The elements of a good brochure design

When you are a student in design school, designing brochures doesn’t sound like the most exciting task. Nevertheless, it can be a very interesting work if you are not working with brochure templates and let your creativity flow. In this post you’ll find a few things you should keep in mind to design better brochures.

Appropriate format

This is the very first step you’ll have to take when creating a brochure. You will usually discuss this with your client, so try to recommend the right medium for the message and type of product your client has to get across.

For example, a tri-fold or z-fold brochure will not be the best choice for luxury products that require lots of white space and big pictures. You will chose one of these narrow formats when you want to present documents that are easy to hand out.

Of course, it is better if you get creative with the format of your brochure. Nowadays many concert organizers create brochures that unfold into a poster. It makes it easy to send by mail, and practical to hang somewhere in the room to make sure the brochure stays visible all the time. The better looking the poster, the more people will hang it, so be artistic if you create this kind of poster.

Some common brochure formats.

White space

This may sound like dull advice, because it could be given for any kind of graphic design project, not only for brochure design. It is however important to remember to keep some well-balanced white space on your brochure for the sake of aesthetics and readability.

I will not go over how to use white space in your designs, I’ll just assume that you know how to do it as a graphic designer. The problem you will run into will probably be that your client doesn’t understand the importance of white space. In that case, check out that post I wrote previously on Designer Daily.

Example of white space from a brochure by Bluefish agency.

Quality printing

Design isn’t only about nicely layout pages, but also about the end physical product that people will hold in their hands. Brochure printing can sound quite boring, but if you know printing techniques well, it can seriously enhance your design.

Some of my favorite techniques, among others, are:

• Letterpress: the inked (or not inked) parts are pressed into the paper, thus creating a nice look and feel.
• Die Cut: irregular shapes created by cutting in the paper. It’s great to create some unusual effects.
• Varnish: a varnish layer that adds a glossy effect, my favorites are partial varnishes.

If you want to learn more about printing techniques, I suggest that you read thisguide to printing techniques on Design Instruct.

The downside of most of these special printing techniques is certainly the cost. You will need to convince your client of the added value for his brochure if you want to use any of these.

Wise choice of colors

Again, this applies to most graphic design products, but the colors is the first thing that people will see on your brochure designs. Color conveys a lot more than just aesthetics, so it’s important to chose it wisely.

Unfortunatly, you will quite often not have much of a choice when picking colors, you’ll have to stick with the corporate identity guidelines of the company you are working for. Nevertheless, be very careful when chosing colors if you have total freedom in that matter. To become a bit better at picking colors, check out Johannes Itten’s book on color, it can be considered as the graphic designer’s bible about color.

Attention to typographic details

Most people who will take the brochure and read it will not notice if you kern the titles good or if your text is justified with perfect space between the words.

Some of the details you should pay specific attention to are: using ligatures, using thin spaces where appropriate, avoiding dumb quotes, avoiding widows and orphans. Of course there is much more to it, but I suggest you read a goodtypographic guide if you forgot about important typographic rules.

Typographic brochure by loretonoce.com.

Use the right paper

Paper is amazing. It can turn a boring design into something great. Try to convince your client to put some money on his brochure’s paper, because it’s well worth it.

Some of the high-end paper providers are:

• Gmund: a german company, their papers are amazing, check out the collection.
• Conqueror: one of the most famous brands, they have a great website to demonstrate their paper’s possibilities.
• Neenah paper: another great paper provider, I’m a sucker for their Astroparch paper.

Make sure that you get some samples to show your client, you must see and touch the paper to know whether you like it or not.

Retouching a Studio Portrait Photoshop Tutorial

Retouching the background

Here is the original image. As a photo it looks fine but it looks flat and boring. This Photoshop tutorial will show you techniques used to make the photo have a stronger impact. You can follow this tutorial with one of your own image or you can use the image below:

Creating the mask

The first step is to isolate the model from the background. I used the extract and color range tool to create this. First I used the extract tool (Filter > Extract) but it didn’t work very well for the hair.

I then use the color range tool (Select > Color Range) to select the areas that were hard to extract using the extract tool.

Now we have a mask in it’s own layer.

Adding a gradient to the background

With the mask created, I can add a gradient to the background. Adding a gradient to the background is a simple and effective way to enhance a boring background. Here is a preview of what the layers will look like in the end.

To create a gradient background, we’ll be adding a gradient fill layer using the mask that we just created. To do that, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the layer thumbnail of the layer “Mask”. It will load the selection of the layer. Choose Select > Inverse to inverse the selection. Then, choose Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient.

In the Gradient Fill tool, move the center of the gradient behind the head. You can do this by clicking and dragging on the document window.

