Advances in equipment and software technology, and reductions in their costs, continue to make it easier than ever for clubs to create their own communications materials— both of the printed variety (brochures, newsletters) and in electronic form (Web site pages, .PDFs that can be e-mailed or downloaded). Certainly, desktop publishing has become userfriendly enough that clubs don’t need journalism school graduates on staff to be able to create timely, cost-effective and distinctive materials.
But even with all of these newfound capabilities, you, or the people you put in charge of producing your published materials, still need to have an idea of what to do—and just as importantly, what not to do—with the publishing capabilities that are now at your fingertips. If you approach desktop publishing aimlessly, the final result is sure to reflect your lack of structure or a plan. And your materials are more likely to end up with the amateurish, “ransom note” look that not only won’t reflect well on your organization, but more critically, will fail to achieve your communication goals.
The problem for most people who aren’t formally trained as graphic designers or editors is that they know what looks good when they see it—but trying to get to that look from scratch is an entirely different proposition. It doesn’t have to be that way, though. By following some simple guidelines, anyone can approach printed or electronic communications duties with a level of confidence that will clearly emerge in the finished product.
Resisting Wretched Excess
More than anything, producing distinctive desktop output calls for restraint. It’s easy and tempting, given today’s equipment and software and their powerful capabilities, to quickly become excessive in the use of colors, typefaces and available /images. But even with everything that’s at your disposal, you need to establish rules of order and restraint, and then stay within the limits you’ve defined for yourself. It’s only after you’ve set those limits that you can really begin to design aesthetically pleasing and visually effective communications materials.
Barbara Cliburn, Membership Assistant at Thunder Canyon in Washoe Valley, Nev., knows all too well the importance of restraint. In her four-year tenure at Thunder Canyon, she’s moved up the ranks from receptionist to membership administration, and is now responsible for most of the graphic design for the property’s printed materials.
Cliburn wasn’t always as well-versed in design as she is now. She took a series of 14 design courses at a local school, and Thunder Canyon footed the entire bill. For that opportunity to enhance her skills, Cliburn is certainly very grateful.
But don’t worry. Even if it isn’t possible to send those who handle desktop publishing duties in your organization to design classes, Cliburn can attest, through her experience and newfound knowledge, that using several easy-to-learn rules will immediately make a world of difference. Here are some key steps that can quickly and easily get you on the right path toward more professional-looking communications pieces.
1. Know What You Want to Accomplish
Before even getting into the technicalities of good publication design, you have to think of the big picture.What is it you want to get across to your members? Do you want to simply force-feed them information, or do you want to do it in a way that reflects your club’s values? A club or resort centered around family activities will very likely—and should—take a very different approach with its publications than a club that caters mostly to wealthy businessmen.
“Keep in mind the business aspect of your newsletters and fliers, and know who your readers are,” Cliburn advises. “Keep it sharp. Clean, crisp lines are good for business publications.”
A club newsletter can contain several types of information. For example, event listings are common, but how should you design yours? A simple month-by-month listing can be effective, but if your newsletter lacks graphic elements, it can be more visually appealing to lay out the design as if it were a calendar.
And in fact, while a listing format is probably better for clubs that wish to include a lot of supplementary information—such as times of events, type of refreshments, required dress, etc.—it can be counterproductive if the primary goal is simply to remind members that the club is closed on Mondays, and that Sunday nights feature a prime rib buffet. For regularly repeating events or notices, it can be much easier, and more effective, to simply highlight them in a calendar format column and be done with it.
In all cases, content decisions should be made with Cliburn’s advice to “know your readers”—a basic journalism tenet—foremost in mind. Is the particular piece you are designing intended for members, or is it a marketing piece designed to attract new potential members or guests?
If it’s the former, you can be much more judicious with the amount of information you provide. Your members know how to get to the club, so is it critical to include directions in all memberoriented pieces? Most members probably even know whether cell phones are permitted in the clubhouse, or a jacket is required in a particular dining room. So, beyond your membership handbook, it’s probably best to leave this kind of information out of other materials, unless your membership is desperately in need of a remedial course in club etiquette.
