Does your catalog need a ‘pretty’ prescription? Maybe not.

By Susan McIntyre

This doesn’t mean everything is the same size. It’s about the Golden Mean and Parthenon proportions. And it needs a designer with training and a great eye. Good proportion helps eye flow and makes your pages feel balanced, too, improving scannability, thus lifting response.

4. Use upscale fonts.
Your designer must understand fonts and their emotional impact. Fonts like Garamond are friendly; some like Times Roman create credibility. There are contemporary fonts, classic fonts, serif fonts, sans-serif fonts, shaped sans fonts, high x-height, low x-height and so on. Each feels different. The feeling is almost always unconscious, but important. The wrong font can feel cheap and out of place, detracting from an otherwise beautiful layout.