Catalog and brochure mailings, featuring images and product descriptions of all your offerings, can do wonders for increasing sales and web traffic. Even though e-commerce sites and online shopping abound, there's just something about flipping through a print catalog, and there are tons of catalog-based businesses out there to prove it. If you've never designed a catalog before, this can be a lot to take in at once. There's so many elements that go into a catalog, including photography, product descriptions, pricing, layout strategies and order forms. It's not the same as setting up a simple page layout. You're going to want to have a strategy and a template in mind, way before you start designing. In this economy, with such tight budgets, designers may be asked to do additional work such as editing photos, paginating and maybe even writing headlines and other copy to break up the page layouts! For some guidance on how to get started in catalog design, and get a sense of how the pros do it, here's a round-up of articles and resources from design firms, trade magazines and printing experts. These materials will cover basic catalog design principles and tips for creating catalogs templates that work! All About ROI (formerly Catalog Success) This trade publication focuses exclusively on catalog and e-commerce sales and marketing. Try searching on the site's "Creative" tab, or check out these two tip-laden articles:
AllGraphicDesign.com If you've got a graphic design question, this site can point you in the right direction. For cutting-edge catalog inspiration, check out their roundup of catalog design samples. And for catalog tips and techniques, here are three helpful articles that AllGraphicDeisgn.com links to:
Direct Magazine A leading trade publication for direct marekters, Direct Magazine includes sister publications Multichannel Merchant and Chief Marketer under its content umbrella. Here are four helpful catalog articles found throughout Direct's sites that include tips on design and making the multichannel connection work between a print catalog and website.
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