Working in a travel agency can be an exciting trip, depending on your work assignment. But sometimes, your company might have you come up with brochures for a destination like Greece and you panic. You wonder what to do. You know you need them but it seems that having it done by a professional graphics artist is just impossible because your company is on cost-cutting measures. Your boss will just probably approve the brochure printing by a professional printer just so you could have multiple copies, but he demands that you do the design yourself.

Now, don’t panic. Take deep breaths and gather your thoughts. You can actually make a brochure that you can print at the office or you can take at the printers. Read on the guidelines below and pick up an idea or two.

1. The size. Decide on the size and the format, such as making it a half-fold or a tri-fold. The most commons ones are the tri-folds because they have big enough space for a lot of information and yet can be folded to become a compact material. You can choose this size in your Microsoft Word document.

2. Collect information on Greece. You can source them out from your company’s library or from the internet.Include the main attractions, the theme parks, the restaurants, watering holes, and accommodations. You can focus on the colorful history and culture of the Greek people. You can use their ancient history as the main attraction of your brochure—buildings, artifacts, etc. After you have gathered a lot of information about Greece and its people, the next thing that you should do is to shorten them so that texts will not flood your brochure. Summarizing your text can be made easier by making an outline and presenting text in bulleted form.

3. Choose the nicest photos of Greece. A travel brochure would not be enough without pictures. Airlines usually provide posters and big colorful photos of these destinations that you can use. Or you can source your images from Stockxpert. They have a collection of photographs that are free for use. Include the most common historical sights, like the Parthenon, and also of Modern Greek attractions. You may also want to include food and action shots.

4. Put a lot of thought on your cover. Your cover should speak about what is inside. It should be attractive and catchy so that your clients will be interested in reading it as well as in considering Greece. It should contain a headline and slogan, one big photo and perhaps a couple of insets. Or it could be a collage of sorts. There are many things that you can do with your cover but just put a lot of planning into it. If you are not pressed for time, try making two or three options then have your manager choose what he likes.

5. Guidelines on the inside contents. For the text, it is best to use the standard 12 points for your font. Avoid using several kinds of fonts in one page because your design will look cluttered. Do not use capital letters for the body of your text, except for titles and subtitles. Use bullets for things that you want to enumerate but do not number them. Incorporate photos between your texts so as to create a breather when your clients read the information.

6. Always remember to include your logo, your company’s name, and all your contact details at the back for future reference. The information contained on your brochure will be like the calling cards that you give out. Now that you have the basics, you are on your way to successfully taking on the brochure printing project of your company.

Gary Maxwell is a illustrator artist focused on brochure printing. Born and raised in Colorado, He is currently a freelance for web designer promoting printing brochures.