“Automotive dreams” brochure

Front cover of double gatefold capabilities brochure.

First gatefold spread.

Peek-a-boo!

You are there.

Energised by photos.

‘First in Class’ award winning 1947 Talbot Lago T26 Coupé at Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance, California, USA, 2005.

Auto Restorations has a story to tell. This capabilities and profile brochure was designed with people in mind who will have heard about Auto Restorations by other means, such as work of mouth. The core of the brochure design, as with the website redesign is for people to see the sort of things that Auto Restorations do, the sort of company that they are. The idea is to give them the impression that Auto Restorations are people worth their while to deal with. So the main purpose, as with the website is to; showcase their work, give an impression of what the company is like, give the impression they are reliable and work to the highest achievable international standsards.

As General Manager Allan Wylie explains; “The international renown that the firm has earned over the years is due to the exemplary skills and talents, and exacting standards of our individual employees”.While Auto Restorations’ accomplishments do weigh-in to the decision the Classic car collector makes to put their USD$500,000–1,000,000 prized possession into a container and ship it half way around the world, often for years of careful work, it is Auto Restorations’ people who drive that decision. To focus on the international recognition and the cars and put the people who made them in the back seat is to put the cart before the horse.”

The layout is used to tell the story one panel at a time

The double gate-fold eight-page “peek-a-boo” folder format is a “You-are-there” format to present the work, the company and the people behind it. The layout tells the company’s story, details their capabilities and showcases the cars one panel at a time. The poster-like front cover design tells Auto Restorations’ story too, it introduces the firm with a composite image that confidently states their abilities, and their business with purposeful imagery, under-stated type and confident branding. The cover sets the stage for the brochure, the work speaks for itself. While the two inside spreads, 420 mm wide and 840 mm wide respectively, combine into single pages that give the brochure an expansive look.

Eye movement is key to an energetic layout. To create it, it helps to take a cue from the movies; keep the camera moving. The eye tends to track objects in descending order of size, this effect guides the reader around the pages purposefully. Alignment is neat so I also took the opportunities for visual alignment of page elements as they emerged. Wide margins and short line lengths of text are used because not only does it make the brochure look more sophisticated, it makes it look brief and on-point. The wording has also been worked on carefully to stay on the right side of the thin line between confidence and boasting.

The efficient design uses only two typefaces, a low key sans serif in several weights for text and headings and an auto-badge flowing script for accents. The text font is from the same font family as the logo was re-created using, this ensures basic visual consistency throughout.

The A5 landscape “wide” orientation folds gate-fold style into four equal panels, and tucks into a standard C5 business envelope for low cost international mailing. The calibre of the design and the subject really shines on the AA grade card weight stock, impeccably printed and finished by Croft printing in Christchurch.

Pictures tell the story

The success of the brochure, as with every printed piece, rests on the images I used. The piece is energised by photos that captivate the reader using techniques of rhythm, variety and zoom. The photos are work of at least ten photographers including myself, and many images needed some post processing and compositing work. There photos and other graphical elements create motion that draws the reader’s eye to skim and seek out the information that is presented to them in a sequence directed by the visual heirarchy of page elements.

Credits

Printer: Croft Printing Limited
Copywriters: Allan Wylie / MagentaDot Brands
Photography: Beachbum studios, Wouter Melissen of ultimatecarpage.com, Richard Owen of supercars.net , Shaun Waugh and others
Font credits: Futura, Raceway