Nonprofit communicators are often designing and writing for an audience about tricky subjects. Whether the topic is homelessness, mental illness, or death and dying, the task remains the same as with all communication pieces: Engage the reader, be respectful, convey the important messages.
Lazzaro Designs created a brochure outlining the broad array of cancer supportive services the Continuum Cancer Centers provided patients and their families. Using soft colors and sensitive stock photography and illustrations, the design is beautiful, warm and soothing without being maudlin. The writing is crafted as a dialogue between a patient and the third-person expert—similar to a Q&A, but more conversational. Giving voice to typical patient concerns (“Cancer has upset the way I see myself in the world. Can my faith be restored?” or “I hate to complain, but I feel awful! How can I find relief?”), the brochure provides answers, strategies and services to a reader under incredible duress. The brochure also featured a pocket that contained an insert listing various contact information for specific services. The insert was able to be easily updated without redoing the entire brochure.
The client was thrilled. He reported that, “This brochure will be well received and is an important piece of communication, produced in a way that is respectful and useful.”
> If you need to speak to a special audience, give Lazzaro Designs a call or shoot us an email.
Did you know Flodin/Lazzaro creates premiums, too? Premiums are give-away gifts—mugs, magnets, t-shirts, key chains, buttons and the like—usually distributed for free at health fairs, fundraisers and other events. Along with a similar t-shirt, Maryellen Lazzaro designed this tote bag for a hospital-based mental health program. The design featured encouraging affirmations on one side (shown here) with the reverse side saying, “There’s No Health Without Mental Health” with the client’s url. The bag was handsome and substantial, yet inexpensive to produce.
Tip: When thinking about a premium, consider more than just your logo splashed across the front and back of an item. Treat it as an opportunity to promote your mission. Aim to produce something that the user will want to wear or display, which will further advertise your brand and services long after the event is over.
> If you need creating premiums, give Lazzaro Designs a call or shoot us an email.
Lazzaro Designs was charged with creating a magazine print ad for Continuum Health Partners hospitals to let the public know that they could access videos of surgical procedures. We ended up delivering something so universally appealing that the client had us adapt the ad for the web, as well as for e-blasts and web banners.
> If you need help with print or web ads, give Lazzaro Designs a call or shoot us an email.
The Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center wanted a residency recruiting brochure to effectively sell their educational programs to graduating medical students applying for residencies. When considering a significant brochure, many clients have a knee-jerk instinct to fill the first few pages with messages from important people.
We encouraged the Medical Education Department to consider a fresher approach. Their audience was young with their generation’s need to be immediately and visually captivated and an impatience for long entries. Using a consumer magazine approach, Lazzaro Designs created a brochure with brief messages tucked neatly on the first page. We helped the Chairman, CEO and Chief Medical Officer craft single-paragraph messages. The three paragraphs together served as a cohesive message and key phrases were enlarged to jump out at the reader even if she couldn’t be bothered to read further. The first spread was dedicated to a visually arresting and splashy table of contents (shown, top image). Even if a would-be physician failed to turn another page, he would get a good overview of the center’s highlights from short, pithy paragraphs summarizing each section.
Throughout the 36-page brochure, spreads told each section’s message with lots of subheads and catchy headlines like “The Best of Both Worlds” (shown, bottom image), to portray Brookdale’s combination of high-tech and hands-on teaching, and “Welcome to NYC’s Hip Borough” to tout the institution’s Brooklyn location.
> If you need help marketing to a younger generation or with any major brochure, give Lazzaro Designs a call or shoot us an email.
