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The point of an ad is to impart information. What the reader does with that info is in the lap of the Gods and the hands of the ad designer. So, if you're not a God or a designer what can you do to increase the take up of the ad. Well you could make it the correct size to fit in the magazine (see 1). You could make it understandable (see 2). You might even make it attractive to the eye (see 3). And, above all, you might make it easily reproduceable (see 4).

No.1

It may seem obvious, but the best way to keep the ad within your chosen size (and keep the paste-up artists on your side) is to start with a box of exactly the right size (and do note which is the vertical measurement to avoid hours of wasted effort). 

When you have finished your artistic tour de force, leave the border in place, it has far more advantages than disadvantages. It gives your ad a sense of place, stops it being ambiguous and provides a focal area for the viewer. You don't have to use a plain black line but it is much the most effective and do avoid the Microsoft clip art borders. The music ones are particularly naff.

No.4

The process we use (well not us, the printer) to reproduce the pages of Tykes' is just a glorified photocopying technique. Albeit a complicated, expensive, photocopying technique. It cannot resolve the subtle shades of grey that any £50 inkjet printer can straight out of the box. Black'n'White is your friend. This is easy when dealing with text and line drawings, but when you get to paintings or photographs you have to reproduce them in a Half Tone format. That is, made up of little dots. Take a magnifying glass to a black and white picture in a newspaper and all will become clear. Your chosen graphics application should have a file format like this. If you are lucky enough to have access to a laser printer you will have no trouble as this is the method this type of printer uses to produce greys.

No.2

By understandable I don't mean plain English and unexciting vocabulary (spelling is important though). I mean Justification, Fonts and Case. Resist the temptation to Centre everything. Only use that technique for headlines and addresses (even then there are other options). 

Fonts... well you will have dozens if not hundreds... they are your enemy. Never more than three should appear in any one ad (including italic and Bold versions), and two of those should be very plain and readable. Use Arial, Verdana (like this one) or Helvetica and you can't go wrong.

There are 'capital only' fonts that should only ever be used for headlines, which brings us neatly to Case. Upper or Lower? Look at a newspaper. They know what's what in the 'grab your attention' stakes. You will see 'HEADLINES' large and simple, and 'Copy' in lower case and left justified. It's friendly and it's what our eyes expect.

No.3

Information doesn't have to flow in columns through the ad, you can break it up into text boxes (not actual boxes, just areas of text), carefully justified lists (say of dates) and illustrations/logos (avoid microsoft clip art such as the 'Beenie men', naff city)

If you follow these four points then your PTR (Punter Take-up Rate) should increase dramatically and the TN graphics people might even stop and read your ad. as it is being collated, always a sign of a well-constructed sales pitch.

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