Holiday flyer design is a fun and challenging puzzle where holiday imagery and relevant information must be combined in a format that is aesthetically pleasing and ready for anything it encounters at the printer. I was glad for the opportunity to create a flyer for LoveBug & Me Music, a sweet company in the Los Angeles area that teaches the joy of music and movement to toddlers and babies. My job was to create a small flyer to help LoveBug share their 3 Week Holiday Series with its customers. With a small design, like this 3.5″ x 5″ flyer, readability must be taken into consideration while nearly a half an inch of the design must be ready to be both included or not included in the final print.
About Bleed, Trim Line, and Margin
The will-it-print or -won’t-it-print areas are called the bleed and the margin. The bleed extends past the intersection of the grey crosshairs (in the below picture), heading towards the white space and color bars. Ideally, the bleed is an allowance that prevents your image from being cut before the color ends. For example, the printers might cut Santa right above the shoulders. If I hadn’t extended his beard and mustache, the card might easily be cut just beyond the trim line, revealing a headless Santa. This is what bleed prevents on your holiday flyer design; Headless Santa.
The next quetion is- what is margin? Margin about a quarter inch in from bleed. This is the point you don’t want your text to extend past. It ensures enough breathing room if the the printer were to cut a millimeter or two inside the trim. In the below image, the bleed is red, the trim line is black, and the margins are teal. The margin is pretty slim here because this card is only 3.5″ tall. With a larger flyer I would go with a larger margin.
The image below has been reformatted to print at 4″ x 6″ and cut ideally. In reality, things could vary a quarter of an inch or more. Luckily, my holiday flyer design is prepared. If you need an image that is ready for anything when it heads to the printer, please contact me. I can prepare a flyer that is easy on the eyes and ready for the printer.
Written by Diana Kohne. Diana is a graphic designer in Pasadena, CA. Keep in touch through Instagram or contact me for help with your design needs.