brochures

it's time to start designing a brochure for this educational toy company (Monster Island's Potential Energy, islandofmonsters.etsy.com) my brother and i are starting. we've had a fair amount of success with our business cards, which are packs of homemade play dough with the label being our contact info. the reason this works well is because it fits our business themes of, interactive creative free play, and the unique possibilities each opportunity presents. also, play dough is fun. but the downfall to the business card is that, well...there's just not a ton of info on it. and we are now getting to the point, thankfully, where we have a lot of people offering to help spread the word for us. therefore...we need a brochure.

so i did some google searches for design ideas. and this is what i've found:

(also, fyi...most of these images have come from this site: http://psdcollector.blogspot.com/2010/04/127-beautiful-brochure-design-examples.html there are hundreds of examples....please check the rest out!)

i knew going in, i didn't just want a book. so, i started looking at accordion folds:

this one is cool because the back has a quote you can read when it's all stretched out.

i love the idea of this one. it looks like a road map, but instead has other info...

this one reminded me of moving billboards. if you look at the accordion folds on one side it will make an image, and another image will appear if you look at it from another angle.

another take on the same kind of fold.

this is genius, and inspiring.

i liked the idea of this one...how the hinged corner creates an unusual movement...

and then obviously pop-up books would be great, and fit in perfectly with our company's theme...but they are expensive, and not exactly practical at this point.

this isn't the best example, but i do really like the idea of windows. there's an interesting play on positive/negative space.

but again, it's just not financially practical right now.

this one i appreciate for the use of color and simplicity. 

i am a nerd for typography...

nick cave is awesome, and you should check him out. he makes sound-suits. i love his work, but this is not the time to discuss that. http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Nick-Cave--HEAVYWEIGHT-ALTERSKINS/193657

and after getting all hot and bothered by the beautiful design of these...practicality set back in. and i was trying to figure out how expensive color prints would be. so here are some examples of well-designed grey scale brochures. 

so now, the assessment.

i want something you can interact with..more than just flipping through pages. i really enjoy the unusual shapes and folds of the triangular examples, and obviously, grey scale would be great if i could accomplish that. i've noticed that some sort of toy, or something that requires the person to put together or play with can be successful because the person looks at the information longer...and plus, that's fun.

i've made some of these papertoys before...

and i think i will explore this further. not only can i make the shapes into monsters, these papertoys are educational because it requires and understanding of geometry...it's a toy, so you don't realize you're learning...also, i can print the pattern out on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper to avoid expensive dye-cut costs...and! i can print them in black and white and have the person color them in. perfect. 

you've just experienced my thought process.
now i will design.
...and then post the results later.