Case study
New brand identity for Nae by Soluble Studio
Bringing about change
Articles
Part I: Basic concepts, format and content standards. (Read Now)
Parte II: Sobre diseño y plantilla gratis para descargar.
In the first part of “What a One Pager is and how to design one”, we talked about the basics of this document for investors, as well as the standards that we've found after several years contributing to the design of nearly 100 executive summaries of this type in conjunction with Wayra, the startup accelerator from Telefónica.
Now it's time to talk about design: both what the design of our One Pager can do, and what the main points to consider are, before you even hire a professional.
At the end of the post, you'll find a download link for a basic template we have prepared at Soluble Studio.
Let's get started!
This section is the most obvious for a designer and, at the same time, the most difficult to write. The amount of ideas, recommendations and standards that we could include without too much effort would be enough for several articles.
Nevertheless, I think it might be useful to try to select and put together some very basic concepts here that can help you take your One Pager to the next level in terms of design, especially if you're not designers.
The first requirement, before we begin to talk about these concepts, is to be aware of what a good document design can help achieve. To be aware of why presenting a Word document with everything in Times New Roman is not the same as delivering a document with a well thought-out design.
By paying careful attention to the design of our One Pager, we can:
Make the document our own
Differentiate ourselves. Not be just one more. Stand out from the crowd while remaining one of the group. When we master the medium and the context, we can straddle the fine line that separates the standard from the unusual in order to grab attention and enjoy a few more seconds of attention than the rest.
Invite people to read
Beauty vs. function has always given rise to heated debates, but what is not in doubt is the idea that when beauty and function go hand in hand the result is unbeatable. Paying careful attention to the design of your One Pager will make people want to read it. Simple.
Manage the reading order
From a purely practical point of view, design is the most powerful tool for not only ordering information, but also for deciding in what order we want the document recipient to read it. Organising the content into a hierarchy invites the reader to let us guide them.
Keep their attention
If we can charm the person at the other end, we'll be able to eke out a few more minutes of attention that might play a key role in getting our message across.
Generate trust and credibility
In the face of the new or the strange, our attitude as human beings tends to veer towards caution and distrust. A friendly and pleasant initial approach will give rise to a more receptive and favourable attitude. By working on the design, we take a big first step towards building trust and credibility.
Make a mark
After the first reading, our One Pager runs the risk of going unnoticed and the next document in the stack erasing the slightest trace we might have left. A good design will help us to make a mark, to make people remember our project and to recognise it the next time they come across it.
Build a brand
Even the smallest interaction between your project and a person contributes to the development of your brand. For better or worse. The One Pager is not a minor interaction for the person who receives it (the information they hope to extract is extremely relevant), so this is a great opportunity to direct our brand towards its ideal positioning.
Achieving all this with design requires practice and craft, but there are some key points that we can consider in order to achieve a good design before we call in a designer.
After part I was posted, several people asked for some examples to supplement the information. Due to obvious issues with confidentiality, we can't publish real examples, but I can tell you that we're working on some fictional examples that will help you design your first One Pagers.
In the meantime we've prepared a simple template that you can use to at least help you filter the content. You can download it for free for PowerPoint, Keynote and Google Presentations by simply filling out a short form so we can get acquainted.
The typeface of the template is Roboto, a free Google Font. You can (you should, if you don't use Robot in your project) change both the typeface and the colours to make the document your own.
Soluble Studios is pleased to launch onepager.design, a parallel project we hope helps us reach more entrepreneurs who need customised assistance with the design of their One Pager.
Prepare the content using our template, choose when you want to receive it (72 or 24 hours) and win over new investors and institutions with a professional document.
Visit onepager.design for more details
Ismael Barros 🙌🏼
If you are interested in strategic design, verbal and visual identity, physical and digital product design as well as its development, you are in the right place.