# Dos and Don'ts of Flyers?



## ghostred7 (Sep 23, 2014)

Are there general rules or etiquette for gig flyers?

Have you ever seen a flyer that turned you off from going to a gig? What about it turned you off?

Have you ever seen a flyer that was so well done it just caught your attention and made you want to see a show you didn't otherwise know about or whatever? What about it did you like?

Design advice, etc go here. As everyone now has access to free graphics programs and such, it makes self-promotion easier. I think it'd be good to share knowledge on this aspect of it. If not sorry for taking up your time.


----------



## Alex Kenivel (Sep 23, 2014)

Only include the words "free beer" if there's _actually_ going to be free beer.


----------



## Forrest_H (Sep 23, 2014)

Are you making flyers for an upcoming gig? If so, definitely post some of your ideas up, I'm sure all of us have the time to tell you if it looks good or not 

If this is just a general idea for flyers thread, I'm usually more interested in the band that has weird artwork for a flyer, rather than a simple date, time, and band name


----------



## Electric Wizard (Sep 23, 2014)

Big, sans-serif fonts.

You want people to be able to read it from a distance. Also if you play djent, the aesthetic matches. 

For real though, I've seen too many flyers feature tons of tiny text and maybe a really badly xeroxed logo. The best flyers had the band's names or logos large but with enough white space to be recognizable, if they were bigger acts. For smaller acts, I think it's a good idea to make the genre an emphasized point. I always stopped to look at "METAL NIGHT" or things like that.


----------



## JohnIce (Sep 23, 2014)

Great topic  Here are my thoughts:

1. Make a detailed, very detailed, plan amongst your bandmates about how you want to present yourself visually. A so-called "graphic profile". It should include a limited color scheme, fonts (Logo+1 additional font), and a couple of art pieces or photos that you feel set the tone for your band. Listen carefully to your own music while doing this. Ask around what sort of imagery your friends get in their heads from listening to you.
2. Go back to step 1 and make sure you really got it right 
3. Follow your graphic profile like slaves, in everything you do. Facebook promo, band photos, backdrop, album art, stage clothes, you name it. Everything.
4. Realize how easy it is to make a simple flyer all of a sudden 

All that aside, some things attract attention better than others, mainly things that trigger our instincts about danger. Such as:
- Pointy figures. Sharp fonts, triangles, knives etc.
- The color red.
- Faces, or eyes in particular.
- High contrast colors. Black/white is an obvious one, but colors stand out more. Looking at a schematic of contrasting colors will give you scientific hard facts about which colors contrast the most against each other.






That's all I can think about off the top of my head. Good luck


----------



## Hollowway (Sep 23, 2014)

I will say that Microsoft Word has all of the graphics capabilities you need. Most people don't even scratch the surface of what Word can do, but it's way easier to learn that then a dedicated graphics program. And Pages on the Mac is even easier.


----------



## ghostred7 (Sep 24, 2014)

It was more for the open discussion about them that popped in my head while making latest one for our show. I've never had complaints but thought it'd be a decent knowledge dump for the masses.


----------



## coldandhomeless (Oct 5, 2014)

Obscene language generally brings people to shows. My buddy was also in a band called Free Beer Friday, and they sucked, but raked in the ppl every single time! If u played in a cover band, a picture of jimi hendrix or something gets ppls attention also lol.


----------



## op1e (Oct 14, 2014)

Looking for an easy program for Win7 that I can drag and drop band logos onto a background with text. I stink with any real photo editing type stuff. I don't have word I don't think. Easy flyer looks good, exactly what I need but $40 and won't let ya save until ya buy it.


----------



## ghostred7 (Oct 15, 2014)

If you want a Microsoft Office type of setup, look into Open Office (Apache OpenOffice - The Free and Open Productivity Suite). I haven't used it since it was by Sun Microsystems, but was a good MS Office clone....more importantly... FREE

A Photoshop alternative = GIMP...but not any more intuitive (and maybe even more difficult, depending on personal learning curve)....but again... FREE


----------



## TonyFlyingSquirrel (Oct 15, 2014)

Learn how a business creates a style guide, then build a template.
Consistency, easy to read, and clear. Once your template is built, just load your pre-printed template into the printer, fill in the blanks of Where, When, Website for venue, Website for band, etc. & go.


----------



## ghostred7 (Oct 15, 2014)

Although most of us do dark/monotone-ish flyers (based on what I've seen)....here's a good chart showing color association.


----------



## TonyFlyingSquirrel (Oct 15, 2014)

TonyFlyingSquirrel said:


> Learn how a business creates a style guide, then build a template.
> Consistency, easy to read, and clear. Once your template is built, just load your pre-printed template into the printer, fill in the blanks of Where, When, Website for venue, Website for band, etc. & go.



I forgot to mention, the more that you use your style guide, whether it be online, in printed flyers, ads in local print, etc...the easier it will be for you to prove exclusivity when applying for trademark protection.

A good example, my graphic artist is creating a WÖR Party font, which will only exist on 2 computers, and will only be used by the band when marketing ourselves. It will not be available to download, it will be exclusive to usage for band purposes, and it will be protected vigorously in order to create the brand awareness that it is intended for. Doing so creates something clearly memorable about your brand that gives you something that other brands with no style guide have the benefit of. 

It's all about branding.


----------



## ghostred7 (Oct 16, 2014)

TonyFlyingSquirrel said:


> I forgot to mention, the more that you use your style guide, whether it be online, in printed flyers, ads in local print, etc...the easier it will be for you to prove exclusivity when applying for trademark protection.
> 
> A good example, my graphic artist is creating a WÖR Party font, which will only exist on 2 computers, and will only be used by the band when marketing ourselves. It will not be available to download, it will be exclusive to usage for band purposes, and it will be protected vigorously in order to create the brand awareness that it is intended for. Doing so creates something clearly memorable about your brand that gives you something that other brands with no style guide have the benefit of.
> 
> It's all about branding.


That's very solid advice, not only in general for establishing your ID/brand, but a decent glimpse at path-fwd in some business aspects.


----------

