White paper design tips

I had my first exposure to designing a white paper for my firm today. From googling, I saw that most white papers just look like a word document. Most were excessively bland and barely had any differentiations with regard to the font and spacing of titles and copy. I knew I wanted to make ours better.

The Top 6 White Paper Design Mistakes by Roger C. Parker mentions some obvious suggestions. Parker's list is helpful with setting out the list of rules to abide by. I completely agree with his tip to "avoid overusing color." This isn't a newsletter. You want to grab attention without letting the reader be absorbed by the design. A white paper should be appealing without taking away from the content.

I wanted to jazz up my firm's white paper by using dark blue for the titles, the logo in the corners of the pages, and pull-out quotes supported by dark blue lines. I also added a grayscale image for the cover. My manager agrees this is a good start. It follows our branding and stays clean. I'm sure it will be adjusted throughout the week.