any better, so they apply them in thick coats with results that look like an overworked project from junior high.

9. There is no color scheme

Let’s say your living room, dining room, kitchen and a hallway all share common walls that needed painting. Would it look very exciting if you painted all the walls the exact same color? Not exactly. It may be appropriate in some cases, but painting different rooms in different colors would add more interest. On the other hand, painting every single wall a completely different color would be inconsistent. Choose a set of colors that make sense for your message and use them tastefully. One color should be dominant on the page and the rest should be used for accents.

10. You forgot to proofread

Triple-check everything twice. Read through all your information before you supply it to your designer and read through it all when your designer supplies you with drafts. Have someone else read through it as well to make sure nothing was missed. Mistakes happen, but if everyone is doing their job triple-checking, then that possibility decreases.

Like all rules, some can be stretched or broken if done for a very good reason, however, many of the rules above are pretty strict! You want your audience to walk away from your advertisements and flyers with curiosity, fulfilled knowledge and especially the desire to purchase your products, so don’t represent your company as an unprofessional amateur.

Do you need web content?  Don Debelak, who has written 15 books published by major publishers such as McGraw Hill and Entrepreneur Press is currently writing web content.  Check out more information at:

https://onestopinventionshop.net/web-content-writing-services

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