Designing on the Desktop can be a rewarding experience but at the same time there a few traps that are easy to fall into. Remember that you are really entering the world of the artist so I would like to give you the following advice.

Firstly if you are designing a brochure go out and look at what other people have designed. Go to a travel Agency and grab some brochures or maybe your local council. Keep you eyes open and also keep and open mind. Try and understand your customers business and look at what has been done for them in the past. If you are producing a brochure for yourself then imagine that you are one of your customers, try and see it through their eyes.

Grab some blank paper and make a mock up of the brochure to the right size. Discuss the different size options with a printer first, don't design something you like and then ask the printer to print that size. He will be able to do that but it may not be a economical way of printing for you. There are standard sizes for brochures and flyer's and they depend on the sheet sizes your printer prints.

LET THE PRINTER KNOW YOUR EXACT SKILL LEVEL! He wants your business and he will want as few headaches as possible. Don't be afraid to ask questions, in my experience printers are only to willing to help SO TALK TO THEM.

Grab a pencil and draw up some rough designs, look through the different type faces you have on your computer and if you don't have that many get some more. Many programs such as Corel Draw have a lot more type faces on the installation disk. These don't automatically install when you first install the program. There are places on the INTERNET where you can download Free type faces like this one http://www.searchfreefonts.com

Go to you local library and read up on the history of Art. If you can find any books on Graphic Art then all the better. There is a wealth of ideas to be drawn from the past. One of my favorite ways of finding Ideas is looking at old magazines and books. The older the better. Have a look at old posters, record covers anything from the past. Really good Graphic Artists do this all the time. Below are some examples of what I mean.