Designing a lookbook could be the profitable and effective marketing tool you need to advertise your company.
Many start-ups struggle to spread awareness. If you want to show potential customers what you have to offer, a lookbook — used by fashion models and designers for decades —is an effective technique for promoting your brand. Focusing on striking images and minimal content, you get the opportunity to show your range in a way that’s sleek, stylish and professional.
For a step-by-step guide on designing a cost-effective lookbook for your company, browse these top tips put together by Precision Printing — a leading supplier of business stationery.
Main features of designing a successful lookbook
Firstly, you need to plan what you need to feature in your lookbook — this is especially important if you have limited funds, as waste will lose you money. The essential lookbook elements are: front cover, page navigation, product or service descriptions, imagery, and brand contact details.
Cover
Ideally, you should treat your lookbook’s front cover like it is a magazine of newspaper — which means making it attractive and enticing. The objective of the front cover is to grab attention, which means you need to think: quality images, good use of colour, and an appealing title to compel the reader to read the lookbook. Cover pages typically detail the month and year and, if it’s not in the title, you need to have your brand name and logo somewhere here, too.
Navigation
How your lookbook is ordered is also key to its success. You want to create a good experience for your potential customer when they’re reading your lookbook, which involves making sure it flows without interruption. Put similar products together, so the reader doesn’t have to thumb through the book to find items that might interest them. If you offer both goods and services, keep these separate. Also, try to divide connected articles into clear categories to deliver consistency and avoid making your lookbook appear disjointed.
Descriptions
The lookbook is renowned for relying almost entirely on compelling images to inform and entice the reader. However, brief descriptions regarding key products and services are also important. If you’re a start-up, perhaps include a brief brand description so everyone can get to know your business better.
Remember, copy in a quality lookbook must be:
- Succinct: no unnecessary words or details.
- Appealing: make them want to give you their custom.
- Useful: don’t leave your reader asking questions.
- Stimulating: grab your audience’s attention and keep it.
This is potentially the first time you’ll contact a future customer, so you want to make sure the tone and style you use starts and builds a positive brand-customer relationship. To do this, use professional language to convey your reliability, but try and adopt a chatty tone to come across as approachable. Try to avoid using very long words and sentences — these sound stuffy and clumsy — and keep your product descriptions between 30 and 60 words in length to avoid taking focus from your lookbook’s images.
Images
We’ve already mentioned that the lookbook depends heavily on images, so ensuring that these are of the best quality is critical to the success of your design. It’s highly recommended to hire a professional, although you can take these yourself if you want to save cash. Just remember to consider:
- Props.
- Colour.
- Setting.
- Lighting
- Resolution.
Be creative with your photoshoot — not every image needs to run border to border. Whitespace is a modern photography technique used to create a focus point and highlight a particular part of the page — so give this a go, if it’s right for your brand. But use it sparingly.
If you aren’t using a professional photographer to take original images, you must check that you have exclusive rights for everything you include.
Brand contact details
At the back of your lookbook, save space for your company’s contact details — otherwise, what’s the point in advertising your brand if nobody can get in touch with you? Make sure you include:
- Email address.
- Shop address.
- Social media addresses.
- Phone number.
Lookbook printing options and final preparations
After you’ve checked over your design and you’re happy with how it looks, it’s time to get it printed so it can start working to promote your company. Have a chat to your printing specialist about the type of paper stock and finishes that might look good and ask to see a few samples to get a better idea. You don’t want to waste money on a product with a poor finish or over/under ordering.
The final step before you receive your final printed product, is proofreading. Check every word and image several times to avoid making mistakes that can harm the professional aspect of your lookbook. After its printed, send your lookbook to as many potential customers as you can!
Sources:
https://www.readz.com/create-lookbook
http://www.creativebloq.com/print-design/self-promotional-brochure-11135260