You could take Ji Lee’s simple–albeit a bit risky–approach:

This business card will certainly get you noticed, but perhaps not for the right reasons, depending on what shows up when your name or business is entered into a search engine.

What about a business card that’s so visually engaging that it gives you an opening for your elevator pitch–that bite-sized summary of what your company is all about?

This is what the back of a TrendHunter.com business card looks like. Each tile is an actual image from one of the innovations we’ve highlighted on the site. By pointing to and briefly describing some of our favorites (toupees for babies born without hair and the half-suit for telecommuters are my perennial picks), we’ve introduced our brand, given some teasers and ensured that our business card will stand out from the pack.

At Trend Hunter, we’ve featured a number of other innovative business cards to help businesses shine despite the gloomy economy, from edible business cards to plantable ones. All of them have two things in common: They accurately represent your brand and they allow you to give your elevator pitch every time you meet someone. That’s how to make your business card work for you.

And now you want us to…print a brochure!!!

Yep. This my fantasy brochure of sorts, a slim piece of cardstock I wish every small business I worked with would hand me on the way in or out the door.

But before you can print this brochure, before it can deliver on its promise, you have to first go back and read that post of mine, the one about Cultivating Your Online Garden, and you have to actually go DO what I suggest you do.

Go ahead, DO it!

OK, now you’re ready to create the best brochure you’ve ever printed. Because this brochure isn’t a sales pitch, it’s an invitation to join a conversation that will last for a long, long time.

And while creating the conversation behind the brochure is hard, the brochure itself is simple. Here’s the text of mine, for my own small business, Federated Media Publishing:

Federated Media

“Connecting Brands to the best of the conversational web.”

Email: jbat@federatedmedia.net

Main Site: www.federatedmedia.net

Blog: www.federatedmedia.net/blog

On Facebook: Search for “Federated Media” and select “Groups”

Follow FM on Twitter: http://twitter.com/federated_media

Add a logo and any web- or communication-related information that you might find valuable (perhaps a listing on Yahoo Local or Yelp), print up a hundred or so, and start handing them out.

Seems a bit … promotional – even cheesy? You could say that. But what are you doing by creating a social presence online, and then promoting that presence? You’re telling your customers that you are not only available, you are eager to be in relationship with them, on their terms. You’re letting them know that you’ll always be there if there is a problem or a question, and that you understand how they are living their lives these days (more often than not, online).

Even if that brochure ends up in your customer’s circular file, you’ve made an impression that will last: You understand that all business is social, and you understand that thriving in the physical world means cultivating your online doppelganger.

Increasingly, the folks who will become your best customers and greatest evangelizers are also those most fluent in social media. So go ahead – given them something they can remember you by when they stop in. It may well be the best brochure you ever print.

I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again: Whether your business is just launching or has been in the black for years, your brand is — or should be — as unique as you are. Your “story” is often the reason customers decide to spend money with you.

The expertise, strategy and tips shared right here in the DIY Small Business Marketing Guide will help you develop and evolve the compelling and unique story of your business — whether that brand story is a logo, a brochure, your company letterhead, a website, or all of these and more. I want to help you start sharing that story — without breaking the bank. And it starts with three easy steps.

1. Visit the HP Creative Studio and select a free template.
2. Download the template and customize it with your information.
3. Print it, share it, and start building your business.

It’s really that easy. But I’m betting you’ll be more likely to give it a try – and succeed – if I show you how.

Follow these steps to get customized, professionally designed letterhead and envelopes for your business in 15 minutes or less.

Step 1: Visit the HP Creative Studio and find a free template.
I selected the “Stationery and Envelopes” category.

Then I selected the FREE “Circles” Letterhead Template. (You can choose from more than 25 FREE professionally designed letterhead templates by using the arrows to scroll through the thumbnail menu.)

Then I downloaded the matching “Circles” envelope template.

Step 2: Customize and Save your new Marketing Materials.
Tip: In Microsoft Word, I first do a “Save As” to rename the files and save them to my notebook. (I find it’s better to have a locally stored copy to edit, tweak, and have available for future use and printing.)

