CATALOG FOR COMPANIES
COMPANY CATALOGUE DESIGN
If you need a Catalog Designer, based in Barcelona, sure you will be interested on this section:
1. You need a business catalog if...
- Your company goes to fairs, congresses and conventions.
- As a company, you perform conferences, clusters, specific training, or any similar event.
- Your network of salespeople make face-to-face or on-site visits to prospective buyers and future customers.
- You want to gain and/or maintain a high credibility in your business, trust in products, reputation in the sector, among other very positive aspects for the company.
- Have products and services to display in catalogs. These remain as essential marketing and sales tool in any industry. Contrary to what has been said during the 21st century, catalog design is firmly enlisted in most companies.
- You want to enjoy the results of a well-deserved: catalog ” authentic art”. Always wrapping ideas in stunning designs, unpublished details and custom creations.
2. Printed catalog vs. printed catalog digital catalogue
There are big differences between a printed physical catalog and a digital (online) catalog.
Either is mandatory for any company that wants to expand and increase sales.
Both printed and digital catalogs have their pros and cons.
- Cheaper, from a point of view of paper, inks, manipulated… They simply make the digital catalogue a more sustainable and environmentally friendly tool.
- More revisions or releases can be performed in a short space of time (or almost instantly). You should no longer wait to “finish the catalogues printed in boxes, arranged in one of the rooms of the office”.
- There are no limits in terms of space, no materials or anything like that.
- Digitally you can always choose to control what impact or results digital catalogs get.
- Whether on web channels, as in social networks or via email, a digital catalog offers you multiple forms and broadcast systems.
- Interactivity with the user can only be carried out through a digital catalog. Including also forms or surveys for collecting opinions, needs, etc…
- In short, digital catalogues are more flexible, multi-useful, omni-channel and eco-friendly.
3. Initial analysis before ordering a business catalogue design
A professionally designed catalogue should cover and address these issues in an appropriate manner.
The previous essential points are the following:
- Audience and target group for which the catalogue is intended.
- Style and language to reach just who you want to impact, captivate or surprise.
- What business objectives, in the short or long term, are to be achieved with the catalogue design. If it is necessary to send via digital exclusively. Also to print physical copies. Or both.
- To know if it is a catalogue of limited use in the time for a concrete and punctual event. Or, on the contrary, it has to be flexible, with the possibility of making editions and changes later for varied uses.
- Does your company need to transform the web into a catalogue to take to fairs, congresses and conventions? A WORD or Power Point document that can be delivered by hand and personalize the commercial visits…
4. Catalog design rates
Since there are so many possibilities and options for carrying out a company catalogue design, it is quite complex to put a price on this type of project.
More and more you see an infinity of design templates and there is a great availability of designs bought on the net. Some of them are very worked and beautiful… But let’s not forget that they are standard designs. They are neither exclusive nor 100% unpublished designs.
I, as a catalogue designer, with more than 25 years of experience, do differ from the rest of the professionals. I offer creations from scratch. No re-use of elements, no pre-designs acquired. In the same way, I do not re-use my own designs for other clients, even if they are companies from the same industrial or business sector.
In order to prepare a PDF with budget and realization prices, I must delimit and delimit well the following:
CORPORATE Catalog
Make sure your business catalogue enhances and exposes the company’s benefits and your value proposition. To present your strong points, explain the history and trajectory of the company… is one of the essential objectives for this style of catalogue. It is imperative to make known all those aspects that differentiate you from your competitors. This whole mix is what makes catalogues one of the most effective means of graphic communication for your company.
SERVICE Catalogs
Of course, the basis of everything is the portfolio of services that your company offers to potential customers. A catalogue of these characteristics serves as a channel and starting point for the request of a service.
It is a deployment of components, processes and systems, describing, in an understandable manner and avoiding excessively technical language, services, policies, terms and conditions of provision, schedules and response times, security measures and responsibilities associated with each of the services exposed.
These catalogues contain tables and lists of prices or tariffs in force. This factor especially makes a service catalogue a graphic piece that is out of date, becoming obsolete. There are different systems to optimize this issue. A professional of the graphic design of catalogues will know how to approach in the best way these obsolescence issues.
PRODUCT Catalogs
Of course, the basis of everything is the display of the products your company offers.
A carefully organized catalogue, a useful and practical index, a distribution of the products with quality images, descriptive details… are the essence of this type of catalogue. It must be a practical, handy piece that captivates and provokes sales.
As with service catalogues, it is important to be clear about the durability we assign to this type of catalogue. Especially in the case of printed copies, we need to carefully analyze which products are ideal to place and outline a strategy. Let’s not forget that an out-of-date catalogue does not exactly help business reputation.
