Consider your brand
A step ahead of styling this one document, think about who this collateral represents, your organisation, project or employer. First impressions matter! This document may be the first touchpoint for a customer or funding body, and will ultimately form part of a suite of documentation that embodies your organisation’s brand identity. Without going into too much detail about the importance of branding in the commercial world, let’s just be clear that how your professional document looks is subtly transmitting all sorts of visual messages, and it makes good business sense to ensure that each document contributes to a cohesive and consistent image that appeals to your target audience and supports your key messaging.
If you don’t already have brand elements and systems in place, or if your current visual messaging is inconsistent or not performing, consider a brand audit, refresh of your strategy in line with your business and marketing goals, or begin your corporate identity development. This overarching system provides a foundation to inform your document template design.
Template design
I highly recommend for any organisation producing documents needing a professional presence, to invest in the design of a template which implements the brand elements and streamlines the process of laying out documents. Remember a well-structured design helps convey your message clearly.
Alternatively, you can choose a premade template to suit your purpose and audience, and tailor it as needed. The template should feature your corporate fonts, colours and elements in a way that clearly identifies your organisation and supports professionalism. It should be systematic in spacing, positioning of elements, and hierarchy of information and be easy to apply across new documents.
Layout design tips
Designing your document template
When designing a layout template, use existing document content so that the system of breaking down information is clear. Identify the different parts, such as cover, contents, acknowledgment, chapter title page, captions, and text. Work out the levels of heading hierarchy required, or numbering system that gives order to the document content. Look at the information needed in the header and or footer to orientate the reader. Note the use of tables, graphics, and consider other ways that large blocks of text can be made more engaging such as the use of pull quotes or call out boxes.
Platform
Consider how the document will be viewed, distributed, printed or read. Online only documents should be set up in RGB colours for screen, while documents that will be professionally printed should be created using the CMYK colour space to ensure corporate colours are reproduced accurately.
Size and format
The standard document size in Australia is A4, but check what size is best for your purpose, and choose which orientation, landscape or portrait. If you are self publishing through an online platform, check their size options.
Facing pages
Decide if you need left and right pages or if you will have a single page flow.
Margins
Generous margins can give a more professional look to a document and avoid it seeming ‘squeezed in’, they can also provide ‘breathing space’ or visual relief for text-dense documents. Consider if you need to a certain clearance for binding. Allow space for header and/or footer.
Grid
Grid and spacing creates a coherent structure throughout your document. Decide on the number of columns per page into which the content will be fit, usually one to three. The grid provides the framework for each page, so that text flows easily for the reader, with headings clearly dividing the information logically. Images or tables can be positioned to stretch across multiple columns, or to ‘break the grid’ which makes the layout more interesting.
Line and paragraph spacing
The spacing needed between lines of text and between paragraphs to aid readability varies depending on the font, and whether it will be used in headings or body copy. Text in all capitals may call for a tighter or looser line spacing. Try different options to see which works best in your grid.
Alignment
Some people prefer justified text columns, if so, ensure that the hyphenation is adjusted to avoid large gaps between words. Left justified columns are easier to read and hyphenation can be turned off.
Font choice
Choose readable, appropriate fonts, and ensure there is a good contrast between text and background. Ensure you have a licence to use the fonts.
Text size and styles
Work out your heading hierarchy levels and the sizes, usually largest for H1 and reducing in size to the lowest ranked heading, which should still be more prominent than the text font size. You can also use different font weights or capitalisation for differentiation of headings. Normal body copy text size should be around 9 - 12 points, large text is more accessible but will take more space and can look less elegant. Captions and footer text can be slightly smaller.
Font distortion
Avoid compression or extension of fonts, avoid extended type, avoid software-created distortions of typefaces and instead make sure that if you use italic for example, that the typeface has a well-design italic font.
Bullets, lists, callouts, pull quotes
All help to break up text, draw the reader’s eye, and guide them through the content. These parts of the document can be styled to ‘break out’ from the main text, with the use of a contrasting font size or colour, shapes or graphics. Keep any styling relevant to the tone of the document and the audience.
Ruled lines
Light or heavy lines can be used to direct the reader, highlight certain information, indicate the end of a section, or connect two aligned pieces of text. They can be vertical or horizontal. Use them sparingly, appropriately and consistently.
Colour and contrast
Select a colour palette for the document which supports and aligns with the overarching corporate brand, and conveys the right emotions and messages. Ensure your document colour palette connects with but doesn’t overwhelm the presence of brand elements.
Use colours to differentiate sections, or to create a sense of unity. Use percentage shades of colours behind black or dark text, or place white text on blocks of strong colour, ensuring there is accessible contrast. Avoid using too many colours too close together, keep white space between, or use neutral darks like grey and black, to keep a clean look.
How much colour and which colours you use, will have large influence on the overall feel of the document. Be sure you consider the target audience when making decisions around the use of colour. Also consider how your document will look if printed in black and white.
Images and graphics
Position images and graphics to break up large blocks of text, but avoid disrupting the natural flow of information to reader. Leave some space between images and text, enough that it looks clean but not so much that it looks like something is missing. Make sure you have ownership or permission of any pictures, and give credit if needed. Check that any text within images is still large enough to read, and that images are not pixellated or distorted. Keep graphics relevant and purposeful, and consistent in style. Ideally the colours in any graphics will match or complement the colour palette of the document or have symbolic meaning that is consistent throughout.
Be consistent
Use margins, styles, grid, fonts and spacing consistently across the entire document. Different parts can be styled differently, however consistency across similar parts creates a more unified and readable document.
Follow accessibility guidelines
Check your documents are readable by e-readers and other assistive devices, written in plain language, and navigable without the use of a mouse. Test colour contrast for accessibility for low vision, old technology, and colour blindness. Provide alt text for images.
Professional document checklist
Does your document:
Look inviting and readable, have a clear hierarchy of headings and allow adequate spaces between blocks of text.
Implement the organisations brand elements in a consistent and recognisable manner and appeal to the target audience in an appropriate way.
Use systematic organisation and pacing of information.
Make use of original, relevant, engaging, and good quality or images that support visual storytelling.
Provide reader orientation
Aim to be accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities.
Creating your own professional documents
Your document template, whether using one custom designed by a graphic designer, or a modified pre-made template, should be set up using styles containing fonts and colours. If you’re working in Microsoft Office for example, there should be formatted style options that can be applied to different parts of the document such as headings, pull quotes and contents, so you can easily create consistent and branded documents.
Many organisations have a style guide or brand guide that specifies details such as recommended font sizes and brand colours, which is an invaluable resource for your office staff or contractor. Contact us about distilling your brand into a handy visual reference, to set your business up for effective and consistent professional communications.
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