Get started by selecting the text and replacing it with your company name. I’ll show you what it looks like before and after I change the text.

Be sure to customize the contact and address information in the footer of the page, too:

Then do the same for matching envelope by editing the placeholder text to insert your company name and address. The before and after…

Step 3: Print it, share it, and start growing your business. (And get a 20% off coupon!)

You now have professionally designed, customized letterhead you can print yourself. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t share one more piece of advice: If you want professional quality color marketing materials that you can print yourself (at up to 50% less cost per page and energy costs than laser), I highly recommend the HP Officejet Pro 8500 and Original HP Officejet Ink and Supplies.

Through May 5, 2009, you can save 20% ($80) on the new HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless All-in-One.

Get the coupon and terms here and see the All-in-One (print, scan, copy, fax).

Related articles from the Small Business Marketing Guide,
brought to you by HP:

From Adrienne Machina:  Incredible, Credible Marketing Materials

From Anita Campbell:  What Google Can Teach Us about Printed Marketing Materials

From Guy Kawasaki: The Art of Branding

From Dane Carlson: Make your Marketing Market You

More from Angela LoSasso: Top 5 Reasons Small Business Can Hit Print Affordably

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Angela LoSasso manages HP’s Small Business Wiki and writes for HP’s Small Business Blog. You can also find her on Twitter.

It’s no secret that consumers today are increasingly embracing all things green–green products, green services, anything that promises to be more environmentally sustainable than the options of days gone by. In fact, recent data shows that even during these tough economic times, 82 percent of consumers are still buying green products, despite the fact that they may cost more.

While an “eco” focus may not be part of every company’s mission–at least not yet!–it’s also a mistake to ignore the trend altogether, especially when you’re creating paper-heavy marketing materials. All other things being equal, the competitor with a greener image will likely win the sale.

So how can you create a greener image? First of all let me say beware of “greenwashing”–that practice of making yourself sound more eco-minded than you are. Customers will catch onto that in no time!

There are, however, choices you can make to show that you’re mindful of the environment, whether or not it plays a key role in your business strategy. Of course, if you are eco-focused at your core, these recommendations become requirements!

1. Using recycled paper  is a basic step you can take, as is choosing sustainable, soy-based inks when you are outsourcing your printing or buying pre-printed materials. Recycled paper and other office materials are available from the Recycled Products Cooperative, among many other places. At least as important as using such products, however, is proclaiming those choices with a clear statement right there on the materials: “Printed using soy-based inks on 100% post-consumer recycled paper,” or whatever the details might be. If you don’t tell customers about your efforts toward sustainability, they may never know.

2. “Eco-iconic” elements. Going a step further, it’s easier to broadcast your eco-efforts when those choices speak for themselves. Just as hybrid vehicles often look dramatically different from other cars, a growing number of products of every kind are incorporating paradigm-busting “eco-iconic” features into their design that leave no doubt of their eco-credentials. What’s available for marketing materials? Here are just two examples:

• Swedish Whitelines is a carbon-neutral writing paper that uses white lines against a light grey background instead of the bleach-dependent reverse. The paper has won several innovation awards, and its different look practically screams “green.”

• There’s even a green-minded font available that uses as much as 20 percent less ink than traditional ones do. Available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux, the Ecofont is free to download from Spranq, its Dutch developer.

Whatever you choose here, the point is to make it obvious–no explanation needed–that you’ve embraced something green.

3. One envelope, not two. If you send out reply mail, consider using reusable envelopes, such as those offered by ecoEnvelopes. Besides the reduced need for paper, using one envelope instead of two also means savings of 15 percent to 45 percent on envelope and related mailing costs as well as increased direct mail response rates, ecoEnvelopes says. Again, make sure you tell customers about your decision!

4. Eco-guerrilla branding. Rather than spending money on mass paper mailings or traditional ads, a greener–and often less expensive–branding option is what you might call “eco-vertising,” where the medium itself is sustainable. Specifically? Think your company’s logo mowed into the grass by the side of a busy road, literally washed onto a dirty city street, or imprinted onto the snow at a busy intersection. They’re green, they’re relatively inexpensive, and they can make a lasting impression for your brand.UK-based Curb and Street Advertising Services and Netherlands-based GreenGraffiti are companies that have caught our eye for specializing in such clean-vertising methods.

