Designing Flyers

The point of a flyer is to have some eyecatching elements while conveying information.  With that in mind, the follwing generalizations and advice:

a.  Size Matters

8.5x11” flyers are okay to hand out, handbills (flyers printed four to a sheet) are even easier to distribute (they fit in pockets!), but big posters for the wall are best for visibility, showcasing design and artwork, and they make cooler keepsakes.  As of this writing, the Art Club owns a large ream of 11x17” paper, which is the same size as two individual 8.5x11” sheets placed side by side.  Therefore the 11x17” flyers can be printed using any regular printer like the residence halls or computer lab printers, the photocopiers should be able to handle it as well.  It’s just loaded into a separate tray (you probably have to load it yourself) and you make note of that in the printing options on the computer.  This writer only makes posters sized 11x17”.

a.  Sometimes Show Some Skin

Weird metaphor, I know.  Posters meant for the Plaster Student Union should have a light colored or white paper space without text for them to stamp and sign, so factor that into the design.  A beautiful poster is only so classy when it has a post-it attached with the stamp information, and that’s assuming the desk worker lets you get away with that.  You can make multiple versions, which is useful for conserving color expenses if you want some color flyers but are okay with distributing mostly black and white.

b.  Posters/Flyers Should Be Bomb

They are best when they are dramatic and have some personal touch to them.  We are Art Club so they should be artistic, not boring.  Subtle typography is nice but not a main draw.

c.  Flyers Are Easy to Make

They can be made with all kinds of methods.  You can use any combination of assets in Photoshop.

The other really easy way to make a flyer is using a photocopier.  You can draw one with a marker and then photocopy it.  One of the best MSU campus flyers I’ve ever seen was crafted by taping up wrinkled paper and relevant collage imagery together with all of the information written in marker and maybe part of it was typed up, then photocopied.  What else could you photocopy?

d.  Keep in Mind the Audience

I don’t recommend anything too avant-garde to read. Or anything TOO offensive.  Or views that are narrow to the individual and don’t reflect the club.  It’s very easy to see things only from your perspective, so there is potential to damage club image. There’s a reason you run flyers by the president for approval (it’s also to catch typos and wrong dates/times.)  But do BE BOLD.

e.  Printing Requires Small Revisions

Monitors, printers, and copiers are in collusion to mess up your hue value and saturation (black & white or color it applies to both), so always do a print test before you get stuck paying for a large batch, and bring the editable file with you to the computer lab so you can tweak the colors and send it through again.  You could circumvent this problem by only using solid black/white linework with no gradients or tones in your design.

f.  Save Your Work

Always save full editable version of your files if you work digitally.  File storage is so cheap and easy that it’s criminal to not keep copies of both your working files and your finalized files.  This gives you the ability to edit stuff or leave the assets to others who might use it.  And on a self-care note, you can use it in your portfolio later.

g.  Plan According to Paper

Always plan your files to the size of paper.  Images with unplanned space at the side look shoddy.  I strongly recommend sizing your image shy of the printable margin (I use ¼ inch margins) on each side (printers can usually pull off something close to 1/8 inch but it varies., then add the margin to the size when you are done, then saving it as a PDF.  PDF’s are printable EVERYWHERE and are expected by most printers.  They also easily facilitate the print dialogue option “No Scaling” which means it comes out exactly like you planned it instead of it arbitrarily deciding it thinks it can print here or here and resizing your things.

h.  Turn Off Double-Sided Printing

It’s easy to forget and ruin a large batch of prints.

i.  Label Your Things.

Make sure the organization name and the contact information are always posted on flyers.  It's important for both the PSU and Reslife.