Tips For Startups On Creating A Lookbook

Lookbooks have stepped outside of fashion and are now being used by businesses from all sectors. Explaining how these image-led books can be beneficial for startup companies is offset litho printing company, Precision Printing.

The essential contents

Before you begin, start by planning what your lookbook needs to feature — doing so will help keep costs down and avoid waste. The essential lookbook elements are:

• Cover page.
• Sensible navigation.
• High-quality images.
• Enticing product/service descriptions.
• Key brand details (including contact information and social media addresses).

Cover page

You only get one chance to make a first impression, so make sure your lookbook’s cover is designed just right. The objective of the front cover is to grab attention, which means you need to think: attractive image, excellent use of colour, and an appealing title to compel the reader to want to know more. Cover pages typically detail the month and year and, if it’s not in the title, you need to have your brand name and logo somewhere here, too.

Navigation

Carefully consider the order of your lookbook’s pages, too. You want to create a good experience for your potential customer when they’re reading your lookbook, and making sure it flows without interruption is essential.

It’s a wise move, for example, to group related products together to make navigation of the book easier for readers. If you offer both goods and services, keep these separate, and try to section off connected articles into clear categories to deliver consistency and avoid making your lookbook appear disjointed.

Imagery

A key part of your lookbook will be the visuals it contains. Make sure the photos you put into your lookbook are professionally-taken and of the highest quality, which means considering props, lighting, colour, setting, and image resolution for each shot. If this is one of your first print marketing campaigns, you don’t want any mistakes.

Don’t be afraid to utilise whitespace, like so many brands do. Not every image needs to run border to border and whitespace is a modern photography technique used to create a focus point and highlight a particular part of the page — use it sparingly.

To get the right shots, you might want to hire a professional photographer. However, you can do these yourself if you prefer, but just remember to check that you have exclusive rights for everything you include if they aren’t all original images.

Product descriptions

They may feature images heavily, yet lookbooks still rely on copy, too. Essentially, a lookbook will feature product/service descriptions and — if you’re a start-up — perhaps a brief brand description so everyone knows what you’re about.

What are the essential elements to consider when writing for a lookbook? Quality lookbook copy must be:

• Concise: no unnecessary words or details.
• Informative: don’t leave your reader asking questions.
• Interesting: grab your audience’s attention and keep it.
• Enticing: make them want to give you their custom.

Try to establish a connection with your readers through the content. Use professional language to convey your reliability, but try and adopt a chatty tone to come across as approachable. Try to avoid using very long words and sentences — these sound stuffy and clumsy — and keep your product descriptions between 30 and 60 words in length to avoid taking focus from your lookbook’s images.

Details

Keep your important contact information together in one place towards the back of your lookbook. If you’re a new company on the scene, you’re going to have to shout about where new customers can get in touch with you. Make sure you include:

• Shop address.
• Phone number.
• Email address.
• Social media addresses.

Preparing and printing your lookbook

The final stage of creating your lookbook is getting it printed. Have a chat to your printing specialist about the type of paper stock and finishes that might look good and ask to see a few samples to get a better idea. The worst scenario would be to put so much time, money and effort into designing the perfect lookbook, only to have it ruined by opting for a cheap paper or poor finish.

Before you click ‘send’ on your lookbook, make sure you have thoroughly checked it over and are 100% happy with how it looks. Proofread your copy, scan photos for anomalies and verify product names and prices. After it’s printed, get your lookbook out to as many potential customers as you can!

The benefits offered by lookbooks are numerous. With the right design, you can reap these benefits, connecting with potential customers and ultimately raising awareness of your startup.