Catalogue design and brochure design easily stand out as two of the most powerful tools in your marketing kit for the spread of information about your products, services and brand.
In any part of the world, consumers always tend to pick up catalogues or brochures for being reviewed later, when they leave their favourite stores. A catalogue or a brochure, as the first things a customer sees when opening a package, has the power to convince us to make additional purchases, even at the very last point of the initial sale. In this section, we will outline the strategy you can use in the design of brochures and catalogues.
What is a Catalogue?
In its most general meaning, a catalogue is a list of items prepared in a certain order. It is a great way for institutions, organizations, businesses and companies to speed up their marketing initiatives and provide their potential buyers with a detailed listing of their offerings. These attractive printed or digital documents contain a wealth of images, vivid descriptions and extensive details. These documents are undoubtedly valuable, but they are not very easy to produce. Before printing, you need to gather information from many different stakeholders to make sure that your catalogue is flawless.
Catalogue design has evolved to fulfil the inspirations of 21st century marketing and design, in which it has turned out to be worthy of being called an authentic art with original and visually stunning layouts. Toda, although Digital Catalogues are poplar based on their ability to prevent wastage of paper, ensure higher level of accessibility and offer the opportunity of regular revisions, printed catalogues are still more widely used due to their ability to address a deep-rooted target group and the confidence evoked by printed materials.
Digital Catalogues
This type of catalogues is created using digital tools. Today, most companies use only digital tools to distribute and promote their documents, as a result of which they prefer Digital Catalogues.
A digital catalogue is usually created in the PDF format for quick and easy delivery to customers. It is also possible to create flipbooks by use of special software. Flipbooks are interactive online publications that mimic printed magazines. Creating a flipbook usually requires a complete PDF of the document ready to be converted into an interactive format.
Digital catalogues offer a range of savings thanks to their almost zero printing and distribution costs. What is more, sharing and promoting the document takes less time, since the only thing needed is to upload and share it on the website.
However, certain benefits of a printed catalogues cannot be offered by a digital one… Such benefits can be summarised as greater readability, user friendliness and a general sense of engagement and professionalism.
What Parts Does a Catalogue Consist of?
A catalogue is a document consisting of many different components. While some of these components, such as the cover, table of contents, and back cover always used, others depend on the type of project and actual necessities.
- Front cover,
- Thumb index,
- Introduction pages: descriptions, advertisements,
- Contents: sections / parts, subsections, page numbers,
- Catalogue content: section dividers,
- Table of contents: in alphabetical order or by code,
- Final pages: description, advertisement, notes,
- Back cover.
What is Brochure?
In simple terms, a brochure is a visual marketing asset presenting a company’s services or products. It is a common resource for businesses looking to attract potential customers. Brochures are generally printed in advance for being given to customers at events, other local businesses for contact, or to related persons as an opening event reminder. There are no limits on how a brochure can be distributed. While you could technically create a PDF document to send by email, a classic brochure is a printed one.
What is the Difference between a Brochure and a Leaflet?
It is common to hear the terms brochure and leaflet interchangeably. It is true that they may look similar, but there are important differences in content and purpose. The purpose of a brochure is to convince the buyers and ultimately sell a company products or service. A leaflet, on the other hand, is created to convey information about a particular topic, but not to perform a sale. For example, if a museum wants to tell the story of its journey and share it with visitors, it would be a leaflet. On the other hand, if a local school wants to offer summer courses to the community, they will need a brochure.
When it comes to brochures and leaflets, the difference is both visual and functional. A leaflet is an unfolded page, printed on one or both sides to promote a particular event or sale. It tends to contain less information when compared to a brochure.
What Are the Different Types of Brochures?
The most common layout for a brochure is called a trifold. This is, in its original, a horizontal page printed on both sides. It has two folds that form three two-sided sections, providing plenty of space to display images and information in an attractive way.
- Z-fold: This style is similar to a trifold, but instead of folding inward, the fold creates a z-shape.
- Gate-fold: Another brochure design with two inward folds that do not overlap. The folds create a “gate” effect.
- Half-fold: A horizontal page folded in the middle creates four identical areas. Multi-page, duplex, or stapled: As above but with more pages.
- Multi-page and bound: This style looks like a booklet and can have many pages.
- Die cut: These are brochures in any folded style with a unique cut-out design on the pages.
- Unique folds: Some brochures are created with unique folds, making them more catchy and eye-catching.
If you want to get Catalogues and/or Brochure Design services for your company, please do not hesitate to contact us.
