Technical marketing documents are produced with specific attention paid to document design. As we discussed last week in relation to rhetoric and technical marketing documents, writers and designers make a series of key decisions related to the product, the manufacturer, target audiences, availability of resources used to produce the document, and the document’s point of distribution.

Document design: the basics

An especially beginner-friendly resource for creating effective technical marketing documents is Robin Williams’ book The Non-Designer’s Design Book (now in its second edition). This book, which retails for $19.95 is very user-friendly in content and engaging in tone – she has fun with design, and she wants all of us to have fun with it, too, even if we don’t necessarily get things right the first time. This book, like anything we’ve looked at associated with this project, emphasizes the writing situation and the audience. With that in mind, here are Robin Williams’ four components of document design:

· Contrast

· Repetition

· Alignment

· Proximity

Contrast: Involves items on the page that are different from each other. Items that are identical are OK. Items that are “similar” are not; they lack connection to one another, and they also compete with each other.

Repetition: Repeating items communicates identity, consistency, and importance.

Alignment: Items should have a visual connection with other items. Don’t place items just to get them onto the page, or to “scatter” items across the page. Alignment communicates relationships between items; it also organizes items in ways that make the overall document more accessible to readers.

Proximity: Items placed near each other need to have some sort of relationship or connection between them. Proximity is another method of organization.

Document design and the technical marketing document

Document design is key in technical marketing documents, since information must not only be gathered and compiled, but it must also be presented.

Text. Images and colors are obviously important here, but so is effective presentation of text. Columns – the number of columns, the length and width of columns – help arrange text within a document. Readability is enhanced when there’s effective use of margins; end-to-end text in an 8 ½ by 11 document is somewhat difficult on the eyes. Margins can be functional, or they can be dramatic. Some documents have wide margins to the left and text blocks scooted over to the right, resulting in a usable and artistically attractive document.

Placement of text within a brochure is especially critical. Columns need to orient themselves within each panel so that when the document is folded, the crease runs along – not within – columns.

Typography is another important text-oriented element in document design. There are four general categories of typefaces: serif (Times New Roman), sans serif (Arial, Helvetica), script, and decorative. Serif typefaces, or fonts, are usually used for body copy; the stems, or serifs, on each letter help “propel” readers from one letter to the next in a word, so that we in a sense “glide” through individual words and groups of words – making glancing at a document easy and convenient. Sans serif typefaces generally are used for headlines and subheads; they are more bold in appearance than serif-based fonts. But Arial has also caught on for body copy in web-based documents because it looks “modern.” Script fonts and decorative fonts are used for special occasions, and for that reason they must be chosen with great care. Use them only for headlines, since their ornamented style makes them more difficult to read if used for anything beyond small increments of text.

Size and weight are important, too, since we use these criteria to measure text. In terms of size, we work with “points,” instead of inches. One inch equals 72 points. For a flyer, headlines range from 42 to 72 points. Subheads range from 24 to 36 points. And body copy ranges from 10 points to 18 points. For a brochure, the values are adjusted due to each panel visually representing a “separate” document. A 48-point headline would overwhelm a brochure panel, and it would stretch over several lines. But a 24-36 point headline in a brochure would be just fine. Subheads? 14-18 point. Body copy? 9-12 point. In terms of weight, we have regular, italics, boldface, and underlined. Boldface emphasizes text, italics de-emphasize it. Avoid underlines; they’re too reminiscent of the typewriter and they tend to “obscure” the words above them!

Images. Images within a technical marketing document depict the product, target audiences, or both. Which images you select, how many of them, and where they’re placed are vital. And thanks to desktop publishing programs and stock photography websites, we can put together a professional looking document – with images – in a relatively short amount of time.

Another important consideration: placement of the manufacturer’s logo, which must be present within the document. If the document is meant to emphasize the manufacturer, the logo should be placed in a prominent location. If the document is meant to emphasize the product or the target audience, the logo should be placed somewhere considerably less prominent – such as the back panel of a brochure, or in the bottom right corner of a flyer.

Color. Color is much more than simply “window dressing”! Color communicates identity – identity regarding the product, identity regarding the manufacturer, identity regarding the target audience. In terms of document design, it’s important to keep in mind what various colors “mean” – but it’s also important to keep in mind that some colors are more effective in technical marketing documents than others. Colors like blue and green are almost always good bets; they’re friendly, soothing, and very printer-friendly. Colors like yellow, orange, and brown sometimes carry negative connotations – “too ugly,” “too boring,” “too gaudy,” “too ordinary.” However, these colors can be especially effective when implemented for specific products: household appliances, home improvement products, and the like.

What about black, white, and gray? Some technical marketing writers and designers steer clear of these colors because they perceive such colors as not as readily able to take advantage of the “variety” that desktop publishing software and peripherals offer at reasonable prices. But these colors can actually be effectively implemented if used to create a timeless, creativity-oriented mood. Finally, what about red? It’s not as often used – not because of any negative connotations as much as red is not as print-friendly or screen-friendly than other colors. In print, it overwhelms other parts of the document. On screen, it’s hard on the eyes.