A flyer, also commonly known as a pamphlet, a leaflet, a handbill – is a piece of paper intended to promote a brand or an event. This type of printed marketing material is designed to be advertised and distributed to mass audiences. Often times, flyers are usually personally handed out to individuals within public spaces such as malls, grocery stores, train stations, and even on the streets.
Many tend to confuse the flyers with brochures, yet the two are quite different from one another. While both a brochure and a flyer may contain the same types of promotional content, brochures are a folded piece of paper containing two or three separate panels. This allows for more information to be included within a brochure compared to flyers. A flyer, on the other hand, acts more like a poster. As mentioned earlier, it is commonly physically handed out to people, however at times, an image of it can also be posted on social media for additional promotional purposes.
A properly designed flyer plays a powerful role in catching the attention of a desired group of audiences, creating a significant impact on them. With a graphic design or image editing software, you will be able to create and add special effects to your flyer. However, without any knowledge of experience with those softwares, you can also create a flyer just fine using most word processing software.
In this article, we will be going through some of the greatest flyer design examples. We’ll also be covering some of the most important characteristics of flyer designs so that you’ll know exactly what you have to do when designing yours!
1) Find a great template
Flyer templates are pretty easy to create, and there are tons of free or paid printable flyer templates available online. Most flyer templates available on the Internet are generally neutral in style. However, if you want to create your own unique flyer, you can easily edit these templates yourself in order to have them perfectly suited to your brand’s visuals. After all, templates can really transform how your overall design looks. Check out the flyer design below to see a prime example of this.
Image source: Dribbble
These are two flyers that promote the same exact event. Yet, the flyer on the left uses the more typical flyer template where the main graphics are placed at the top and the title is placed right below in a large text size. Further details are written in smaller-sized text at the very bottom of the flyer. The flyer on the right adds a little bit more creativity to the template. While the details of the event technically remain at the same spot, the layout of the title as well as the main image is quite different compared to the version on the left.
This example isn’t to say that one template is better than the other. In fact, you can use any or even both templates for your promotional campaign if that is what you prefer. What this shows is that a minor shift in templates can give your design a completely different look and feel.
When working with your template, make sure that your call-to-action stands out from the rest of the elements. Limit the number and length of words to help with this or enlarge the size of your main keywords. Furthermore, try to keep your template as readable as you can!
2) Make a wise color choice
When creating flyers, feel free to embrace all the different colors there are. While your flyer design shouldn’t be excessively crammed with too many colors and cause your readers a visual headache, it should still be designed in a way that allows it to get noticed by people. You can achieve this by selecting a moderate amount, but wise choice of colors.
Color psychology explains how our brain associates each color with a different emotion or feeling. This means that when audiences look at your flyer design, it is the colors that can give it its very first impression. Although it is not necessary to go into too in-depth with color theory, knowing its basics will enable you to influence the feelings and attraction that consumers feel towards your flyer design but also the brand or event you aim to promote.
Colorful flyers are able to capture the attention of many customers and generate great outcomes for your marketing campaign. Take a look at the example below.
Image source: Dribbble
In this flyer, you can see that the vibrant yellow flyer background adds a great contrast to the blue dinosaur which is a mascot that represents Dinosaur, a web design and development studio based in Fort Myers, Florida. While the bright yellow shade helps elicit a lively and youthful feel to the flyer, the darker blue shade is an excellent color choice for the mascot as it is a color that represents wisdom, intelligence, and trust. In fact, this shade of blue is often used by companies that work with technology, think Facebook and Samsung for example.
Dinosaur most likely wants to represent their studio in the same credible way, hence why they purposely used this color. As Dinosaur wants to promote their workshops and provide knowledge about web design, development and analytics to their audiences, this blue dinosaur design is one that works very well for this flyer!
3) Keep it simple
In the design industry, this rule never gets old. Many flyer templates have been created until now, yet one important tip about flyer design remains eternal. It is always worth it to keep away from exaggerations of any kind and just have your flyer remain simple. Make sure that both your visuals and written text communicate exactly what you want to promote, and remember to drive your audience towards your call-to-action. This is the most crucial point of flyers!
This legendary rule of thumb should be kept in mind when considering all the elements you want to include in your flyer design. Once the images and texts within your design combine to communicate a clear and straight to the point message to your clients, you will be able to see the results you want. Therefore, focus on your key idea and be sure to refrain from creating a visual clutter, just like the Anthropologie flyer design shown below. The image of the key wrapped in colorful thread is simple enough to representing the welcoming of the brand’s new clothing store.
Image source: Effortlessly with Roxy
4) Give your flyer a unique touch
There is nothing worse than having the same flyer template as everyone else. This makes your brand seem like one of the many others. If you would like to establish a strong brand identity for yourself, your flyer design will have to stand out just as much as the rest of your marketing materials. With that being said, make that your flyer design looks different from all the others that have been made before.
