A template is a design tool used to present text, symbols, and images. Templates are widely used in social media and for advertising and marketing.
Why are they so popular?
- Time efficiency. It only takes seconds to present your product or information using a template.
- Cost efficiency. Hiring a designer is way more expensive than using templates. Moreover, you can easily find free templates or create some yourself.
- Guaranteed results. We will talk about catalog templates. Here, the term “catalog” includes line sheets, look books, data sheets, brochures, and sales sheets. If you want to create these, keep reading to learn some tricks that will make your life easier.
What to consider before creating a template
While you can create a template for the whole catalog, it’s hard to predict how it will look once you fill in the actual product information. Therefore, we recommend generating a template for each product individually. In this way, you can easily add or delete products without affecting the overall document. However, you should keep three things in mind.
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What is the purpose of your catalog?
A line sheet and a look book have different purposes. A line sheet targets retailers who will make a rational decision about further collaboration with you. So, you want to include all the data about the product. Conversely, a look book aims to target consumers and appeals to their emotions. A good look book has a large image of the product and minimum information, usually, the price and some product variants such as size and color.
As you can see, based on the type and purpose of the catalog, your template will look different. Always check twice to confirm whether the catalog you are using or generating serves your initial goal.
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What are your customers’ expectations?
Your target audience expects a certain type of behavior from you which is based on industry standards and brand identity. For instance, companies in the toy industry should always convey positivity and use bright colors and optimistic language. At the same time, businesses in the same industry could have different images. Let’s look at the automobile industry. Toyota aims to produce the best family car, Tesla the most environmentally friendly car, and BMW the most luxurious car. So, define who you are in your industry and try to maintain this image in the product template.
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How many products per page are you presenting?
The more products you have, the less information about one product you can fit on the page. Remember, leaving some space between images and the text is the golden rule of today’s design. Based on our experience, the ideal maximum number of products per page is 6. However, if you have 10000 products in one catalog, you would want to fit in as many products per page as you can. In this case, you should think carefully about the information you include.
How to create a template for your catalog?
Catalog Machine is an online platform that allows you to generate templates from scratch. Let’s use it as an example of template creation.
After you create an account and upload your products, select Catalogs and click on New Catalog in the top right corner. From the options that appear, select Grid.
You can also find existing templates based on the industry and catalog types.
Click on Select Catalog Products and move products you want to include in the catalog from the right-side column to the left.
The next step is the most interesting for us because it’s time to create the template. But first, let’s select how many products per page you want to present. Then click on +New Template to design one from scratch.
Here, all you need to do is allocate the desired elements on the canvas. An image, product name, price, and description are the most common, so, we will continue working with them.
Make sure the image file is big enough, and that the client can easily see the details.
The text also should be easy to read. However, the font may be even more important than the size. This template has a Monserrat font, which is straight and clear. Do some font research on the platform and select the one you like the most.
Make essential parts of the text bold to attract customers’ attention.
Don’t forget to align the text as it generates a neat presentation.
On the left side of the screen, you can see your products. Click on any one of them to see how the template will look with actual product information. Make changes if the text or image doesn’t fit.
Once you are happy with the template, click Save.
Now it’s time to see how the products look arranged together on one page. You can always go back to the template and change it if it does not meet your expectations.
If you are satisfied with it, click on Create a Catalog.
Template creation can be challenging if you don’t know your goal, your customers’ expectations, and how to structure the page. Once you answer these questions, sign up on https://www.catalogmachine.com/ and create your template quickly and easily!