HIERARCHY

There is one overriding, all-important consideration that is the most important thing I can tell you about how to make things work well visually. it is that there are stages in which someone looks at your work. First they pick it up (or not), so make it look interesting and relevant. Make it look professional. Don’t give them a reason to reject it before they even understand the headline.

Then, they either read the piece or not, so the most prominent element must be something that will excite their interest. This pattern continues, and you must divide your design into a hierarchy, both graphically and textually. Each level should be “bite-sized” so that the audience gets a small amount of information which they can integrate easily into their general knowledge and the previous information you have given them. The more coherent you are, the more your message will be remembered. The way to do this is to make a list of what you want people to get from your flyer, in descending order of importance (most important first). Then, make sure that the most important things are really the biggest and most striking. Break things up in a way that the organization of the piece is clear through its appearance, not just from reading it. Set less important things smaller, or set them off in a way that they are obviously subsidiary. If someone only reads the first line of your flyer, what do you want them to get? If they only get two things, which two?

Make sure that there are no elements competing for attention. This really drags down the energy of the whole thing. Each element should clearly be more important or less important than the others. This doesn’t mean just bigger or smaller. You can emphasize things with bars and boxes, or by placement.

It matters that you convey your identity, so make it obvious. Make the logo large, and generally put it at the bottom of the piece. This is because if the logo is at the bottom, it will be the last thing the audience sees, and they will remember the identity much more vividly.