It may be tempting to let any green efforts slip until economic conditions improve, but that kind of short-term perspective is a sure way to let your brand slip as well. If anything, the eco-focus will increase in the coming years; don’t let yourself get left out in the cold!

I’m not a professional designer, but I am a customer. I’m the person you’re trying to win over. And I’m going to do the thing that customers rarely do: I’m going to tell you how to make a good impression on me. A logo is just one of the many ways.

Let’s start with an example of a great logo we’re all familiar with: the Nike Swoosh.

The Nike Swoosh was created in 1971 and hasn’t changed a lick since. It doesn’t have that ’70s look, nor did it undergo a makeover to keep up with the times. (For instance, if Nike had really tied its identity to avocado green and burnt sienna because they were all the rage in ‘71, they would have had a major makeover by now.) This communicates stability.

But the logo also works on more tactical levels.

1. It looks like a logo. This logo is just as at home on a shoe or T-shirt as it is on the top of a quarterly earnings report or business card. No matter where you put it, it communicates that it is the symbol representing Nike. Logos are simple shortcuts to communicating who you are.
2. Size doesn’t matter. This logo can be shrunk down teeny-tiny for a wristband or blown up to cover a stadium wall and it still looks crisp and clean. Logos need to be able to look the same no matter how big they are.
3. It’s not afraid of black-and-white copiers. This logo can be in color or black and white without losing its impact. Although the Swoosh isn’t tied to a particular color, let’s pretend it was — since many brands have a color palette. If that were the case, then it would be important that it still looked great when black and white were the only option.
4. Singular association is a good thing. The swoosh was a blank slate. All it has ever meant is “Nike.” But if they had chosen something that wasn’t abstract, they would be at the mercy of the changing associations people had with that item. Many words and images change in meaning over time. (Just ask National Geographic and a 19-year-old what a “cougar” is, and you’ll get two very different answers.)
5. It is not without meaning. Nike is actually the Greek goddess of victory, and the swoosh communicates graceful movement and flight. Victory, grace and “flying” are a big part of sports and always will be.  This may sound contradictory to the “blank slate” theory, but it isn’t. The logo itself had no meaning in culture prior to Nike. Instead, Nike imbued it with the meaning it chose.

Boiled down to nouns, a logo with these qualities would communicate: stability, flexibility, foresight and integrity. Most customers aren’t explicitly looking for those traits in a logo, but we are looking for those traits in a business. And aside from the emotional and subliminal connection we make between logo and business, there is a more practical one.

I’m not looking for a work of art on your business card or website. However, when I see a company representing itself with hopelessly out-of-date or unprofessional-looking materials, it takes a lot of convincing to show me that is the only part of the business that is hopelessly out-of-date and unprofessional. And that is not a good position for a business to be in. Get this image thing out of the way the right way, so you can concentrate on providing good service and increasing your sales.

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The HP Creative Studio offers several options for good logo design — whether you want to do it yourself or hire a pro. Check it out, with the above tips in mind!

How you market yourself, as well as the presentation of your materials, will tell the customer everything they need to know about you. However, you must first present that information in a way that will allow them to feel positive about you and what you do.

Dress To Impress

While you can’t impress everyone, you can ‘dress’ your materials to offer the message you want the customer to receive. You wouldn’t walk into an important meeting wearing sweat pants and a t-shirt, would you? Neither should your marketing materials! If there is one place you should consider spending a little extra, it should be on your design. Your information deserves to look just as professional as the business it will be representing.

Inform, Not Overload

You need more than a nice business card to impress your customers. Your materials need to be informative and interesting. They shouldn’t just state the facts, they should illuminate them. Sometimes, with the use of a photo or some other medium, you can sum up your meaning without flooding your customers mind with too much information. Once you have their attention and they further inquire about your business, that is when you want to get into the specifics.

