Project 9: Visual Formats: Exercise 1: The Leaflet

Project 9 is about formats. This is somewhat familiar to me as I’ve been doing the copy editing and layout of a community magazine since 2017. Most people receive the magazine electronically but 91 people receive a print copy due to access issues. Therefore, I always need to work on the layout until it fills a multiple of 4 pages for print. I also have common fonts across all magazines and issues and try to maintain a similar style in terms of image placement, number of columns etc. Recently we have begun colour printing but for my first 4 years the print version was black and white, so I had to make sure that images and elements of design would have a similar impact in black and white as they would in colour, to the extent that it’s possible. For example, when editing images, I would view them in greyscale prior to use, even though I was working in colour.

In this Project there are three genres of format for us to explore: leaflet, digital campaign and poster. I feel progressively more uncomfortable as we go down the list. Leaflets are good as I get to do lots of paper folding. Digital campaigns don’t fill me with joy because they remind me of my abandoned business. Posters are my nemesis, it seems. This is our third encounter with posters in this unit and I just don’t seem to have got it yet. I know I need to simplify, then simplify more. I’ve seen some great monochrome posters recently so that might be worth trying. Hopefully I will do better this time.

For now, though, we begin with leaflets. This is the brief:

I have decided that the purpose of my leaflet is to attract volunteers to work in a community garden in a small accessible centre a mile or so from the town centre. My target demographic is older people who have retired and have some time to give to some gentle gardening in a pleasant setting with a small group of other volunteers. There is an area in this town, not too far from the site of the garden, where all the housing is bungalows and the majority of those who live there are around or above retirement age. The leaflets will be hand delivered to this area by existing volunteers. The leaflets are being commissioned by a not for profit organisation so the budget for producing the leaflets is quite low. This scheme actually exists and my Mum is one of the volunteers, but I’ve never seen a leaflet from there.

I began by brainstorming all sorts of ways to make a leaflet from one piece of paper. When I quickly reached 11 styles I decided to cap the number of ideas there.

The opened out cross and the triangle fold were things I’d received in the post in the last few days.

I made a quick version of each of the ideas. 

A5 unfolded. This could be single or double sided print. For 4 columns it would need both sides printed.

The cross style nailing I received. This would be more expensive as the corners would have to be cut away.

An ingenious way to make a box or leaflet with a single piece of paper or card. Probably not suitable for this brief but could be good for engaging children.

Paper bag book. Again, the cut would need to be made. For this brief lots of small pages wouldn’t work will with the four blocks of text.

Traditional leaflet. This could work well except that all four blocks of text couldn’t be on the same side. It would be good to check with the client whether this matters.

Looks very home made. An advantage in some situations but not this one.

Too reminiscent of pizza!

Not so easy to handle for people with arthritis.

A good one to display if the paper is sturdy enough. What’s behind the doors/garden gate? If it’s decorative enough people might put it on their mantelpiece. Tricky to situate the text blocks though, if the inside centre is an image. Also the cost of thick paper would be higher

Potentially this could have a front and back cover and two blocks of text on each side. It could also be made decorative enough to display, with the same caveat about the cost of paper.

Single fold A4. This simple design is versatile and could be layed out in several ways.

In my next post I will consider layout and visual elements. What will make people pick this leaflet up? What will make them keep looking at it and reading it? What will make them save it and take action? What kind of paper, colour schemes, fonts etc will work best for this offer and this demographic? All of these things need to be considered when choosing the format and layout.