10 Feb 2010, Posted by Peter in Design, Featured, 4 Comments

Guidelines For An Effective Tourism Brochure

After attending the 2009 Destinations Expo in Cape Town, I have payed more attention to the standards of printed travel and tourist brochures making their way around tourist booths and information offices. After the expo I had about 30 odd brochures covering the passenger seat of my car for 3 days. Eventually I thought instead of sending them to the trash can/recycle bin, I’d rather file them for future design inspiration. I kept about half of them. The other half.. well, let’s just say they could possibly be the reason for this post.

The title of this post is kind of harsh, I know. However I think it is important for tourism businesses to understand the value and importance of the quality of their printed media. I did not write this post to criticize or insult business owners or designers (as the title might imply). Instead its a quick look at basic fundamentals of creating a quality brochure, without necessarily digging deeper into your marketing budget.

Straight off the bat I will tell you that for more complex layouts, you should seriously consider hiring a graphic designer. Not only from a design point of view, but also from a production point of view. You need to consider things like paper weight and quality, colour management, material used, as well as folding options when producing a quality brochure. That is what your designer is for

But, for the sake of this post, I am going to focus on some basic guidelines for either In-house staff or Managers who are not keen to stick their hands too deep in their pockets.

Shall we?

Visual

Layout

There are basic sizes in brochure design that are seen as standard. Even though through creative design these standards have become almost irrelevant, it’s probably best that you stick with the easy options when designing your own. The DL flyer is the long, vertical style brochure that is widely used in the travel industry. They fit most brochure display units and offers fairly easy composition options. Common software such as MS Publisher or Apple’s Pages have pretty decent templates for DL publishing. There are also numerous templates available online.

Photography:

Another photography talk?! Don’t run yet, I’ll keep it short. Basically keep two factors in mind when selecting: quality and content. Online you can display an entire photo gallery of your rooms, amenities, vehicles, guides etc, all neatly placed in categories. On a DL you need to make them count! The objective: Finding images that look good, while still saying enough to present and sell your product. Do not fill the entire front page of your brochure with a massive image that does not say anything about your product, simply because it looks good visually. On the other hand squeezing too many cluttered images onto a page could look horrid an will defeat the purpose of having content rich images anyway (it will be overlooked completely).

Have a look at the following post on stock photography in travel marketing.

Colour

For some reason it seems that there is a perception that all travel brochures should be colourful, regardless of the product offered. Very well, adventure, exploring, safari, beach, summer, sports and fun can all be expressed through a vibrant colour scheme. But they do no HAVE to be?
A bright colour scheme is not the only way to attract attention. (remember, not all attention is positive).

Take some time thinking about this and decide which color schemes appeal to you. Feel the emotions different palettes create, and decide which emotions and feelings do you want viewers to associate with your product.

Very important: keep your existing brand in mind. If you have existing colours that work well for you, or play an important role in your identity, think twice before completely moving away from them. At the same time do not ignore the other visuals like photographs on the brochure. All elements need to be presented in harmony with one another as far as possible.

Type

Comic sans, Brush Script, Papyrus, Curlz MT… sound familiar? I am not going to write a raging typography post on which fonts should die or tell you that you are a creative wreck if you are currently making use of these typefaces. However, we need to be honest here. These fonts have been overused, and it has been a while since they have been perceived as ‘fun’,'funky’, or ‘different’ by most viewers. They have become an epic pitfall in the travel industry due to their appearance, and has somehow managed to lead by example.

To put in nicely: If you really want to use them, do so in your 6-year-old’s party invitations.
Also, avoid using too many typefaces and sizes. Stick to two or three max, and use them sparingly.

Check out the following links for some inspiration and tips.

Design You Trust, Type Category

Typesites

Typographica

Type for You

Typography and Lettering

Content

Cut to the chase

This is essential when you are creating a brochure with only one or two pages (front and back). Keep your content brief. When writing about features, amenities, activities, or itineraries, list them as bullet points. Be careful not to repeat content. If you have a website, it might be wise to copy key content from there.
Be sure to highlight what you are promoting. If you are advertising special rates or events, make that clear.

Spell check

I’m not even going into this. Seriously. I am a culprit myself. C’mon people, we have no real excuse for this.

Crystal Clear

Make sure the following is visible and clear on your brochure at all times:

• Contact details
• Website URL (or a link to your most popular intermediary listing)
• Company name or logo
• Your location (State, province, city, suburb etc).

Purpose

What is the purpose of your brochure? Is it to simply tap into a wider field of distribution? Or to advertise a specific product or deal?

Why is this important Peter?

Well, you see, if you are looking to get as much information about your business out there as possible, you are likely to print a load of copies and distribute them widely. If you have a message specifically for loyal customers, you will most probably distribute them electronically using a database, which will affect the nature of the design. If you are advertising a seasonal special with rates, the brochure will probably be outdated in a few weeks.

Remember, a key objective of this post is to keep your costs as low as possible. If you are printing a thousand full colour double sided flyers, you should at least have a strategy when distributing them. Printed media do not have analytics. You won’t get a neat PDF report telling you how many flyers ended up in rubbish bins across town.

Conclusion: keep your market in mind, find out about reliable distribution points, and do not forget the internet as a distribution channel for brochures.

Final thought on production

I hope that this post gave some insight and guidance to those who choose to design their own printed material. It can save you a fair bit of cash if you do not have to contract a designer every time you want to promote a last minute special. It is however very important to be realistic about quality. What is a good looking brochure worth if it is not printed and produced properly? After you have completed your design, find a professional printing company and go have a word with them. They will be able to to tell you whether your finished result is print-ready or whether you need to make some crucial changes.

Let’s not push it. For now, stay away from the home laser printer.

For those of you who feel that a DL is so 2009, here are some great examples of inspiration brochure design. Get creative.

Beautiful Brochures and Booklets on Smashing Magazine

Best of Brochure Design on All Graphic Design

18 Beautiful Brochure Design Samples 0n Youthdesigner.com