I design a lot of leaflets/flyers – and I often get asked – what is the difference between a flyer & a leaflet? So in this blog post I would like to provide a brief overview of what the difference is between a leaflet and a flyer.
This is what I would call a leaflet – whilst incorporating best practice design principles in the same way as a flyer – the content is much heavier than a flyer
Some sources state that the difference is simply a matter of design quality, e.g. flyer designs look cheap, are throw away and are printed on really thin paper, and leaflets are better design quality and meant to be kept. In my opinion, and as someone who designs leaflets & flyers, the difference should not be in terms of design/print quality, infact I pride myself on producing high quality flyer and leaflet designs every time. If I client doesn’t care about the design quality – then they are not a good fit for my graphic design services and I direct them elsewhere. So, in my opinion, the difference between a flyer and a leaflet is simply a matter of the context in which they will be distributed and the resulting amount of content in the leaflet or flyer. For example – a flyer will often be handed out in person, e.g. in the street – and as result the content will be kept to an absolute minimum, must be highly impactful and contain something (such as an offer or promotion that instantly catches attention in seconds). As a result a flyer may also be quite small, such as A6 (postcard size), or a5, and may just be printed single sided. A leaflet on the other hand is perhaps distributed or promoted in a context where the reader has more time, and thus a leaflet will often contain a bit more content than a flyer, will often be a bigger size, and may contain multiple pages. So essentially the difference is a matter of amount of content – flyers are small and contain little text, leaflets have more information in them.
However for me the good design principles and best practice design tips to make an effective flyer or leaflet are the same, and it is these tips that I have outlined elsewhere on my blog – which you might find useful – check out my Top 10 Leaflet/Flyer design tips
I would call these 2 designs for a music club night “flyers” as the content is minimal – the printed size was a6 and they were given out on the street
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Blog post by Stuart Hodgson – The Leaflet Design Guru
“Quality leaflet/flyer design is an investment, not a cost – because a well designed leaflet will generate more business and interest for you” Stuart Hodgson
With over 15+ years commercial graphic design experience – I have designed a lot of leaflets/flyers in that time and won some awards, and a lot of my graphic design services are now specifically for the design and print of leaflets/flyers. This is largely due to the success of my web-site over at www.leafletguru.co.uk (check it out after reading this post to see my full creative leaflet design portfolio and get some creative inspiration).
I tend to get a lot of repeat customers now, which for me is very satisfying as I guess that implies that I provide a great leaflet/flyer design service and proves that I know a thing or two about designing a quality leaflet that stands out from the crowd and gets the results and creates the impact my clients need. I therefore thought I would share some of the knowledge I have gained in this specialised area in my blog to help in the understanding of how to create a great looking, engaging and effective leaflet/flyer that gets great results.
If you are interested in using my leaflet design services then pay a visit to my website at www.leafletguru.co.uk to see the quality of my work – or email me straight away at hello@stuart-hodgson.com
The Leaflet Guru: Design & print tips 