How to design a fax broadcast advertisement
I had the rare assignment to design a print ad for fax machines today. Here are some points I took into consideration.
Decide on your concept
People get two kinds of faxes: business documents and ads. As they are picked up, business documents get a quick scan and ads generally go straight into the trash. Decide on which format you want your advertisement to follow. If you choose the ad format you will need some compelling content to keep it out of the round file.
Be careful of your imagery
Faxes print in monochrome, not grayscale. While grayscale uses shades of a color, monochrome has only one color that is either on or off. (View the Wikipedia entry on Monochrome to see an example photograph in grayscale and monochrome.) Line-art and single-color logos usually turn out okay but monochrome photographs end up looking like blobs. You might want to stay away from imagery entirely and…
Take advantage of typography
In my day-to-day work I almost always get assignments requiring a “hero shot” of some kind. A fax ad is a great excuse to get away from spending hours on Getty looking for another “happy guy on a computer” stock photo. Instead, play with the composition and layout of your headline, subheads, call-outs and sidebars.
Remember the delivery quality
This ad will be converted from that beautiful InDesign-exported PDF into analog screeches over telephone wires. When it comes out on the other end it’s going to look distorted. Keep the font sizes on the larger side and test your design by faxing it to yourself. On the ad I just finished I used 12pt for the small print and 14pt for the body copy so that everything would be clearly readable. Lastly, a small point: Consider whether it will be printed on Letter or A4 paper and how that will impact your layout.
Although challenging, this work is a nice break from the daily landing-page, email and banner assembly. And it may provide a fresh perspective on future everyday work.