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DESIGN TRICKS TO SELL YOUR MESSAGE
- PART TWO -

Selling yourself to a sponsor is not much different than selling a product to a consumer. There may not be any hard and fast rules for designing your sponsorship presentation documents, but there are some considerations one must make when assembling the package. The following are suggestions that should help you design for clarity and impact.

In Part One of this article we discussed 6 design tricks including 1) Establishing a format; 2) Use white space wisely; 3) Use color to set your document; 4) Choose the right typeface; 5) Careful with that space bar; and 6) Use tabs to position type on a line. See “ARCHIVES” for Part One. In Part Two we continue to assist you with more design tricks to sell your sponsorship message.

7. Use quotation marks correctly – The quotation marks many typists use are really inch marks. The professional designer uses the true, curved quotation marks provided in the typeface. The “real” quotation marks curve into the type. Most advance page layout programs have a feature called “smart” quotations. This feature automatically inserts quotation marks into the text when the inch mark key is pressed.

8. Avoid too many hyphens – Too many hyphenated line breaks in a row creates unattractive text that is difficult to read. As a general rule, three hyphens in a row should be your maximum. Dictionary hyphens can be placed where you prefer to split a word. Most computer programs provide for a dictionary hyphen. As you key the text, watch all your line breaks carefully; then go back over the text you have entered and edit every single line of the document. While this may take a little extra time and effort, the payoff is the professional “look” your text can create.

9. Use the right dashes and hyphens – A professional looking printed piece can be affected by the smallest detail. There is a difference between dashes and hyphen.

Em dashes (—) organize phrases and clauses within a sentence. Whether the em dash has a space before and after is the choice of the typist but consistency and uniformity are very important to the overall look of a document. Guidelines should be established on this point.

En dashes (-) indicate duration (i.e., 10 AM-12 Noon) or location (i.e., University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point). If the words “thru”, “of”, or “at” can be sued in place of the dash, then an en dash is appropriate. Never space before or after an en dash.

Hyphens (-) are punctuation for individual words only and should not be used to punctuate sentences. You should never use two hyphens in place of an em dash nor should you ever space before, and seldom after, a hyphen.

10. Avoid widows and orphans – Widows and orphans ruin aesthetics of text and should be avoided wherever possible. Widow – a widow is a single word on the last line of a paragraph. Orphan – an orphan is a single line of a paragraph at the bottom or tope of a column of text. Because of the white space they create, both interrupt the reader’s eye as it flows across the page.

11. Use type as part of the design – Headlines, subheads and captions are an important element in your sponsorship package design. Headlines organize your material and strengthen your message. They help focus the reader to the page. Use upper and lower case letter in the headline. All caps is too hard to read. Subheads provide a transition from the headline to the body copy. They will guide the reader through large blocks of type. Short, to-the-point captions are one of the most widely read parts of your design. They should complement the pictures, not compete with the body copy. When using headlines, subheads and captions, always remember consistency. They should be the same throughout the design.

12. Pull quotes reinforce ideas – A “pull quote” is a short quotation used as a graphic device to summarize surrounding material and draw attention to it. As a design element, it can be set in large type, reversed or boxed. It is used to break up large amounts of body copy and keep the document from becoming too gray, Reversed type helps call out pull quotes as a graphic element. Many designers prefer large sans serif typefaces when doing a reverse pull quote. Screens, boxes and borders will also attract attention to the pull quotes as well as the page.

In this article (Parts One and Two), we have discussed twelve layout ideas to help you design your sponsorship package look professional. By using these suggestions, they should help your proposal standout from the others and perhaps actually be read by potential sponsors rather than being tossed aside. Good luck in your sponsor search!

Article courtesy of Insty-Prints Business Printing Services. There are nearly 300 Insty-Print centers throughout the country.

END

Kart Marketing Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 101
Wheaton, IL 60189 USA
Telephone: 630-653-7368
Fax: 630-653-2637
Email: karting@msn.com

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