To increase contrast, you can change the gradient so that it is like the image below.

Finally, adjust the opacity of the Gradient Fill layer. I set mine to 50% opacity.

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Tone

Begin by creating a new layer for dodging and burning. Position the layer above the gradient fill adjustment layer. Then, change the blending mode to soft light.

Choose Edit > Fill and use the settings below. 

The layer should now be filled with a 50% gray.

Add a layer mask using the shape from the Mask layer. Hold down the Ctrl key and click on the layer thumbnail of the Mask layer . Then, click on the  in the layers palette to add a layer mask.

Click back on the 50% gray layer thumbnail and use the dodge and burn tools. For the image below, I used the burn tool to darken the models right side of the face, hair, top, and her arms. Then, I use the dodge tool to brighten the other side of the models face.

Here is a before and after effect of the dodging and burning.

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Eye Brightening

Brightening the eyes will have a dramatic effect. It can be easily done by using a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer. Choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast to add a new Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer. Rename this layer toBrighten Eyes.

For now, set the brightness to 50 and contrast to 33.

Select the layer mask and choose Image > Adjustments > Invert. This will invert the layer mask from white to black.

Using the brush tool, paint the layer mask where the eyes are. You should see the eyes brighten as you paint. Then, go back into the Brightness/Contrast settings and readjust the settings.

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Hair Shine

Finally, we’ll add a shine to the hair. Start by using the quick selection or magic wand tool to create a selection of the hair around the area where you want the shine to appear.

With the selection, choose Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient. Position the layer above theBrightenEye layer. Change the blending mode of the Hair Shine layer to overlay. You should have a layer like the image below.

Go back into the Gradient Fill settings. Set the gradient to white to black and style to reflected. Checkmark the reverse option then click and drag on the document window and position the gradient where you want the hair shine to appear. Adjust the scale.

In the Gradient Fill window, click on the gradient to edit it. You should have a window like the image below. Create a gradient like the image below. To do this, click and drag the top left input slider to the middle of the gradient bar. Do the same with the bottom left input slider. Then, click on the individual input sliders and adjust the settings as shown in the image below.

We now have a hair shine but it does not match the color of the hair. We’ll add back a little of the hair color to the shine.

1. Click on the bottom left input slider.
2. Click on the color setting and a color picker window will appear.
3. Click on the hair to capture the color of the hair.
4. Move the color picker towards the top left until the hair color looks natural.
5. Click OK three times to exit out of the gradient settings.

We have added the hair shine but if you look closely, you can see some artifacts.

We can easily fix this by blurring the layer mask. Select the Hair Shine layer mask then choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Adjust the settings until the unclean edge fades.

If the hair shine is overlapping the skin, use the Minimum filter to hide it. Choose Filter > Other > Minimum and adjust the slider.

Here is the before and after effect of adding hair shine. You can add emphasis to the eyes by aligning the hair shine with the eyes.

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Final Results

CREATE GLOOMY HOUSE SCENE IN PHOTOSHOP

CREATE GLOOMY HOUSE SCENE IN PHOTOSHOP

Step 1

First of all, open the house image in photoshop. This image will be the background layer in the layer panel. Duplicate the house image (Ctrl+J) one time. Rename this duplicate layer house.

We can resize the document into smaller size by going to image > image size. Set the size as the one indicated in the screenshot below.

Step 2

We will do some editing on the house by hiding some parts unnecessary like the twigs in front of the house. To do this purpose, we will cut out some part of the lawn and use the cut out to cover the front twigs. The screenshot below shows the part of the lawn to be cut out. It is indicated in red part.

Take the cutting tool that is familiar to you (I myself usually use the pen tool (P) to do this) and make selection to the part to be cut out. After selecting the part, duplicate (Ctrl+J) to cut out it into a new single layer.

Now give this cut out layer a layer mask by going to layer > layer mask > reveal all. Mask the edges of the layer to make it well blended. Use a very soft (0% hardness) round brush (B) with low opacity to do this purpose. Here is the result:

Duplicate (Ctrl+J) the cut out layer one time. Move the duplicate to the part where the twigs are still visible.

Mask some the edges of this layer to have the result as the one below:

Step 3

Again cut out the other lawn on the house image.

Move the duplicate to the areas where needed.

Mask out some part of the cut out. Here is the result I created.

Step 4

In the next few steps, we will proceed to clean up the twigs in front of the house. We just do repeating the same simple steps as in previous steps like cutting out some parts, moving and masking. This time we will cut out the terrace in front of the main door. Move the cut out to the front of the second door. Remember to mask some part where needed.

Step 5

Do the same ways to cover the twigs in front of the wall. Cut out the brick of the wall. Use the cut out to cover the other brick where the twigs are visible. Mask some part of the cut out to make the transition of the images well blended.