Eliminating “boilerplate” like this whenever possible can greatly improve publication design by reducing clutter (another lesson from Journalism 101: White space is a good thing!). And it will also help you use the freed-up space for something more newsworthy, and make it easier for readers to “cut to the chase” and recognize, and retain, relevant information much more readily.
But here’s another important test: If, after ridding your pieces of a lot of “filler” material, you come to realize that you don’t have much else to say, maybe it’s time to think about cutting back on the number of pages, and/or frequency, of your newsletters, magazines or brochures. This can not only greatly reduce design, production, printing and mailing time and costs, it can also make your pieces much more effective when you do put them out.
2. Less is More
As already noted, it’s way too easy to spot a flier, newsletter or brochure produced by an amateur. Even if you can’t first put your finger on just why that feeling comes through, a closer look will usually reveal the cause: The “designer” has run amok with typefaces, like a kid with a new box of 64 crayons in a room with freshly painted walls.
The proliferation of typefaces, or “fonts,” in word-processing and desktop publishing programs has made it far too easy to strive for “different” looks just by pulling down menus and selecting options for new type styles. But uncontrolled use of a “fun font” that looks like a child’s handwriting, especially if it’s combined with equally too-available “clip art,” is the quickest way to make your pieces indistinguishable from school bake-sale announcements.
So here, too, the key lesson is one of restraint. A good rule of thumb is that no more than three typefaces should be used in a particular layout. An even better practice is to take that guideline one step further, and limit yourself to three fonts for every piece of printed collateral you produce through desktop publishing—not only your November newsletter, but also the December and January issue
s, tournament fliers, pro shop sale announcements, and everything else. This policy will not only go a long way toward cleaning up the look of any one piece, it will help to establish an image of consistent professionalism for your club or resort.
At Thunder Canyon, Barbara Cliburn goes even further and limits herself to two basic fonts. This gives her the flexibility to fall back on a third, “fun” font as needed for special effects—for example, if she’s producing a piece that promotes a Western-themed event, she’ll choose a font that evokes the proper “y’all better be there” spirit. But just remember—you can’t break the rules unless you have them in the first place.
When fonts need to be limited to this extent, is it still possible to achieve any kind of distinctive look? Certainly. There’s no right or wrong answer as to which are the best typefaces to use, and the fact that there are so many already available, with more coming on stream all the time, makes it important to carefully study all of the options before you set your limits. Just make sure, as part of this selection process, to look at how the typefaces that you’re leaning towards will look in all of their forms—big and small, bold, italic, and so forth. Many typefaces look good in their “basic” forms, but have quirks that make them far less readable with certain variations.
Another standard to follow is to have both a serif and sans-serif font among your final choices (serifs are the embellishments that appear in some typefaces at the ends of letter strokes; sansserif fonts, sans being the French word for “without,” are much plainer in appearance). By choosing one of each type, you gain flexibility that allows you to juxtapose two blocks of type next to each other, without interfering with each other. Your third font choice should be something you want to use for headlines. It can have a little more flair, but should stay true to the club’s image.
In general, avoid fonts that look like handwriting or calligraphy. These are hard to read, and can get old fast. The same goes for “themed” fonts (evoking specific eras or regions, like “Edwardian” or “Algerian”). Overwhelmed by all of the choices? A good place to start is to take your club’s logo, and then strive to find typefaces that mimic or complement it. This is also a great way to tie everything together with a uniform look.
Once your basic font library has been established, standard features such as boldface and italic can be used to introduce more variation and interest to what you’ve decided to work with. A word of caution is needed here, too, though: Remember that the more you use these variations, the less effective they’ll be each time. Also, remember that TYPE IN “ALL CAPS” IS THE LITERARY EQUIVALENT OF SHOUTING—so lay off the “Shift” key. Boldface treatments are a less confrontational, easier-to-read, and much more professional way to create emphasis. But again, don’t overdo it, if you really want to drive certain points home.
Size and color—if budget allows—are also great tools to use to make a limited set of fonts go further. But again, stick with the rule of three. A rainbow of colors, like too many fonts, can be another telltale sign of an undisciplined, amateurish approach. Thunder Canyon’s Cliburn has learned to limit herself to the colors that appear in the club’s logo: orange, burgundy and blue. Of course, black and white are freebies, and photos are always a great way to introduce a more varied palette into the mix—not to mention a break from all the words.
