EXPERT OPINION: What is a catalog, and what to do first before printing?

Danil Fokin, Customer Manager, PRINTSTORE GROUP:

The design of a catalog depends on your target audience and catalogs of your competitors. What does this include:

1) Layout. The layout of the catalog can be very diverse, and the main thing to understand is whether the catalog is intended for advertising and distribution by sales managers in the offices of potential clients or on the street for mass attraction of buyers. Also, when choosing a format, it is necessary to consider the technological formats of papers and printing equipment.

2) Type of binding or fastening. Type of binding depends on how many goods and services will be placed in the catalog, its target audience, and the internal material to be used for printing of the catalog. As you may know, there are two types binding: hard-cover and soft-cover.

3) Colorfulness. You should also take into account the colorfulness of the catalog. Optimal colors of the catalog depend on the equipment on which you will print your products and, actually, on the estimated price. The most commonly used color is 4+4, a so-called standard triad color selection.

4) Material. The main part in the catalog are materials to be used to make the inner block, the cover and the inserted pages. This can be paper, cardboard, all kinds of leather substitute, fabrics, designer paper or paper with extra processing.

And most importantly, the correctly expressed task and requirements mean 80 percent of success.