12 Newsletter design mistakes

I originally got this list from One Page Newsletters. I'm not sure, the content there seems to have to be paid for now (and it sucks as a webpage fwiw - look at the length of that!).

There's a copy of the detail on this on the school system. It may be on the Learning Platform as well, I don't remember (e2a: yes, it's in the Newsletter production folder that you'll find in the AS Unit 1 section).

But here's the base list if the 12 most common newsletter design mistakes:

1. Nameplate clutter - too much info in the newsletter name
2. Lack of white space
3. Unnecessary graphic accents - borders, lines etc...
4. Text wraps
5. Overuse of upper case type
6. Underlining - just don't
7. Long subheads - short and sweet, like me
8. Inappropriate typeface choices - use serif fonts already
9. Inappropriate type sizes - 12 is often too large for body copy you know!
10. Insufficient line spacing - always think about increasing it a little
11. Failure to hyphenate - arguments both ways on this, but it might well be a good idea
12. Excessive colour - 2 colours plus B&W is recommended

Yes, you can ignore all of this. But it might be a good idea to think about it at least.

Open Sesame

Sesame is the Open University students magazine.

Yes, it's the OU so it's aimed perhaps at slightly older people than you might want. But all the copies of the magazine are downloadable (often large!) pdfs.

You can find Sesame at the OU website.

Target Audience Analysis - Section B

Questions you need to ask:

1. Who is the Target Audience? - describe them in this section. Age, gender, literacy, specific needs, interests, technical knolwedge etc... may all be important

2. What do they need? In terms of the content for the newsletter, the layout and the style. This should stem directly from your analysis of who they are and be specicially linked to points you made

3. How will I give them that in their newsletter? What will you do specifically to meet these needs. Again, everything needs to be linked back to the analysis of the TA. What will it contain? How will it be presented? How, specifically, does this meet their needs?

Again - think content, layout and style.