Kimberly Golden-Benner

Design - whether it's for a brochure, magazine, or website - should not be overpowering, rather it should complement the message and the content.  When designing collateral it's important to keep some these tips in mind:

• Keep it simple and balanced

• Use great photos or artwork that support the content and the purpose of the piece

• Cartoon-like clipart is often inappropriate and can make the piece look unprofessional

• Use great fonts, but limit the number of fonts you use in one piece to no more than three different fonts

• Be consistent with the fonts - using one font for headlines throughout the entire piece, one for body copy, and another for sub-headlines.

• Don't overuse bold or italics; and don't make all the copy caps

• Design appropriately for the piece - a poster should look graphically different than a brochure

• Design with the goal in mind - you are creating a piece for a specific purpose so it needs to be designed to reach that end