Making a Brochure Using Microsoft Word: Planning Your Document

As is the case with most information design tasks, the process of creating a brochure or pamphlet has to begin before you fire up the computer and start typing. You have to start by answering some questions:

• Who is your audience? How should you write to that audience? What do they need to know? Try to put yourself in their shoes.

• What information should you include? In making a brochure, remember, you have very limited space and you have discrete pages, so you have to be selective and you have to divide up your information appropriately. What information do you have? How can the information be categorized? What categories make the most sense for your audience? What information do they need and what order do they need it in?

• What basic layout do you imagine for that information? It's best to begin any design project with a pencil and paper (or colored pencils if you are going to get fancy). Draw a sketch of where things will likely go and how you hope they will fit. Especially when you are working as a group, a picture will help you in the planning stage. When designing a brochure, you should begin with two sheets of paper (representing the two sides of the brochure page) folded in three, so that you have a six-panel field on which to display your information. How will the brochure be folded? Where is the first page? The diagram below shows you the typical arrangement for a "barrel fold" brochure:

• What should go on each individual page? You will likely need a cover, for example, so that your audience will recognize the information your brochure contains. What should be the title of your document? Should you have an image on the cover? Of what? What order should your information go in? How should it be subordinated? What should be on the back page (page 6)? If you are going to mail your brochure, for example, you will want to leave open space for an address on page 6. If it is going to be distributed freely by hand or at open access locations, an address panel would be a waste of space -- but the last page is like a back cover, in a way, and you will want to take that into consideration as well. In some cases you can combine pages -- especially pages 4 and 5, which work together well.

• What graphical and design elements make sense for the type of project you are doing? Do you want to include pictures, maps, or diagrams? Do you want to have a graphical theme? What color do you want to use? Sometimes it helps to look at models, just to get an idea of what is possible with any design. But you will want to come up with your own design to fit the specific project you are doing.

Once you have your basic design, we should head for the computer lab where you can start working.

Next Step --> We are ready to go into the lab to start Working with Word.