I have seen many of the new color brochure samples being released today for free, and let me tell you, most of these new designs are actually getting too much for proper and effective business brochures. While these types of designs for brochures can be considered modern and even innovative, the practicality of it is sometimes questionable.
If you are considering using a very wild or untested design in your color brochures, you should try to be careful what to choose. There is such a thing as a dividing line in color brochure printing where creativity and the unpractical type of designs meet. So to help you decide how much is too much in your brochure printing, here are a few tips that should help you figure out when your design is already becoming a little bit too much for true business brochures.
When there are 4 dominant colors or more.
When your color scheme is made up of four colors or more, I would definitely say that your color brochures are too much. Too many colors in brochure printing tend to make the layout typically look cluttered, unwieldy and generally just ugly and incoherent.
So make sure that you settle for a color scheme that uses three colors or even fewer. In fact, it is best to stick to one main color and just use slight variations from that main theme. Believe me, doing this leads to a more professional and good looking design that really looks better than brochures with overflowing colors.
When the folds get too complicated.
If your brochure folds are getting too complicated with five or more folds and with folds in different directions and orientations, then I would take it as a sign that your brochures have been designed too much.
Custom brochures are supposed to be prints that are an easy read. If your brochure gets too complicated with its folds in the name of creativity, the consequence of that would be brochures that are harder to read. This should not happen really, so you should avoid using overtly complicated folds. Stick to the trifold brochures and its minor 2-3 fold variations. It will be a lot better for the reader, trust me.
When the text and image balance is off.
Balance is important in most brochures today. If the text overpowers the images in a brochure or vice versa, you can kiss your effective promotional brochure goodbye. When the balance is off, the reader can get too much of that brochure element, either getting too tired with too much text, or getting little information with only a gallery of images. So make sure that you balance your text and images out properly. A one out of 3 area ratio for pictures and text respectively should be enough.
When the size makes it difficult to keep the brochures.
If the brochure design you made is too big to easily keep in a pocket or bag, then your color brochures have been overly done. A brochure is supposed to be easily kept by people for later reference. If your own color brochure design cannot easily be kept because of its large size, then it is quite ineffective really as a promotional brochure. So make sure you choose some standard brochure templates that can easily be stored by readers.
Now you know when your color brochures become too much or not. Make sure you remember these signs well and try to avoid this from happening in your own brochure printing.
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