Working on your postcard design is an exciting time to re-think your business brand. The way you design your postcard says a lot about your perception of the business can go a long way in communicating your message. This way, both the design of the postcard and the copy starts a conversation with your customer.
Here are a few design tips for your postcards:
1. Show Your True Colors
The choice of colors says a lot about you, your business, and the customers you attract. Although colors have different meanings and appeal depending on culture, making the wrong color choices can be detrimental to your business.
Warm colors are those that range from yellow to red, while cool colors range from green to violet. Warm colors are vivid and lively and are associated with the passion and the senses, while cool colors appeal more to logic and intellect.
2. Balance Your Visual Weights
Shades, lines, colors have visual weight which like physical weight needs to be balanced. One way to do so is through symmetrical balance that gives your postcard a mirror image. Businesses who take pride in stability can use this style although it tends to look boring.
Asymmetrical balance on the other hand uses different visual clues to create the balance. A big light colored object on the left can be balanced with a smaller darker colored element on the right. Or one big element on the right can be balanced of with a few smaller elements.
3. Work with Grids
Some proportions just look better than others giving rise to the golden ratio: 1:1.618. If you don’t want to work the calculator, you can make a rough approximation with the rule of thirds. Simply draw a 3x3 grid in equal portions across your card. Layout your text blocks and elements around this grid to give it proportions.
4. Never Upstage Your Content
Even if postcards are intended to be heavy on the visuals, this shouldn’t be an excuse to overload on the visual value of the postcard. You should be careful as to make the graphics work with the copy or the marketing message of the postcard instead of being art for arts’ sake.
You can do this simply by creating a division for your postcard to follow. It may be a good idea to leave all the graphics on the face of the postcard and leave the back part for your marketing copy. When you intend to include graphics in the back part as well, create a frame or a guide that will leave off an area empty for the text.
5. Make the Medium Your Message
On the other hand, another school of thought would claim that you can simply incorporate your message into the design per se. If this were the case, make sure the postcard graphic is well thought out and self-explanatory. You can simply use the text to write your contact details or a short marketing offer.
Whatever it may be, just make sure the need for self-expression is balanced with the primary goal of your postcard design which is to increase sales though direct-mail-advertising.
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