In a simple definition, a booklet is a standard tool for advertising, used mainly by corporations and usually they contain various information, reports, achievements, portfolio and goals. A booklet has a limited number of pages and you can find it in receptions, conference rooms, waiting rooms or just laying around on a table.

If you are planing to advertise a product using a booklet you need to keep in mind some important facts: it must be extremely well made and very informative in order to focus users’ attention and effectively convey the message. Don’t forget that time is precious and not everybody will want to read a whole book (even if it’s small) just to look at a product.

A booklet printing is effective when the consumer already knows the product and he wants more details, so in most cases it will be useless to give it to someone who is not interested. Comparing it with a standard advertising image, the second one is better when you want to introduce a potential costumer to your product.

Creating a booklet is a lot harder than other types of advertising materials because you need to keep an eye on various things like layout, imposition and printing.

– The margin within the booklet should have enough area to insert the holes for binding. If you have a low budget, you should choose a two color or four hues for your booklet.

– Make your booklet uncomplicated – two or four pages with all the information and the rest with useful images. A person should finish reading it in a few minutes, and by the point he’s done, your booklet must leave the feeling that he needs your product.

Also, you can just hand over booklets to every stranger in the street. You need to have a show point, a place where everybody can find them. For example if you advertise a hotel, holiday trip or a apartment for rent, you should talk with travel agencies in order to give you permission to place them there. But what if you are a freelancer designer and you work at home? How can the potential customers get in touch with them?

There are many questions when it comes to booklet advertising. I believe that this method should only be used when the consumer already knows your brand and you want to inform them about a new product, or when you start a brand new business and you want to promote it with every mean.

Below you can see a few examples of great booklet designs.

Rapture

Designed by Ana Ferreira

” Rapture is an independent publication created, printed and designed by me, where I had the pleasure to explore several printing techniques: silkscreening, movable type, nylon print, and linoleum carving. “

Loyola University Maryland Acceptance Packet

Designed by Dan Blackman

” The Loyola acceptance packet is arguably the most important part of the University’s information flow: it is the final opportunity to convince an accepted student to deposit, enroll, and invest the next four years of their life at Loyola. Keeping this in mind, the Loyola Acceptance Initiative was designed to give accepted students a broad perspective of their next four years at Loyola. Quite simply, the content mimics the experience of being a greyhound, intellectually, socially, religiously, and personally. “

Whitney & Andrew Save the Date

Designed by Whitney Hays

” This is the save the date for my upcoming wedding in June. [I also mailed a copy since I am only attaching one photo.] The wedding is taking place in a beach community in Long Island accessible only be ferry. My fiance and I came up with the idea for “We’re Taking the Plunge!” because there is a tradition of jumping off the dock when the ferry leaves. We wanted it to be fun and go with the beach theme and personal to all the people who know the tradition. “

Art of the Beat

Designed by Kate Thomas, Jamie Mixon, Chad Anderson

” I love pattern and repetition. It has been a constant theme in my work. So when I needed to create a self-promo to potential employers, I knew that would be my theme. I found this amazing site and saw a correlation between my sketchbook and many of the designs for these old album covers. “

Print handbook

Designed by The Media Collective

” We started looking for a reference book that we could use for our own design work at The Media Collective. Once we found there wasn’t one we were happy with we thought it’d be a great idea to do our own.

We really wanted something that was compact and included a lot of the questions we had about printing, as well as reference material. There’s a lot of advice around about different areas of printing, but we wanted to see it in the flesh.

For example, we had questions like “we know using a rich black with 40% cyan is often recommended by printers, but does this give you a black that is too cool in colour?”. So in the handbook we’ve got some examples for comparison. “

The Rules for the Conduct of Life

Designed by Asha

” The Rules for the Conduct of Life was a somewhat dusty old book first published in 1740 as a set of standards for Freemen of The City of London. St Lawrence Jewry is the official church of The City of London and it’s vicar Canon David Parrott recently translated the text into modern English. We were approached by David to design the new edition; we saw great potential making it sensitive to contemporary needs. “

DeviantART Event

Designed by DeviantART

” At deviantART we have a pervasive urban/textural style to a lot of our branded work, and considering this booklet was a special party invitation I wanted to do something that would stand out. We all knew it needed to be a keepsake, since our community loves attending events and would want to remember our 10th birthday for a long time.  “

New Zeland Department of Labor

Designed by Tim Hansen

With its futuristic look and a clever design, the booklet teaches the reader everything he should know about starting a career, working and retire.

Everything is Swell

Designed by Goldlunchbox

” The booklet includes “A message to the fam letting them know everything is A-OK, a chart showing the things we miss the most in order of less missed to most missed, and a cute little poem my wife wrote about Big Texas thunderstorms. “

Elvine

Designed by Next Century Modern

” This brand booklet is both traditional and untraditional, which in many ways plays well into the philosophy of Elvine, a Swedish clothing brand inspired by Gothenburg’s unrefined subcultures and the legacy of traditional craftsmanship, which goes by the motto: sophisticated clothes for unsophisticated behavior. “