Think Outside The Box

What message are you sending when you follow the same, worn out, marketing templates as everyone else? Rather than follow what others are doing, think outside the box and implement your own creative strategies. You need your consumer base to find interest in what you have to offer if you want to leave a positive first impression. They’re less likely to find what your materials interesting, if you don’t take the required steps to separate yourself from the competition.

One of the best ways to do that is to use your materials as a way to interact with them. By causing the consumer to think about what you’ve had to say, spike their interest on a personal level, or offer something that no one else has thought of, then you’ll bring your marketing materials to a whole new level.

Take a look at your own materials and tell me, what impression does it leave? Is it what you wanted it to say?

• Lose 20 lbs in 2 weeks – no dieting.
• Double your income in half the time.

However, there are a couple of problems with making outrageous claims.  You may get people’s attention, but they won’t necessarily believe you.  People will be looking for the fine print of your offer.   They know if it looks too good to be true, it probably is!

The second problem is that you have to deliver on your promise, right?  Your marketing materials should set the expectation for doing business with you.   Customer satisfaction is all about expectations.  If I tell you I’ll deliver your marketing materials in a month, and I beat that timeframe, you’re happy.  If I miss the deadline, you’ll be understandably upset.  It really is that simple.

So how can you make your marketing materials credible and incredible at the same time?

1. Use strong imagery. A picture is still worth 1,000 words – as long as it’s not a tired stock photo I’ve seen 1,000 times.
2. Evoke emotion. Yes, even business people make emotional decisions!  Get your reader to imagine how much better their life will be once they have purchased your product or service.
3. Be authentic. Copycat marketing doesn’t work.  Call out the things that make your business unique.  Two companies can do the exact same thing in entirely different ways.
4. Quantify benefits.  Use numbers and percentages. People tend to believe facts that are quantified. Also, people tend to respond to specific numbers better than rounded numbers.   “Our customers averaged an 8.64 percent return” on their investments year after year is much stronger than our customers average greater than an 8 percent return on their investments.
5. Reduce feature babble. Sell the benefits, not the features.  Think about how car manufacturers market.  They don’t say, “Our car has 4 wheels, a steering wheel and an engine.” They evoke the image of adventurous 20-year olds scaling mountains, or the safety-conscious mom nimbly swerving around danger.  They make people feel like they want to belong to that group (even if they never actually scale mountains).
6. Include testimonials. Ever wonder why the infomercial is so popular?  It’s because people believe other people more than they believe your marketing message.
7. Include a guarantee. Sometimes people just want assurance that they’re doing the right thing.  Give them a guarantee that boosts their confidence that you’ll deliver.

Remember these 7 tips and you’ll be well on your way to creating incredible credible marketing materials.

Yes, Google inspired me to create a marketing collateral piece for my business, from its little AdSense booklet that I received in the mail several years back.  (See the booklet and read more about it here.)

Today I’d like to share my own booklet – the booklet that Google inspired.  When I saw Google’s booklet, a light bulb went on over my brain.  “A ha!  I can create something like that to drive people back to my website,” I thought.

You see, I run a Web-based publishing business – akin to an informal online magazine.  I have struggled to come up with meaningful printed collateral to hand out at in-person events and speaking engagements that will get people to go online and visit my website.

In my case, going to my website is the single biggest call to action.  My goal is to get people to go to my website, whereupon they read information, subscribe and participate in the community.  So I created my own booklet, which looked like this:

For over a year, this booklet became my single biggest piece of printed marketing collateral.

Mostly,  it served its purpose.  It did drive traffic to my website, back to the single-page microsite I’d set up for it.  I’ve also used it as online content that I’ve brought to readers’ attention several times over the years (each time it is fresh for new readers).

More recently, I’ve been able to repurpose the booklet and use it in other ways.  For instance, I’ve loaded it on document sharing websites such as SlideShare, where it is still helping spread the word about my business.

But I also learned a lot from the experience of creating the booklet.  Looking back several years later, it now seems rather amateurish looking to me.  There are a number of things I would have done differently.   :)

Here are five lessons I learned, about what worked and what didn’t, and what I’d do differently today:

1)  Spring for a great design.

