The Young Designer’s Guide

Did you ever get the feeling that trade publishers have favorites? If you begin to recognize the same companies getting their products featured on covers, and their ads always getting prime locations, you are probably right. Publishers do have favorites; although in all fairness you would too if an advertiser ran full page ads with you every single month, or week, or day! These folks are the bread and butter that allow both trade and consumer publications to keep their doors open. It’s revenue publishers know they can count on when they do their strategic planning, and they are appropriately grateful. Also in all fairness, very often those advertisers are paying extra for those prime locations.

But wait a minute, you say? Your client doesn’t run every month, let alone every week or every day, how can you compete with the deep pockets of a General Motors, or a Nike to get your client noticed? Well, the good news is that there are lots of ways – and you, as a designer, are in a prime position to advise your client on exactly how to do that. Let’s talk about how you can design an ad campaign that publishers love – and when they love it they tend to give it good positioning.

Writers write and designers design – wrong!

The most helpful thing you can do for your client is understand their business. You need to be able to visualize the message your client is trying to get across so that the words, helped by your design, come alive on the page. They weren’t kidding when they told you that in design school! Only when you do that will you be able to execute a design that works for both the client and the publisher (specifics on designing for a publisher a bit later on.) You also need to have a sense of when the written word detracts from the design or vice-versa. If you are working for an agency, develop cordial relationships with your account execs and media buyers so that you feel comfortable asking about the strategy that needs to be behind the design. I’m assuming you already have a good relationship with the copywriter and the other “creatives.” If there is no agency involved and you are the sole interface with the client, this applies even more so. You are the execution of his dreamed idea and hoped-for business.

Understand your audience – and what would motivate them to buy

You wouldn’t design an ad for a frat boy the same way you would for a priest, for example, and most people “get” that. But you would be amazed how many clients think one ad fits all audiences! This ties in with another saying in advertising that has been around for awhile: “Sell the benefits, not the features.” Help your client to remember that – and then design an ad that will support the premise.

For example, think about this for a minute. You are a busy production engineer trying to get an order for widgets manufactured, but one section of the process takes longer because it has to be done by hand. If you can show that engineer an ad in a magazine that, through your design, “says” your client’s equipment will do that hand work automatically, reduce his total production time and double the orders processed per day, that’s what he’s interested in. He, and every other reader in every other industry, is selfish. He only wants to know what’s in it for him. He doesn’t care that it has four green whistles and six red bells. Forget designing an ad that showcases every possible feature – design one that showcases the major benefit to the reader.

Stick to one (or two points at most) per ad

You understand the audience and the benefits of the product, now what? Don’t fall into the trap of trying to illustrate every benefit any more than you would try to list every feature. Now don’t get me wrong – if more than one benefit ties into the “overall” benefit, that’s one thing, but that’s not what I’m getting at here, because we are talking about design. The copywriters (or you if that’s something that you are also doing for the client) can find ways to bullet-list the benefits and get the point across, but the design should be so clear and so obvious as to what you are saying that you don’t have to look twice. For instance in our widget example, showing a stack of widgets two feet high using the old method right beside a stack of widgets that is four feet high using the new method speaks volumes about the equipment and why he should buy it. He doesn’t have to be told that he will get twice as many widgets during the same time period. He doesn’t have to be told that it will save him money, time, and labor. The design itself tells him.

Some of these things are basic Design 101 – how is mine going to stand out?

Design 101, yes, but do people get nuts and do crazy things to make a fabulous design, forgetting some of these basics? Yes, oh yes. Believe me, yes! A design concept is great, but the execution has to be such that it will work not only for the client, but also for the publisher. What do I mean by that? Well we’ve touched on what will work for the client in the way of design, now let’s tackle what will work for the publisher. For instance:

• Always, even in a bleed ad that has color spilling right off the edge of the page, keep your “live” matter (copy, photos, etc) at least a half inch in from the edge of the trim size. Why? When the printer “trims” the magazine once it is put together, you don’t want your copy that you slaved over being cut off by the blades that show no mercy. Trimming is trimming – they don’t care how great your ad is – and there is definitely a chance you can lose part of your copy or photos if they are too close to the edge. Things happen.