Do the same way to cover the other brick.

Duplicate (Ctrl+J) the cut out and use the duplicate to cover twigs on the other bricks.

Step 6

Proceed to clean the rest of the twigs in the second door. We can simply cut out the main door and use the cut out as the replacement of the second one.

Here is the result I created after cleaning the twigs on the roof, replacing the lower window with the upper one, adding some shadow on some areas where needed. To add some shadow, we can paint over the part where the shadow should fall. Follow the original house image to define it. Use black color stroked with a very soft round brush with low opacity of 10-15%. After finding desired result, select all the house layers and hit Ctrl+E to merge them into a single layer. Name the layer house.

Step 7

Now we will add background for the scene. Firstly we should erase the cloud background of the original image as indicated in red lined part.

Again to do this purpose, take the pen tool (P). Select the mentioned part to be erased. After selecting the part, hit del on the keyboard to delete it. Here is the result for your inspiration.

Step 8

We will give the house more sharpening look. To do this, give this layer some filter: unsharp mask. While being active on the house layer, go to filter > sharpen > unsharp mask. Set the filter as the one shown in the screenshot.

We have this result.

Step 9

Proceed to add some cloud texture for the background of the scene. Open the cloud image in the document. Position the cloud layer below the house layer.

Take free transform tool (Ctrl+T). Scale the image to the size needed. We will take the brightest part of the cloud used as the cloud texture for the background. After scaling, place the brightest cloud in the upper position behind the left part of the roof’s house. Here is the result we have for inspiration.

Duplicate (Ctrl+J) the cloud layer. Move the duplicate to the position where the brightest cloud of the image is in the upper position behind the right part of the roof’s house.

Here is the result we should have:

Duplicate (Ctrl+J) the cloud layer once again and place the duplicate to cover the blank part with cloud texture. This is the result I created. Select all the cloud layers and hit Ctrl+G to group them into a folder. Name this folder/group cloud BG.

Step 10

Next we will fix the tree beside the house. We will add leaves for the tree.

To add the leaves for the tree, we will paint them for it using brush (B) provided in photoshop. Take the brush tool (B) and open the brush panel to set the shape the brush shape. Follow the setting as below:

After setting the brush, set the foreground color to #006113 and the background to #174f01. Create a new layer by hitting Shift+Ctrl+N. Name this new layer leaves. On this layer, stroke the brush on parts where the leaves should be added. Try to vary the size of the brush to get desired result. Here is the result for inspiration.

Step 11

Now we will set overall color for the scene. Create a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N) above all the layers. Fill the layer (by hitting Shift+F5) with solid color of #09425f. Name this layer blue.

Set this layer to soft light blending at 100% opacity.

Duplicate (Ctrl+J) this blue layer. Set the duplicate to color blending at 100% opacity. This will give the scene overall blue tone.

We should reveal the green color of the lawn and leaves a bit. To do this, we should give the duplicate layer a layer mask. Mask some part around the lawn and leaves.

Next duplicate the blue layer once again. Set this duplicate to linier light at about 60% opacity. This will give the scene stronger bluish tone. Actually, we don’t need the bluish tone this much. We will hide the bluish effect a bit more by masking some part around the house, lawn, leaves and cloud.

Give the duplicate layer a layer mask. With very soft round brush, mask some areas mentioned before. We should vary the brush stroke and size when we want to mask some part of the cloud using the setting as the ones below to define cloud texture. Here is the setting:

Here is the result of the layer mask should look like I created. The parts marked in lined red are the masked parts stroked with the brush set before. The other parts are the ones stroked with a very soft round brush with clear brush control.

Here is the scene look like after masking.

Step 12

Now give the scene new adjustment layers. Go to layer > new adjustment layer > brightness/contrast. Set this layer to normal at 60% opacity

Give another adjustment layer: curves. Set this layer to normal blending at 100% opacity.

Step 13

Create a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N) above all the other layers. Name this layer color. On this layer, paint color texture like the one below. This texture is combination of color dark blue #010b15 and greenish dark blue #041c28. Why do we choose this color combination? We will create gloomy misty nuance to the scene. This color combination will be a help to achieve this.

Set this layer to exclusion blending mode at 100% opacity.

Duplicate this layer two times. Set the first duplicate to exclusion blending at 100% opacity and the second one to multiply at 35% opacity. Give these two duplicates layer masks. Mask areas around the brightest cloud background and the top most part of the roof.

Step 14

Proceed to give another new adjustment layer above all the other layers. Go again to layer > new adjustment layers > brightness/contrast. Set this layer to normal blending at 80% opacity.