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- Different leaflet folds
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- Leaflets with cutaway sections
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- Notebook – leaflet fold guides
Exercise (p.41 Graphic Design One): You have been asked to design a leaflet for an organisation, inviting people to volunteer for a task. In addition to a title the information has been broken down into four chunks each of about 120 words. You will also need to leave space for contact and address details.
Working with a sheet of A4 paper or larger if you prefer, and ignoring the actual words and subheadings, explore the different formats for leaflets that are possible. Consider and experiment with options for final size and types of paper. In your learning log describe how you found turning ideas into visuals. Did you discover anything unexpected?
This was an exercise that was more layered than I had originally imagined. I began with a single sheet of A4 paper and simply folded it in a number of different ways. When I had folded as many I could think of I did a bit of online research and found a number of diagrams of different folds and their names.
Following the folding I started to think about layout given the information in the brief – space for a title, four chunks of information and contact details. Initially I just started to sketch them roughly but found I was then thinking about placement and what might make the leaflet attractive. I started to think about the visuals and again did some online research. I found I was thinking more about what sort of leaflet I would design and the notion of a hand or hands came to mind. When I did an image search for volunteering it seems that ‘helping hands’ is one of the most common visualisations! I often find my first ideas are the most obvious so wasn’t too worried that this was the case; I guess I have to start somewhere.
I noticed I had been thinking of the information in blocks, but then started to play with how the text might have different layouts. How a leaflet can be made appealing, and the importance of the cover. I became particularly conscious of the contact details, assuming that this needed to be some sort of tear off strip that could be removed and handed in. This made the layout take on a new dimension as it meant the contacts section would need to be removed leaving the important information on the leaflet intact.
What emerged from this exercise was a series of problems to be solved, not all of which were immediately obvious at the outset. Working with the physical folding helped me ‘see’ what was needed as I developed my thinking.