• Design the ad to be attractive for running either left- or right-hand page. Why? That’s easy. Wouldn’t you want an inside front cover if it became available at no charge? They do sometimes, especially if someone on contract doesn’t have their ad ready and pulls out of the issue at the last minute. Same for Inside Back Cover, opposite Letter From the Editor, opposite Table of Contents, etc. If there is a last minute “hole” it usually goes to the ad that would look the best and work the best there. Why not give yourself the opportunity by having the versatility to run either right or left. (By the way, studies over the years have shown that there is virtually no difference in success of right vs. left.)

• If you are going to use metallic or PMS colors, it will cost your client more for the ad – why not use something in a regular four-process color that won’t cause the publisher any layout problems or any extra production time/cost, and you will stay off his “oh not that ad again” list. Besides, you want your client to be remembered for his excellent product rather than his weird color!

• Use good clear photography that makes the magazine look good by running it. In addition to having a good clear shot, usually 300 dpi is minimum resolution required. Websites may be even higher. In some consumer as well as trade pubs, preferred cover shots feature people using the product. Check out a pub to see what they usually feature. If your ads are good, the publisher becomes familiar with you and would be more receptive to asking your client for pictures to illustrate an article or a front cover. Nothing says “I’m a player in this industry” like having your product or service on the cover of a good trade publication! And it’s free publicity.

• As simple as it sounds, be sure to follow the publication’s specifications. If they want things broken out a certain way, do it. Submit things in the required resolution. If they request a color “proof” of the ad in addition to your basic digital submission, send it. That way they can make sure nothing was lost in transmission or production. Besides, you don’t want your client’s sparkling clear drinking water to look like orange juice. Color proofs (pdf files usually work fine) help protect everyone. You don’t want mistakes, and the publisher certainly doesn’t want a “make-good” situation on his hands.

• Find out what the publication’s policy is on show-lines. Will they strip in “See us at Widget Trade Show, booth 123” or do you have to design it in. Make sure to know, or your client will be upset if he is the only one in the issue without a booth number.

• If your client wins an award sponsored by the publication, ask if they have a logo such as “Winner of the XYZ Magazine Widget of the Year 2007” that the winners can use in ads. Usually they will have something they can email you so it is uniform for winners in all categories.

• SUBMIT MATERIAL ON TIME. I capitalized this because it is so very important. Publishers are known for often being able to give extensions. Start by telling your production contact what date you “need.” If they hesitate, ask for a “drop dead” date, and then even if you have to stay up till four in the morning on the day it is due to get it done, get it in on time! Publishers always try and work with clients when they know they usually get material in on time. But believe me, they absolutely hate it when you make it a habit, and all the good vibes disappear. So above all else, if you want to get in good with a publisher, never, I repeat never, hold him up at the printer’s. He has a window he needs to be ready for, and if he misses it he could have to wait as long as the next week to get the magazine printed. Be considerate – it’s being smart.

• A corollary to that is that if you are going to be unable to make a deadline at all, give as much notice as possible. That way they can offer the “unexpected hole” in the book to some other client who could make good use of it.

• Print, website and electronic newsletter advertising have similar ground rules. Yes, the techniques of creation differ, and I will leave those to the experts like Rebecca Witek. One thing I would single out for web design skills that is important to the publisher, however, is that you should not “overdesign” to such a degree that the average reader would find it cumbersome either to wait for the download or to decipher a rapidly spinning or flashing message. I would rather see you put in a banner ad that had three rotating “panes” than see you try to keep flashing from thought to thought before the poor reader catches up. If all the ads on the site that you have checked out (you have checked them out, haven’t you?) are truly cutting edge and full of all the latest technical advances, that’s a different story. Go with the flow. But as I hinted, no publisher of a website wants to have the download of HIS product be held up by your overly burdened ad. It reflects badly on him and his skill as a publisher.

Well, those are the basics you would hear if you were a fly on the wall at a publisher’s staff meeting. True, publishers need your business, but if you want to parlay that into a bonanza for your client and your own reputation, design for the publisher as well as the client, and you can’t go wrong. Perhaps in future newsletters we can tackle when print works best, when electronic works best, and how to incorporate the two. In the meantime, good luck with your endeavors!