In my case, I created the booklet at a time when my business was still young and my budget very small.  It was a homegrown effort done on the cheap.   I created the booklet using Microsoft Publisher.  As you can probably tell, I’m obviously not a designer.

For instance, I used curved corners for the border around the page edges.  The curved corners always printed slightly jagged, as you can see in this image of the interior pages:

I would have been better off with squared corners.  I never took the time to print out a sample and look critically at it.  So I didn’t realize the downsides to the curved corners until I took it to the print center to have printed in final form.

A professional would not have made that kind of mistake.

Plus, I did not take into account the value of my own time.   It probably took me 5 times as long as a professional to lay out a multi-page document like this.  I should have asked myself “What is the best use of my time?”

I’m a big believer that you can do some things on your own — however, you should know your own limitations.

2) Purchase professional images.

I had admired the simple line drawings used on the Google piece, and opted to use free black-and-white clip art in my own piece, thinking it would be simple and elegant. 

Well … simple yes, elegant no.

The clip art was not what I’d hoped for.  The images tended to print out a little blurry.  Also, the images did not look quite as knock-out sophisticated as I would have like.  An investment in print-quality (300 dpi) professional images from a source such as istockphoto.com, would have been much more satisfactory.

3) Choose something you can execute well.

One lesson I learned is that I was too ambitious with the entire project, and especially the budget. I should have created a collateral piece that had lower printing and binding costs, and used the dollar difference on other elements — and still stayed within my budget.

I ended up spending many thousands of dollars for printing and binding.  Because the expense stretched my small budget at the time to the breaking point, that forced me into being penny wise and pound foolish. 

First mistake: I designed it myself.  Yet, I didn’t have sufficient skills or the right tools that such an ambitious job demanded.  Spending $500 – $1000 more to hire a professional to design the cover and the layout of the inside pages would have leveraged my total investment much better.

Also, to save money, the paper stock was thinner than I’d like, and I did the interior pages in black and white, with no color.

At the time I kept thinking, “How can I cut costs?”  Instead, I should have been asking myself, “How do I create the most effective, best-looking marketing piece and still stay within my budget?”

If I were to do it all over again with the budget I had, I would have created something different … something with fewer pages or that did not require binding.  Instead, I would have spread out more of my budget into the overall execution: design, images, paper quality.

4) Create compelling content and copy.

Here’s where a second opinion or second set of eyes by a marketing professional or copywriter would have helped.

You see, I’m a bit of an information hound and like information for information’s sake.  But I should have put myself in the reader’s shoes — and asked what would have been most interesting and useful to them.   The whole concept would have been more compelling to my audience, had the content contained actionable tips that the reader salivated over knowing more about.

It would not have been that hard to re-write the content into better, more actionable tips.  In the end, it would have made the booklet the kind of thing that created word of mouth and delivered more conversions (driving more traffic online).

5) Get value online as well as offline.

I probably got the most mileage from the online version of the booklet.  I created a PDF of the booklet and loaded it online.  I also set up a companion page on my website for the URL listed on the printed booklet.  That drew visitors back to my site from those who got the printed booklet.  

It only took perhaps 3 hours to create the online elements, and that small effort has more than paid for itself over the years. 

For instance, I have had the PDF and the landing page (microsite) on my website for several years.  It has been a nice feature that I’ve pointed out to readers from time to time.  Each time it drives page views, and gets interest.  It’s even spawned a few flattering imitations by other people.

Later, when document sharing sites like DocStoc and SlideShare became popular, I was able to recycle the PDF and share the electronic version of the booklet on those sites.  This continues to add to my brand visibility and draw additional traffic up to the current day back to my site.  In the end, I’ve gotten 3 years of value out of having the booklet in electronic form online — and will continue to get value from it into the future.

Would I do it again?

“Would I do it all over again?”  My answer is a qualified … sort of.

We are working on a revised Tips document.

But this time, we’ve re-thought the whole concept.  We’re putting more effort into the content, to make it more compelling and interesting for readers — and hopefully a little viral.  We will print fewer copies and use them more sparingly.  The bulk of our effort and budget will be in the online version.  We’re creating it in the form of an interactive slideshow that the reader can scroll through.  We’re also setting up a more interesting microsite.

