How to improve the design of this document?
reddvinylene (14 points) | Tue, 2009-05-12 22:42I'm working on this simple business plan and was wondering if perhaps you guys could offer me any advice on how to improve its design? Font suggestions? Any important typographical conventions? What about the typeblock? Perhaps there are some golden number-inspired sizes / ratios I could apply here and there?
http://www.home.no/reddvinylene/example_layout.pdf
Thanks so much y'all!
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You should follow these simple tricks, and get something that looks a bit better: :-)
First; get yourself a modern font (sans serif). It could well be Sansation, which you can get for free at daFont.com.
Then, put in the margins in each side quite a bit, and put up the spacing. If you´re writing in 12p., your spacing should be around 15,5p. Looks a lot better.
Make a rule about headers and subheaders. They should be consequent thoughout the paper. Maybe you can let your headers have "the old" margin in the left side. Otherwise you can write headers LIKE THIS. Don´t remember what it´s called..
That´s it from the "Scandinavian business paper design guide line", Good luck
Thanks man, I applied what you said and damn it looks good now! =)
Kind of hard to critique a text only document that has no effort put into it as far as "design" goes. Try adding space between paragraphs, get rid of the indents, add more leading, try different fonts, add some color, add some graphics...
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Visit The Graphic Mac for graphics and Mac OS tips, reviews, tutorials and discussion.
hire a designer?
Word. This is creativebits.org not freedesignwork.org
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Natobasso
dirtandrust.com
"Powerpoint is not a design application"
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Dirt and Rust
Add some design elements it's just that simple
Jessica Mahoney
www.holdtheonionplease.blogspot.com
So far I've fixed my margins, added a script that turns all numbers into smallcaps (looks really awesome!) and set my body's line height to 15pt. Please keep the suggestions coming though!
Business plans are meant to look dead serious anyway. Yeah yeah it's boring, but I'm asking investors for a LOT of money and I can't afford making any blunders by trying to make it look fancy or whatever. Like that French dude said:
For a business plan like this, key things to consider are: Is it as legible as possible?
Does it feel like (you) the creator of the document cares about the content?
For legibility: read it, get friends/collegues to read it and ask yourself and them: 'what would make this easier to read and understand?' - you don't have to act on their advice to the letter, but it'll likely give you a feel for any flaws in the document.
The advice about margins (making them larger) and paragraph breaks (add them and drop the indents) is great as it improves the legibility of the document and will make it feel better paced and less daunting.
The crucial thing is to remember that the document is all about the content, and it's design is all about getting that content into the reader's head with the minimum of fuss and the fewest chances for error. It's also worth considering that, as a business plan, this document will likely see a fair few revisions in it's time if it is to remain useful.
True indeed, I appreciate your insight man. What you said kinda reminds me of those rocks by the shore, you know the way the waves make them all round and smooth over time?
Cheers!