3) Don’t Reinvent the Page
Here’s another theme that many have a hard time learning and adhering to, but is equally critical to clean, effective publication design: You still have to color within the lines. Most amateur designers start with a blank page and wonder how they’re going to fill it. Instead of first sketching out a layout, they jump right in, usually in the top left corner, and set about trying to fill the entire page. The result is a piece with no focal point; the eye doesn’t know where to go or what to read first. And with this approach, there is no chance of continuity in design from piece to piece or issue to issue.
That’s why building a library of templates for all of your communications pieces is a critical component to professional and effective publishing. Think of a formal business letter: It follows a template and every element—date, greeting, body copy, and closing—is easy to find and recognize. Today's Tech v7.qxd 10/6/05 11:16 AM Page 57 Your other communications pieces shouldn’t be any different. Even “fliers,” despite their informal nature, can benefit from templates that establish pre-determined spaces for the event name, time and location, type of attire expected, sign-up deadline, RSVP information, and any other routine details. Room can still be left within the template for miscellaneous items or special touches.
Taking time up front to design templates (which are easy to create in every word-processing and desktop publishing software program) will not only help you achieve a consistent look for all of your pieces, they’ll also be a huge timesaver each time you’re faced with a new deadline— and a new “blank page.”
4) Leave Room for the Experts
With all of these tools in hand, is there still a need for professional outside help when executing printed and electronic communication materials? Yes, and no. If you’re confident in your skills, you can save a lot of money by bringing more aspects of newsletter and flier production in-house. You’ll still have to pay for materials, but you won’t have to pay designers’ markups.
Thunder Canyon brought its production inhouse by purchasing a color copier on which Cliburn now prints about 350 newsletters each month, in addition to all of the club’s fliers and invitations to member events.
The club’s more elaborate marketing materials, though, are still outsourced. Like many properties, Thunder Canyon recognizes that when presenting your club to non-members, it’s more important than ever to present a professional look. And while you may be able to produce internal materials that get the job done well, it’s virtually impossible to do glossy, tri-fold brochures on heavy stock with an in-house operation; the required equipment’s purchase price alone makes it prohibitive for all but the very largest operations.
Finally, no matter who will be doing the work, there’s this last piece of timeless advice from Cliburn: “Proofread!” C&RB
The Good, the Bad and Avoiding the Ugly
The tri-fold brochure, below, is a good example of how a single communications piece can be either good or bad, depending on its intended audience. In either case, though, this piece certainly isn’t ugly. The left panel does a good job of providing information in a clear and concise way. Even though a single font is used, there is clear separation between items, which makes them easy to read. The center panel gives directions to the club. This is good if the piece is aimed at non-members, but a wasted effort if only members see this brochure. And finally, the front panel, at the right, makes good use of color and design elements. The red “tears” at the corners of the photo are a design element that is carried through much of Thunder Canyon’s communications materials. This is the type of piece that you could print in-house and fold yourself, but if it were a more formal brochure going out to nonmembers to entice them to join, it would be best left to a professio
nal printer, using a heavy, glossy stock.
Summing It Up
• Know your audience and project the right tone in your communications materials.
• Limit yourself to two or three fonts and colors for a clean look.
• Use templates to give your newsletters and fliers a consistent look. It also cuts down on design time.
• Leave room for the experts. Even the best trained graphic designers don’t always have the equipment for in-house production.
Recurring Events and Calendars
Calendars are ubiquitous among club newsletters. Sometimes they’re no more than a reminder that the club is closed on Mondays and there’s a brunch buffet on Sunday mornings— hardly the most effective use of space. For recurring events like these, especially if that’s all you have, try listing them separately. Thunder Canyon’s calendar (below) does a good job of this. They’ve listed the Franktown Grill hours at the bottom, as well as some other key scheduling information. They’ve also included some of these items in the calendar itself, but it was done judiciously. Those items do not detract from the truly necessary calendar entries that are more unique to that particular month. Here are some other elements that make this design effective:
• The majority of the page is in the same font, but size and boldness vary to create interest.
• The colors are simple and used with restraint.
• An open and clean layout has plenty of white space, leaving room for members’ own notes.
• There’s no distracting or useless clip art.
• A template was used, and each month looks more or less the same.
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