The “tone” of a written piece, such as your brochure, can best be defined as the “feel” or “emotional effect” that this piece has.

Many things make up the “tone”. The words you use in the brochure about him. The length of his sentences. The colors you wear. The fountain. The score. The type of graphics or photos. The graphic design. The type of paper you use.

To give your brochure the right “tone”, all of these elements need to come together, giving it a particular feel.

“That’s good,” I bet you’re saying right now. “Wake me up when you’re done with your art reading.”

Sorry! Back up the Mac, or park your PC, right now and listen up.

This is not a fanciful, boastful, artistic, fuzzy concept. It is real. And it has real consequences (read: “results”).

I’ll start by describing an actual brochure I saw, one I’ve used as a very bad example, during brochure workshops I’ve given in the Detroit area.

This brochure was about a very sensitive and heartbreaking topic: domestic violence. It was made by a metropolitan agency to a.) make the public aware that domestic violence harms children and is, by extension, child abuse b.) warn the perpetrators of the crime that it is, well, a crime. (This brochure was so poorly written to begin with that it was hard to figure out who it was addressed to. In fact, it stumped my workshop participants.)

Now, writing this brochure without being sure of the target market was not the least of his problems. This is where we get to the tone.

It was a hard 1 color brochure (yes, 1 color, black type on white paper. It looked like something erased and photocopied) with large letters and sentences that seemed to scream at you. The headline read: “NO EXCUSE, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS A CRIME!” The word “you” was used, but in a harsh and high-handed tone: “What you need to know about…”. this outrageous headline followed.

Got your attention, okay. But her tone was so strident and harsh that she didn’t invite me to come in, to learn, to seek help. She just pushed me away.

As you can see, the “tone” is very important.

Now, I’ll take another example, also from a government agency and dealing with children, that does a much, much better job.

This brochure was also 1 color. Only it was done by a graphic artist who knew how to use many shades of gray, screens and other techniques to turn what was originally black into a soft, warm and inviting image.

In the center of the brochure were black and white photos of 4 smiling children, each of a different race.

Above the children was the heading: “The health insurance you need.”

In the center of the children was a circle with the words “MICild,” the acronym for low-cost children’s insurance, which played on the abbreviation for the Michigan state zip code. Instantly known by your target market.

Then, at the bottom of the brochure, still on the cover, were the words “At a price you can afford,” followed by the toll-free number.

The general tone of this brochure is “We want to help you. We respect you. We understand you.” (And that’s just for checking out the cover!”)

See the difference? Even though both brochures were from government agencies, even though both brochures were single color, the difference between them is huge. Like, I’m sure, were the results.

In these short paragraphs, I’ve given you a little insight into what tone is and why it’s important. There are many more examples in “tone” types; how each “tone” is achieved with the words chosen, the length and structure of the sentence, the type of paper, etc. However, I hope that in these short paragraphs you can begin to understand the tone and its importance. And, most importantly, you can understand how you can apply it to your own brochure.

(c) CSC Group, LLC