Catalogue Design Process for the Best Results
Designing a catalogue requires more than just product pages showing product data. There are key stages in catalogue design that grab attention and increase sales. Stimulating the recipient, keeping their attention, and making use of the catalogue as easy as possible also require consideration in the catalogue design process.
Article Contents
Cover Design
The catalogue front design is the shop window to what is contained within and must be focused on your targeted audience.
This sets the tone and gives your customers an indication of your product offering and what your business stands for.
Prestigious catalogues
For a prestigious catalogue, single products or lifestyle images could be used in an attractive manner, giving a magazine feel.
If you are wondering how many images to include then you could discuss this with our designer, the most important thing is to have enough to impress the reader but not too many to distract them
Alternatively, for a more aggressive sales orientated design on the front can display numerous products with price flashes and calls to action.
The Front
This is the most viewed within the catalogue and its important to have eye-catching design elements here.
Getting this right can prove to be a make or break when it comes to getting your customers to open the catalogue and make those all-important purchases.
Back Cover
The catalogues back design can again be done in an upmarket way using a large photographic image or colours that represent your brand identity.
However, if you are wanting to maximise sales you can again add product onto the back.
The back can contain your contact details and information relating to your social media presence and save time for your reader.
Creating the Inside Cover Design
If you are producing a multi-page catalogue you can take the opportunity to introduce your business, your products and what is contained within the catalogue on this first page.
If on the other hand, the catalogue is smaller you may wish to get straight into displaying your products to maximise the space.
The advantages of the Introduction
If you are to create an introduction piece on your inside front is the best approach is for it to be written by a senior person within your organisation.
This gives a sense of importance that allows the reader to see that this information Is created by someone who speaks for the company.
Introducing New Products and Ranges
They can explain what has been happening with the company since the last catalogue and introduce the reader to new products or new product ranges.
To add extra importance to this, a photograph of the author could be added with their signature at the bottom of the written introduction.
Breaking down the sections
There is various other information that can be positioned on the front inside page in advance of the reader reaching the actual product information. Examples include a basic contents index section that breaks down the sections but does not go into actual products.
Numbering
This can show page numbers so the customer can get straight to the section that contains the products they are looking for. Information on delivery options can be added. Details on your company’s service levels and guarantees can be highlighted.
How to order section
A how to order section gives you the opportunity to let your customers know your preferred options such as directing them to the website or giving credit card details or telephone numbers and email addresses.
Larger Catalogues
For larger catalogues, this information can be spread across the first two, three or more pages. This allows you to expand on the information and give additional details.
Indexing
Smaller Catalogues
Forsmaller catalogues an index is not necessary. For larger ones an index makes use much simpler.
Content management system
This can be very time-consuming and laborious. If production is through a product information management system, or a content management system, this can be done at the touch of a button.
In most cases the index will appear at the back, this would be where most customers would expect it to be, therefore possibly the best place.
However, some companies may choose to put this at the beginning of the catalogue.
Creating the Centre Spread
For smaller catalogues that are stapled together often falls open revealing the centre spread.
This is the perfect opportunity to put some special products in this area because it will increase your sales.
Section Introduction
Not losing your Customer
To help customers navigate your catalogue, you can create dedicated introduction sections that will alert them before they enter a new area.
This can be simply a large page that has the heading of the section, or they can contain some of the products that the customer will be introduced to once they enter this new section.
Colour coding sections also helps the reader realise they are in a new section. This can be used to create a part of the catalogue design with nice bright colours used throughout the catalogue.
The Products
In the creative catalogue design process, there is no set layout that our designer will use. This depends on the type of design, the type of business and most importantly the type of market the catalogue is aimed at.
Prestigious products
Prestigious products may wish to use white space on the page and just have a few products on each spread. Try to get as many products on your catalogue if you’re selling low-value budget items.
Drawing the attention
There may be certain products that you wish to draw the customers attention to. These are referred to as hero products. When designing, process techniques to highlight these products should be developed.
They may include adding a colour behind the product entry or putting a key line box around the product.
Obviously increasing the size of the product entry is an excellent way of achieving this.
As we have seen above there is more to the catalogue design process and catalogue production than just finding attractive ways to display all the products and a specialised catalogue designer from our graphic design department can assist.
The front page design sets the tone for the whole catalogue and the other inner designs complete the perfect catalogue design process giving the customer all they need to make that important purchase.
Online Digital catalogues
We are experts in the field of digital catalogues and the design process is fairly simple.
Once our creative designers have completed your design ideas and shown you an example with your company branding and the final version has been approved, we can provide a digital version for your website.
Often marketing teams and your salespeople can use these in various ways to gain more interest in your products and services. These are great resources that can show your potential customers your expertise in your industry.
What software do your catalogue designers use?
Our designers use the industry standard adobe indesign creative software, the designer on your project will style and structure the design creatively and create a high quality visual to show you how the final document will look.
Our creative designer process
Our designer will discuss with you your requirements before starting the project and they will get as much information and data from you in advance. Our aim is always to deliver outstanding designs at a competitive price.
Initial designer meeting
You can have an initial meeting with your designer who can give you some creative ideas on how to structure the catalogue and discuss any of the other services we offer which may help your business further.
For more information on our services, or to discuss your exact requirements with one of our expert design team, feel free to get in touch.
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