flyer design making

Flyer designers are like chefs. We use a variety of individual elements to produce our final works.

A chef uses raw ingredients, heats them, and cooks a meal. We use design elements (such as 3D objects, model stock, and fonts), apply effects in Photoshop and produce flyers.

Just like chefs, if we use low-quality raw ingredients, we’ll produce low-quality work.

If a chef uses rotten eggs, his final work – the dish – is going to taste pretty rotten.

If you choose to use bad fonts, bad model stock, or low-resolution resources, your flyers are going to turn out rotten too.

So how can you get a head start with your flyer designs and produce quality work from the get-go?

Here are some of my top tips:

premium stock photos sample

1. Use premium stock photos

This is the most common trap I see both new and old designers falling into.

It’s an easy pitfall to avoid. When you look at our flyers, you’ll notice the model images are sharp and crisp. You’ll notice that none of the photos we use are blurry or pixelated. There’s a reason for that.

Download your photography (e.g. models) from high-quality stock photo websites. Not only does this mean you’ll correctly license the images you use, but it also means they’ll be detailed images in high resolution, taken by a professional photographer.

High-quality resources add to the quality of your work, making it shine professionally.

Low-quality resources detract from your work, making it look cheap and amateur.

Bonus tip: Invoice your client for any stock photos you need to purchase so it doesn’t cost you a penny.

cutting out background image

2. Learn to cut out images properly

Ok, so you’ve invested in some high-quality images. Now you need to cut them out.

Badly removing the background from an image is an easy way to show the client you’re an inexperienced amateur. Spend 5 minutes correctly cutting out images with a clean and faultless edge.

Cutting out images in Photoshop is easy. Really easy.

There are dozens of decent tutorials available on the web and on YouTube that’ll teach you how to cut out models correctly.

Cutting out images properly with the pen tool can be a slightly long and boring process, however, the results of a well-cut image are worth the time investment.

Side tip: The Magic Wand is not your friend. Use the Pen Tool.

premium font sample

3. Use better, premium fonts

In almost all of our templates, we need to use free fonts, so I’m not going to say there are no good free fonts. There are dozens.

Here are some of my favorites:

  • Montserrat
  • BigNoodleTitling
  • BebasNeue
  • ComicSans
  • Bree Serif

However, investing in a few quality premium fonts will reap dividends in your work. Take a look at Regal Flyer Template:

I accidentally used a premium font by Nicky Laatz because it looked so good.

Only when I’d finished the template and was putting together the documentation did I realize and provide a free font alternative?

I’m sure you’ll agree that the premium font version looks 10x better too. Spending a few bucks on good-quality fonts can really take your work to the next level.

photoshop filter sample

4. Post-process your flyers

This is something I learned from my buddy, Industrykidz. His work is always finished with a beautiful filtered effect.

In the same way, you’d take a photo and run it through some FilterGrade or Instagram filters and give that extra boost, you can do the same with your flyers.

You’ll see we already do this with our templates in the “Elements” and “Adjustments” folders, but running your final JPEGs through some Photoshop filters can make a world of difference.

Obviously, if you’ve got a PRO account, you can have a look through our premium items and see this in action for yourself. Otherwise, I’d recommend downloading some of our free templates.

high resolution image

5. Keep an arsenal of high-resolution resources

In the same way that low-resolution stock photos will make your work look amateurish, low-quality design resources will too.

Low-resolution Photoshop brushes and patterns, cheap layer styles, and low-res 3D elements will RUIN your work.

This is one of the reasons I created Designer Candies and resources like the Foliage Pack, Falling Money, Diamons Renders and Boombox packs.

I was tired of using low-quality 3D resources. They make your flyers look terrible.

Popular sources with young designers for these resources are sites like Official PSDs which are nothing more than cheap Google Image cut-outs which are damaging the quality of your work.

Using sites like Creative Market, Designer Candies, and Deposit Photos you can invest in some high-quality design resources. If you want to reach the levels of 3D work created by designers such as Industrykidz and Lomell from DesignerCandies, you’ll need to teach yourself some 3D software.

PRO tip:

Join the DesignerCandies Email Newsletter and I’ll send you my favorite high-quality resources every week :) (yeah, for those of you who don’t know I also created DesignerCandies)

Conclusion

The skeptics amongst us are thinking “You’re just telling people to buy fonts and stocks!”. But that is exactly what I’m doing.

“When you pay peanuts, you get monkeys” is a common phrase in the business world. If you want to establish yourself amongst the amateurs, you need to take heed of what it is saying. When you’re not prepared to invest in your own business, you’re not going to reap the same benefits as those who are. Position yourself amongst the competition by investing in the fundamental tools required to make your business a success.

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