By: Brad Kartel
Submitted: 2010-10-25 09:16:29 | Word Count: 781
While folder printing and design remains to be an easy enough process, some newcomers still get trapped into making presentation folders that are raw, amateurish or just plain bad. In this guide, I am going to tell you about the worst kinds of folder printing, so that you can avoid that bad fate of designing bad presentation folders. So study the list below and remember the nature of these mistakes.
a. The plain design – Of course, you should beware of creating a plain design for folder printing. The plain design is a product of pure laziness and lack of imagination. When you think that a folder is not really important for a presentation of documents, this is what you will usually end up with. Plain designs with just the barest amount of text and image elements and no distinct background color at all will be a bad sign for your presentation. The audience will hardly be impressed, and the documents inside them will hardly be memorable. So if you are feeling lazy with your designs for presentation folders, try to fight it. You don’t want to print folders with plain designs that are hardly worth the effort.
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b. The patchwork design – Another bad design concept that you should avoid in custom folder printing is the patchwork type design. This is the design concept that happens when a designer just inserts and piles up different design elements that he or she deems great. Those images and text styles might look good individually, but if you combine them into a folder design, some of them might not really match well. This kind of design is especially common in some amateur public relations presentation folders where the person designing it wants to put in all the great staff and process images into one folder design.
So try to avoid this from happening. Try to develop a very coherent theme with your design. Decide on one specific concept first and then choose the right font styles and images that contribute to that concept. Do not just choose anything that looks great.
c. The template design – You should also try to avoid the template style of folder design. This design usually comes from people who rely too much on templates. When this happens, their designs become too dependent on the set template that it does not look too customized. The folder design becomes very common-looking with absolutely nothing about it becoming remarkable. You won’t want this type of design of course for your presentations or campaigns.
To avoid this from happening to you, always strive to customize the design of your presentation folders even if you use a template. The template is your guide, and it should not be your design itself. So always try and make your own mark on a folder template, trust me it will make all your custom folders very distinct.
d. The overloaded design – Sometimes, people can get too excited with their designs that they overload the whole custom folder already, to the detriment of its layout. Usually an overloaded design is characterized by having too many images, text and other symbols, textures and filters. To avoid this from happening, all you really need to do is to minimize your design elements to only the most crucial ones. Practice some restraint in the effects and filters as well, unless they are really needed for your concept. Try to always review and have others review your work so that they can tell you if you have gone too far or not.
e. The cheap design – Finally, you should always avoid the cheap type of design. This is marked by the use of cheap materials in folder printing. You should know of course that cheap materials will have an impact on the overall look of your presentation folder. Cheap materials are usually rough and the inks usually are prone to fading.
That is why it is best of course to use the best folder printing materials that you can afford. You should try to get a thick enough folder with a smooth paper quality to it. Moreover, you should always try to get water resistant quick drying inks for printing. With all the right paper elements, your presentation folder should look more promising and professional, leading people to trust it more.
Great! Now you know what to avoid in folder printing. Make sure that you pay attention to your designs and never fall into these traps in folder layouts. Good Luck!
Author Resource:-
Brad Kartel is a marketing executive whose passion is helping business owners build their campaign through custom folder printing. Learn how to create presentation folders.
