Recent studies in design trends are hinting at a movement toward a more textual (typographic) print-inspired design format (a trend away from the more basic digital web-based look). This means that flyers, e-newsletters, and other emailed content is being modelled after more visually stimulating magazine layouts which draw the readers into the text and invite more involvement with the text (and equally more likelihood of an actually effective readership).
No more simplistic email layout in merging digital and print design.
Gone are the days of simplistic email layouts with blocky boring text and stagnant images. Instead complex teams are coming together like magazine publishing teams to create a well designed visually enticing email newsletter which draws the reader in and reduces the chance of quick deletion. This relatively new strategy is proving quite successful with larger-scale businesses like that of Nordstroms, J Crew and Banana Republic which are all sending out emails that look less like blocks of text with uninteresting backgrounds and more like pages from professional magazines, the kind of pages you want to read. It doesn’t have to be expensive to achieve this either, a little creativity goes a long way to creating an enticing e-newsletter.
Purely digital revolution or not
So before we decide to can the printed designs in favour of a purely digital revolution. Sponsored by social and the World Wide Web, it would be wise take a deep breath. Perhaps pull out the old magazines again. Stock up on some of those magazines and take a look at the page layouts. Providing an effective print-inspired look to your email newsletters and flyers may mean your design initiative and advertising is much more effective. Both to your audience and more likely to get picked up and actually read.
Despite the fact that print is becoming less common than digital. Remember the influence of print design still remains quite strong for the world of design.