Step 1
Watch your margins and bleeds. Nothing looks more unprofessional than text that runs right up to the edge of a flyer, (unless this is part of your design), or worse yet, text that is cut off so that some of the information is missing.
Step 2
Don't let the graphics overwhelm the message. Its easy to get carried away with large images and special effects. Never let these things overpower the message that you are trying to communicate. Your cool design will be wasted if nobody reads your flyer.
Step 3
Don't forget to put the pertinent information. Name, Date, Time, Tickets Available and Contact Info on your flyer. Time and again I have picked up a cool looking flyer only to find that some pertinent information is missing. Once again, this makes you as the designer look unprofessional.
Step 4
Make sure all your graphics have the proper print resolution, at least 300ppi. This is generally the standard resolution for most printed flyers. Check with your print service provider for the specs that they require for optimum output.
Step 5
Only use one or two fonts. No more than this is required. If you need more variation use a font that has an associated family of weights like: Light, Condensed, Bold, and Black versions of the same font. Using more than two fonts can make your flyer look childish or give it that “ransom note” look.
Step 6
Avoid the temptation to crowd too much information onto a small space, keep it simple and put just what your audience needs to know, who, what, when, where and how. If you find that the information needs to be squeezed into the given space it may be time to move on to a larger format. Don't sacrifice clarity by cramping a lot of text into a small space. Avoid shrinking your text down too small to be clearly legible.
Step 7
Looking for a design element that stops people cold? Try using an attractive photo of the human face. Studies show that people are drawn to images of faces.
Step 8
If you're going to scan a picture from a magazine and use it in your flyer design, (although nobody does this on party flyers right? You do know this can get you into trouble, right?), use a scanner that has a de-moire filter. Moire is the pattern of dots that shows up sometimes on pieces that have been printed with a halftone screen pattern and scanned. This is not only a dead give-away that you've pilfered the picture, but it also looks highly unprofessional. There are also a couple techniques that are on the web that can help you get rid of this pattern. *See Resources. Though if you really want a nice high quality picture, scoot on over to iStockphoto.com or 123rf.com. There are thousands of images that are suitable for party flyers that will only cost you a few dollars, and using them won't get you into hot water.
Another thing that's a bad idea is to use an image search, say on Yahoo or Google and then attempt to use one of those images on your flyer. The vast majority of these images are not suitable for printing at all because the resolution is too low, and most are protected by copyright. A dead give-away that someone has done this are the jagged pixilated edges and poor color blends that usually accompany the use of such images. If you're looking for some free stock photos that can be used for print purposes check out these web resources:
Resources:
De-Moire Techniques:
Free Stock Photos:
Not Free But Reasonable Stock Photos:
I hope this helps, and thanks for reading!
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