To make it a little bit easier for you, try doing your own research on the types of flyers that are already out there within your niche. Once you’ve gathered all of this information, brainstorm some cool ideas and add your own unique twist to it.
Flyers are supposed to catch people’s attention. Therefore, utilize interesting keywords, information and catchy images will be key in this case. If you can, ditch the dull Word document or any other old school flyer templates. It is now 2019, and there are so many more ways in which you can wow your audience with your flyer design. If you need inspiration on this, do not hesitate to scroll through the internet or your social media platforms for some ideas.
Activate your artistic superpowers and let your creativity run free. However, remember that your ideas do not have to be the craziest ones out there in order to create a unique flyer design. Just by simple adding your unique brand elements, such as your main brand colors, fonts, symbols, or a mascot (if you have one) are enough to make your flyer design more special to you. In terms of branding, this is one of the best ways you can make your flyer stand out.
In the flyer design of Audiobanmusic’s event shown below, the company has decided to use its unique visuals and brand colors on the main page of the design.
Image source: Dribbble
This cartoonish-style of illustration has been used frequently by the company and this can be seen on their Instagram account as well. Because their audience can simply associate these illustrations, as well as the navy blue and red color combination to Audiobanmusic, it will only take one glance for their customers to know who and what this flyer is promoting. Hence, it is a smart tactic for them to transfer the same style of illustrations onto their flyers.
5) Make your message clear
The most important aspect of a flyer design is that it communicates exactly what the company is aiming to promote. Whether that is an event, the launch of a new product, a sale, or the actual brand itself, the message must be crystal clear through the images or texts used. Otherwise, this will defeat the whole purpose of such a marketing campaign.
If your audiences cannot figure out what you are promoting within a few seconds, there is already a good chance that you have already lost them. If this were to happen, you will not be able to see the results you were aiming for.
A good tip for this would be to analyze your flyer design from your audience’s perspective. Including a lot of unnecessary information onto your flyer would not be ideal. While there is not much space for you to include such amount of information, you can also potentially lose your customer’s attention. To grasp their attention quickly, do just the opposite.
Create a catchy phrase using as few words as possible and emphasize on the keywords using a larger font and clear visuals to strengthen its communicative power. Make sure that important information are there such as the date, location, and contact details. This information will make it easier for customers to reach out to you if needed. While your should be easy to read at a distance, it is okay to keep the extra contact information small.
Take a look at the example of Mason Collective’s flyer below. The keyword here is “Christmas” and this is paired very well with the Christmas themed graphics. The night sky, the colorful Christmas lights, sleigh, candy canes and evergreen trees are enough for audiences to realize that a Christmas party event is being promoted. The text is clear and all the necessary information are there that leaves no confusion for their audience.
Image source: Dribbble
6) Design From Top to Bottom
Some flyer templates are more complicated than others, however most of them tend to follow the top-to-bottom design format. This means that most graphics are placed at the top of the page and are extended across the width of the flyer. The graphics may extend into the bottom half of the flyer and the headline is often placed at the bottom or on top of it.
The reason for this layout is because most readers eyes tend to follow that pattern. Hence, it’s important that you place your key information at the top as this is the area they will most likely pay attention to first. After you’ve got the most important information clearly communicated right at the start, you’ve done your job with your flyer design. Other less important details can therefore be left at the bottom.
In the flyer design below, you can see that the main headline “Open Mic Night” is placed at the top half of the flyer in a large font which leads our eyes directly to it. Minor details such as the date, time, and price follow right under it. Other contact information are left at the very bottom for customers to refer to. Overall, the visuals are attractive, bold and straight to the point, while the text remains very succinct. This makes Alexander’s Live flyer one that is very effective.
Image source: Dribbble
7) Use high-quality images
Image source: Dribbble
Through thousands of photos that you can find online and use within your flyer design, make sure that you are only choosing the best ones with the highest resolution. As with any other design project, your flyer’s quality should not be sacrificed.
To make a positive impression and gain your customer’s trust, the images you decide to use, whether taken from the internet or created yourself, must be high in quality. The image should remain sharp and bright when printed and all details must be visible.
For flyers, it is highly recommended that you create the graphics yourself if you can. Taking images from the internet can go both ways. However, one thing that you must make sure of is that the images you select are free for commercial use. If not, you might have to pay for them before you can use them in your flyer design.
For a successful flyer design, it would be best to invest in a graphic designer to help you out. They will be able to create unique images for you and this will definitely be worth it if you want the best results. At DesignBro we have a team of professional graphic designers with years of experience who will be able to help you create stunning high-quality flyers for your campaign. With our services, you can expect high-quality and extremely unique flyer designs. Contact us here to see how you can get started!
Besides having grown up in the design Industry, Christiaan has advised some of the world’s largest companies on their branding & packaging designs. Has been the resident judge for design awards, and has spoken at numerous global design & marketing events. Christiaan founded the London office of the award-winning Cartils agency, and has founded the DesignBro.com platform.
