Political

Campaign Corner: How to make Focus leaflets look better

Berrylands Focus leaflet for Sushila Abraham

The Campaign Corner series looks to give three tips about commonly asked campaign issues. Do get in touch if you have any questions you would like to suggest.

Today’s Campaign Corner question: I understand some of the principles of graphic design, but I’m not a professional designer. What are the easiest ways to make my Focus leaflets look better?

  1. Headlines: make your headlines big, short and clear. Put the leaflet on the floor and stand over it. If you glance down can you (a) easily read the headlines and (b) get from them the main messages? If not, make the headlines better/bigger – as a quick glance at the headlines is often all a leaflet will get before someone decides to read more or bin it. Even if they do decide to bin it, with the right headlines they will have got the main messages.
  2. Captions on photos: after the headlines, captions on photographs are one of the most read pieces of text – if they exist. Printing a photo without a caption is like saying “Sod it, let’s just pass up one of the best opportunities to get people to read what we want to say”. A photo without a caption should be the extremely rare occurrence when a moment of contrary design brilliance really is needed.
  3. Less is more: big headlines get more attention. Big photographs have more of a visual impact. White space makes text easy to read. In other words, keep a tight limit on your word count and remember – fewer words usually means a better design and so more words actually getting read.

Got any other tips? Please do share them in the comment thread below.

Want to know more about local campaigning? Campaigning In Your Community by myself and Shaun Roberts should be right up your street. It’s available for only £4 from ALDC and you can read an extract for free here.

Previous Campaign Corners have included:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

All comments and data you submit with them will be handled in line with the privacy and moderation policies.