Designing Brochures That Get Read

The brochure is one of the most common print formats and one of the most frequently designed badly. Not badly in terms of aesthetics — badly in terms of whether anyone actually reads it. Most brochures are designed to contain information, not to communicate it. The distinction matters.

The Reading Path Problem

A brochure is not a website. You can't track how people move through it. You can't optimize based on analytics. You have to understand the reader's experience in advance and design for it.

Most readers of a brochure spend approximately three seconds deciding whether to read further. In those three seconds, they experience the cover, and possibly the first spread if the brochure is open. If those first moments don't promise them something worth their continued attention, the brochure goes in the bag and then in the bin.

The first communication task is not to present information. It's to earn the right to present information.

Covers That Do Work

A good brochure cover communicates one thing clearly and makes the reader want to open it. Not three things. One.

The one thing might be: who this is for. Or: what transformation is promised. Or simply: this is beautiful and worth a closer look. Any of these is sufficient. The cover doesn't need to explain the full offer — it needs to generate enough interest to prompt the next action.

The covers that fail are those trying to communicate everything: the company name, the service offerings, the key differentiators, the company history, the tagline. All at once, fighting for attention, communicating nothing.

Internal Structure

Inside the brochure, every spread is a communication unit. Each spread should have one primary message — one thing the reader should take away from this spread. The supporting copy, imagery, and graphic elements on the spread all serve that primary message.

When spreads don't have a primary message — when they're collections of related information without a hierarchy — readers lose the thread. They can't tell what's important, so they skim and retain nothing.

Copy Length Is a Design Decision

How much copy appears in a brochure is a design decision, not just a content decision. Long copy requires a reader who's already engaged. Short copy reaches readers who aren't yet engaged but might become so.

For most brochures, I advocate for less copy than the client initially proposes. Not because brevity is inherently better, but because the copy that's included should be copy that earns its place. Every paragraph should either advance the reader's understanding or make them want to continue. Paragraphs that do neither should be cut.

The Action Step

Every brochure should end with a clear action step. What does the reader do next? Visit a website? Call a number? Return a response card? The action step should be prominent, specific, and easy to execute.

A brochure that communicates effectively but doesn't prompt action has succeeded at communication and failed at the job. Information without a next step is just information.