ADVERTISING Catalogs
It is definitely a mix between corporate, product and service catalogue.
5. Shall we start a catalogue? What do I need from you?
BRIEFING
My impressive, creative and effective solutions for catalogue design are always based on the initial phase: the careful preparation of a briefing.
It is imperative to clarify, from the beginning, the following issues:
- What services and/or products does your company offer?
- What is the purpose and objective? What does your company need to achieve with the catalogue?
- What kind of customers does your company need to attract thanks to the catalogue?
TEXTS
Textual content is essential, as in any graphic, corporate or advertising project.
Knowing what to say, how and where to direct our audience is an essential initial task in order to give a correct approach to the design of the company’s catalogue.
A text file in Word, Libre or OpenOffice, web page, Power Point or similar is essential. The graphic designer is not in the business of writing or posing texts. Although they can check if the approach is correct, all the sections, headings, index and necessary text content must be provided by each client.
If you choose to have texts of high communicative, descriptive or impacting quality, you can always hire professional writing services (copywriter).
IMAGES
In case the customer has images available, they will also be useful.
Of course, if it is a product catalogue, images of the products sell more than a thousand words. Therefore, I recommend that the client hires professional photography services for this purpose. A photographer who is an expert in still lifes, choosing “props”, setting up atmospheres, the image that transmits just what is necessary to boost the business bases.
For a graphic designer it is a pleasure to develop a catalogue with quality photographs.
LOGOTYPES
Of course, if the company already has a long history behind it, the company logo in vectors (.AI, .SVG or .PDF high) is essential.
Pictograms or icons, if any, of general and usual use in the company.
If there is a corporate manual, or style and use book of the logo, it is essential to follow the guidelines and keep in tune with all the rules set out in the corporate design.
6. How do I design the catalogues?
I design creating each of the catalogues in an original and exclusive way for each client, company, product or service.
Layout in Adobe InDesign
My most flexible and versatile tool for tackling any catalogue design.
Combined with Photoshop for image retouching and Illustrator for vector creation, I design catalogs with the highest visual quality and high level of communication.
ICON and PICTOGRAM design
Pictograms and icons are an additional tool to ensure clear and direct exposure of information. Optical resource to visually summarize the contents provided by the client.
Visit my specific page for ICONOGRAPHY [Coming Soon].
INFOGRAPHICS design
As for presentations, infographic design also play an important role in the process of creating company catalogues.
Visit my specific page for INFOGRAPHICS [Coming Soon].
7. Delivery periods
Deliveries may vary substantially, depending on the speed of response by the client. I detail an approximate below:
- Presentation of the first proposals of cover and back cover + a couple of examples of inside pages = 5 days.
- Second catalogue presentation, on selected design option.
— 24 pages = Maximum term of 10 days.
— 60 pages = Maximum period of 15 days.
If the catalogue is needed urgently, we will agree on the bases and conditions for the process to be successful and with the planned dates. Please, be so kind to contact me for this purpose.
It is important to remember that the start of the project will not take place until it is received:
- The payment of 50% for the catalogue design.
- All contents, as specified in POINT 5.
8. Information for a INDUSTRIAL CATALOG
If what your business or company needs is an industrial catalogue design, there is a specific section for this type of graphic pieces.
I have made catalogues for SMEs or multinationals belonging to various industrial sectors, such as:
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Food
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Boilermaking and thermal systems
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Ceramics
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Solid fuels
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Technical measuring equipment
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Industrial manufacturing
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Chemical industry
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Civil Engineering
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Mechanical Engineering
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Machinery and equipment
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Metallurgy, steel, iron…
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Mining
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Paints and varnishes
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Polyester, PVC and plastics
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Textiles
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Among many others…
A company catalogue is a good investment. Contact me and I will advise you on the design of a spectacular graphic and corporate piece.
CREATIVE AND CUSTOM CATALOGUES
CATALOG EXAMPLES
Firm:
FLAMTEC Combustión Ibérica, S.L.
Industrial company manufacturer of thermal groups and condensing boilers for the service, hospitality and restaurant sector.
(Granollers, Barcelona)
Collection of 3 product catalogs, with a unified design, changing main colors, images, texts, tables and diagrams for each of the variants.
A4 with 8-12 pages. Catalogs in printed version + Digital PDF.
Firm:
DUNPHY Energy, S.L.
Industrial company manufacturer of heat exchangers.
(Viladecans, Barcelona)
Product catalog 2019.
A4 with 32 pages, in print and online PDF versions.
