lookbook printing

Are you looking for ways to promote your new business? You’ve probably already got your website sorted, and no doubt you know that social media is a great way to connect with customers. But what about something a little more sleek?

You may have heard of a lookbook in terms of designers and models, but it’s breaking through into other sectors as a means of advertising. It offers an efficient way of showing your range of goods and services in a stylish presentation.

To help you create your company’s lookbook, we’re teaming up with litho printing UK company Precision Printing.

Ingredients for a perfect lookbook

The first step is to decide what you want your lookbook to concentrate on. This is especially important if you have limited funds, as waste will lose you money. The essential lookbook elements are:

  • Cover page.
  • Sensible navigation.
  • High-quality images.
  • Enticing product/service descriptions.
  • Key brand details (including contact information and social media addresses).

Cover page — the place to start

First impressions are everything, and your cover page is your first impression! The objective of the front cover is to grab attention, which means you need to think: attractive image, excellent use of colour, and an appealing title to compel the reader to want to know more. 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 — keep it flowing

Often overlooked, the page order of a lookbook can be the difference between success and failure. You want to create a good experience for your potential customer when they’re reading your lookbook, and making sure it flows without interruption is essential.

So that your customer and reader can easily locate items of interest, keep related items together in your book. If you offer both goods and services, keep these separate, and try to section off connected articles into clear categories to deliver consistency and avoid making your lookbook appear disjointed.

Imagery — high quality and professional, like your company!

Of course, lookbooks are a visual medium, so your photographs are a reflection of your business. Make sure the photos you put into your lookbook are professionally-taken and of the highest quality, which means considering props, lighting, colour, setting, and image resolution for each shot. If this is one of your first print marketing campaigns, you don’t want any mistakes.

Don’t be tempted to fill all the whitespace; it can be used as a visual in its own right. Not every image needs to run border to border and whitespace is a modern photography technique used to create a focus point and highlight a particular part of the page — use it sparingly.

It’s a worthwhile investment to hire a professional photographer to help with your first lookbook. However, you can do these yourself if you prefer, but just remember to check that you have exclusive rights for everything you include if they aren’t all original images.

Product descriptions — brief, but important

The images might be centre-stage, but don’t neglect the text content. Essentially, a lookbook will feature product/service descriptions and — if you’re a start-up — perhaps a brief brand description so everyone knows what you’re about.

What do you need to be aware of with lookbook copy? Quality lookbook copy must be:

  • Interesting: maintain your reader’s attention.
  • Informative: answer any questions they may have.
  • Concise: don’t drown it with too many words.
  • Enticing: encourage the reader to buy from you.

Through your content, you can reach out to your customer base. 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.

Details — how to get in touch

Your contact information should be printed on the back of your lookbook to make it easy for your readers to find it and use it. If you’re a new company on the scene, you’re going to have to shout about where new customers can get in touch with you. Make sure you include:

  • Email address.
  • Social media addresses.
  • Shop address.
  • Phone number.

Final notes

Once you’re happy with the design and content, your lookbook is ready to print. 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. The worst scenario would be to put so much time, money and effort into designing the perfect lookbook, only to have it ruined by opting for a cheap paper or poor finish.

It’s imperative that you check over your lookbook before it goes to the printers. Proofread your copy, scan photos for anomalies and verify product names and prices. After its printed, get your lookbook out to as many potential customers as you can!

A lookbook is a brilliant way to showcase your products and services in a sleek, printed package. Don’t miss out on this avenue of marketing!

Sources:

https://www.readz.com/create-lookbook

http://www.creativebloq.com/print-design/self-promotional-brochure-11135260