Help me find good design ideas for my business publications

February 1, 2013 8:08 PM

What are some good sources for layout and design ideas for professional but interesting business documents/presentations? I have access to a full Adobe Creative Suite, Thinkstock library, etc. My previous job doing these had almost no design in it, and my earlier design experience was several years ago and with a very different audience.

In my current job, I create a lot of business-to-business documents (mostly proposals, some presentations). And they are pretty dry, in terms of content. They often come with strict page and format limits (no fonts under 12 point, no bleeds, certain kinds of binding, that sort of thing). But even within that, I feel like I could make something that has some zap to it, if I had some fresh ideas to draw on.

I am willing to buy books/magazine subscriptions if I need to. I'm not just looking to copy other designs, and I do know a bit about the theory behind design, but I feel like my brain is cluttered with old ideas and needs some shaking up.

posted by emjaybee to media & arts (4 answers total)

I've tasked myself with revising all our corporate sales slides. I'm really digging the recommendations in Slideology.
posted by mochapickle at 8:18 PM on February 1

You can get a subscription to Communication Arts (they might have it at your library), or browse through behance.net
posted by thylacine at 9:23 PM on February 1

Google is your friend in this department. Search for images of "business documents" or "business layouts" and download the images into a folder.

Or browse through StockLayouts website for inspiration.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:17 AM on February 2 [1 favorite]

I've known some companies, foreseeing this exact time suck, to provide their employees with a ton of templates just so they never waste time thinking about this.

If you have a friend who works at big conglomerate you might just try asking them if they have a usb of the stuff and then edit them a bit to fit your needs. It isn't confidential or anything.
posted by Winnemac at 8:32 AM on February 2