Matthew Fey, Creative Director
ARE YOU DENSE? Well, are you?
Pick up your catalog. Flip through the pages. (Go ahead, I’ll just wait here.) What do you see? Do you see a beautifully spaced and paced experience that takes readers on the scenic route through your brand, a leisurely drive through your assortment?
Or, do you see dense congestion, the equivalent of rush hour traffic with bumper-to-bumper copy and images and products and elements, clogging page after page, filling readers with rage, keeping anyone from getting anywhere, making everyone feel like they should’ve exited long ago (like this sentence) or stayed home to avoid this backup altogether?
Density can bring your catalog to a standstill. But you can get it moving again. Here are three ways to transform density into clarity.
- PARE
The first step in easing density – pare down the elements on your catalog page. Everything. Words. Pictures. Icons. And yes, even products. Use only what is absolutely essential to tell and sell your story. For example, if your key codes extend into double letters (X, Y, Z, AA, BB, CC…), it’s definitely time to cut.
While you’re cutting, go ahead and cut that copy. Too much copy is more than a mouthful, it will choke your readers away. Brevity defeats density, every time. The more you can streamline what’s on the page, the easier you make it for consumers to process what’s on the page.
Don’t think of white space as negative space. It’s positive. Not only that, it’s ACTIVE.
- PAUSE
Next, give your pages space to breathe. White space is your friend. So clean, so refreshing, white space gives the eye time to rest, which it physically needs. Like any other part of your body, an overworked eye suffers fatigue. It needs rest. Overstuffed catalog pages can aggravate the eye, and in turn the reader attached to it.
Don’t think of white space as negative space. It’s positive. Not only that, it’s ACTIVE. Yes, well-placed white space works hard on the page, allowing those key images and vital copy points to stand out instead of disappearing into the void of density.
- PACE
A great way to alleviate density is to vary product count and layout throughout the catalog. Don’t make every page look the same. Don’t put the same amount of product on every page. Varying the pacing allows you to alter the density – some pages with more product, some pages with less.
Have a large hero with a few support products. Follow that with a clean, organized grid spread. Alter the flow. Keep readers engaged. You can even reuse layouts throughout the catalog to establish a consistent look. In all cases, avoid making every page a crowded scene. Variety combats density.
Right now, many are probably saying, “But Matt, I have a lot of products, and I need them all in the catalog. My pages have to be dense.”
My response: This is my article and I don’t need your unsolicited inquiries. Move along.
(Whoa, didn’t mean to snap. Sorry about that. Density makes me uncomfortable, like being trapped in a crowded elevator.)
What I meant to say was, good question! I’m not suggesting that every catalog needs to have only one image and one headline on a page. Some catalogs, by necessity, will have more products on a page, and will need more copy. What I am suggesting is that no matter what your product ratio, keeping the pages easy to process helps your catalog, helps your experience, helps your customers.
So I’ll ask again. Are you dense?
Tags: density, negative space, pacing, white space