Take a trip to touristville

I gave a really fun presentation last night on some tips, tricks and techniques for good brochure design.  Since I hate to sit through boring people talking, I decided to make it a bit interactive and fun for everyone.  Our businesses rely on tourism in a major way around here.  If you've never played tourist in your own town, you're not doing your homework.

About three times per year or so, I try to play tourist and consumer (not critic) of advertising.  I hit the local visitor centers and some big brochure displays to see what everyone in touristville is doing.  As a creative, this is fun on so many levels.  It's great to see what other folks are doing that looks great and, sometimes, depending upon my mood, it's really fun to just poke some shameless fun at the brochures that are so bad no one will ever pick them up.  Yes, it's not very nice, but it's my job to be critical of poor design, poor planning and even more poor execution.

So, in preparation for my presentation, I played tourist in touristville and stopped into the unknowing Lake Erie Shores and Islands (maybe now they'll be posting my photo on a wanted poster) to peruse the endless brochure racks.  I pulled a large random (as random as a designer can get) sample of a variety of rack cards from every type of business to become a part of my interactive presentation.  Viewing a huge cloud of brochures on the table really is fun—to see which ones clearly stand out above the rest—and it was enjoyable for me to see some "aha" moments in the crowd of people looking at designs in a different light.

Besides being lots of fun to see what local treasures exist, this is a very important exercise for anyone who has a business that relies on attracting new customers.  Play tourist.  Stop in the local visitors' bureau, look over the brochure racks and see which ones catch your attention, stop into a hotel where there is a brochure rack—see what visitors see upon their arrival in touristville.  Are you making the right impression in your "invitation" to visit your business?

Make sure you check out my latest download, Brochures: marketing to get noticed, available for download on the aha creative web site.  I shared these tips in my presentation last night, with examples galore from the local brochure rack.  Maybe they'll help you think about your introductory brochure in a new way.

Wow, now this is advertising

Obviously, you can see the photo here.  Would you want your logo on a pizza?  I'm a bit speechless on this one.  Part of me thinks its brilliant, part of me thinks it's disgusting to consume, and I mean literally consume, advertising. 

Read the article here....and tell me what you think!