In a later post, I will share Version 2.0 of my Tips booklet, created with professional design and marketing assistance.

You see, I’ve always thought of Google as the quintessential electronic business.  Who would have thought that they’d print up little spiral bound booklets and mail them to small business owners like me?  But they did.  Here is the booklet I got in the mail one day:

The booklet is called “Tweak Your Way to Profitability.”   The subtitle is “Tips for Boosting Your Income with AdSense.”

It contains tips for running Google AdSense units on your website to earn extra income.

Several things intrigued me about this marketing piece – so much so, that over 4 years later I still have it.  

(1) Information oriented. The first thing that caught my eye — after the shock of actually receiving a printed item from Google — was that it contained helpful tips. I’m an information hound … a sucker for any marketing materials that are in the form of information. I don’t want sales pitches. I don’t want glitzy nothingness. But give me data or advice or information that’s creatively packaged — and I lap it up like a kitten at a bowl of milk.

For a B2B marketing piece, information-oriented items are powerful. I have a box filled with all manner of booklets, tip sheets, even bookmarks and business cards with tips printed on them.   But this has to be one of the more memorable examples I’ve ever received.

Here is one of the tips on the inside pages:

Notice they used some simple clip art or line drawings.  Most important is the font and white space.  It’s simplicity itself.  And not hard to re-create on your own, or get a designer to help you with.

(2) It is oriented toward me. So many marketing materials are about the company that produces them.  I want to see something that tells me WIIFM — what’s in it for me.  This piece does.  It starts with the subtitle “boosting your income.”  Notice the word “your” in that subtitle.

It continues with the way each of the tips is phrased, to focus on the reader’s revenue generation.  Who isn’t intrigued with the idea of making more money in your business?

(3) It’s lumpy. This is the kind of thing John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing calls “lumpy mail.” It is something dimensional.  It consists of eleven sheets of heavy paper stock bound together with wire spiral binding.  It’s compact: 3 inches by 4.5 inches.

It is tactile. I can play around with it. Touch it. Feel it. Flip through the pages. It engages me.  It feels like it would be heresy to  throw something like this in the trash. (Heck, 4 years later and I still haven’t thrown it in the trash.)

(4) It’s colorful and playful. There’s something about that title phrase “Tweak your way to …” that makes it seem like learning — and placing ads — will be fun. Even the bright apple green color feels energetic.  They could have made this booklet serious sounding, but didn’t.  And that’s a big part of its appeal.  It’s fun!

(5) It has a call to action. At the bottom of each page is a short simple URL to go online.  And at the end of the booklet, there’s a call to action statement that invites you to go online:

Once you go online, you reach a microsite that contains each of the tips along with additional detailed information that wouldn’t fit on a single page.  The microsite contains numerous Web links to draw you deeper into the Google AdSense site.  Obviously the goal is to get you to increase the use of AdSense units on your sites, get you earning more, and thus make you more loyal.

And guess what?  Even years later, that microsite set up as a companion for the booklet is still live. (Read more about microsites here.)

This booklet has stayed with me like few other marketing materials.  It even inspired me to create a spiral-bound booklet of my own, with tips.  I also created a microsite section of my website to draw people back to.  In a future post I share my own booklet with you, inspired by the Google booklet.

Meanwhile, think about how you might use something like this to market your business.

Yes. You can do it yourself.

But first, be aware of the common perils DIY designers fall into. Before you start any design project, keep these do’s and don’ts in mind:

DON’T fix it, if it ain’t broke

You need design for two major reasons:

1. Your goals have changed
2. You aren’t achieving your current goals

If your goals are the same—you’re satisfied and successful—then why redesign what’s already working?

DO define your goals

Unfortunately, goals rarely remain the same over time. Why? Because the environment or context of your business is always changing. For example:

• You’ve grown
• New competitors have emerged
• New technologies have been released

Changes in the business environment trigger changes in your business goals, or they make your current goals harder to achieve. So you must modify your goals or create new ones. These goals that must be clear, and you must decide which is most important. For example:

• I want to attract a new audience
• I want retain enough customers to survive a downturn
• I want to remain the leader in my product category

Setting goals enable you to know where you’re going and when you’ve arrived. Goals give you something to measure; it creates an explicit contract. How do you know if the design is right? Ask, “Does it meet the goal?”

Different and new goals entail changes in your company’s behavior. Customers need to know about these changes.

How?

Through messages. And through the design of these messages.

DON’T send multiple messages

A clear goal helps you form a focused message. Here are some examples:

• We have a new product for you
• Our old product has a new feature
• We have a sale
• We’re still number one
• We treat our customers best
• We’re trustworthy

Never communicate too many messages. It’s harder for customers to remember why your company is different. For example: Don’t use your logo to convey strength, innovation, success, leadership, cheerfulness, luxury, and responsibility all at once. You cannot be all things at once.

DO focus on one message

All messages are not created equal. Pick the absolutely most important message you want customers to remember. Then, focus all your design efforts on that single message. This reduces the customer’s forgetfulness, confusion, and uncertainty.

If you must communicate other messages, treat them as secondary and never equal to the primary message.

For example, the success of President Obama’s campaign relied on a single memorable message:

• Change we can believe in

Supporting this message, he consistently appeared young, calm, and thoughtful, when McCain did not.

DON’T use poor typography

Typography is one way to express a message. The way you set your message in type affects how the message is perceived. Poor typography makes your message harder to read, understand, and remember. Avoid these mistakes:

• Too many fonts; Too many sizes
• Bad font choices (overly decorative, unreadable, trendy)
• Poor typesetting (inconsiderate letterspacing, word spacing, line spacing, and line lengths)
• Distorted type (stretching, disproportionate scaling, and mutilation of letters)
• No hierarchy (everything treated the same)
• ALL CAPS

DO pay attention to typography

Good typography is clear, legible, and conveys your message effectively. It’s hard for both amateur and professional designers to learn good typography. But here are some general tips:

• Pick the most important word or phrase, and make it stand out from the rest.
• Treat similar information in a similar form
• Don’t make words or phrases stand out randomly.

DON’T try to get it perfect the first time

Designers can be “obsessive-compulsive.” While attention-to-detail is a trait every designer should have, diving into the details too early can drown you. Avoid this trap and create as many flawed prototypes as early as possible. They key to good design–like good writing–is editing and revision.

DO revise, revise, and revise

Writer Anne Lamott refers to the flawed prototype as the “Sh***y First Draft,” the first attempt “where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place.” As a designer, you’ll need to create many Shi***y First Drafts. You don’t care if it’s perfect, just as long as you start explore many ideas. Then you can evaluate them to learn what works and doesn’t. This testing process leads to revisions, more drafts, and the process starts again.

DON’T do it yourself

When what you’re designing fails to accomplish your defined goals and also fails to communicate your message, then it’s time to stop designing it yourself and hire help.

DO hire someone

OK, you’ve saved up some money to hire a pro, but you still can’t afford the top-tier firms. Is there a happy medium between DIY and expensive top-tier firms? Yes. Try these sources:

• Design students (Contact the local design school and ask for contacts. Check portfolio sites like Coroflot)
• Freelancers (look for them on Craigslist and Elance)
• Pro-bono designers (If you’re a non-profit, you might qualify for help from studios like Joey’s Corner)
• Boutique design studios (Check AIGA for a list of small design studios)

When hiring professional help, remember: fast, good, cheap–pick two. Getting all three is nearly impossible. Here’s how to hire a designer:

• Don’t send an RFP
• Do send a creative brief
• Ask to see samples of past work
• Above all, have a conversation—you need to be comfortable and able to talk
• Start small—keep the risk low. e.g. design an ad or web page
• Ask for a “fixed fee”—not an hourly rate. This makes the designer think about total hours in advance and provides an incentive to work fast.

Additional resources

• The Non-Designer’s Design & Type Books
• DIY: Design It Yourself
• Making and Breaking the Grid
• Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
• The Elements of Typographic Style
• Thinking with Type
• Better Typography Without Design school