Transforming Print to Digital

Mar 16, 2018

Some of the best designs start as print designs. The context, environment, and so much more play into an effective print piece. I can even imagine someone holding a brochure and reading it and wondering how they feel when they see a photograph that triggers an emotion. How do we turn the emotion that is created by print to a digital platform?

We recently worked on a large print project that involved large collateral for a capital campaign. When the campaign was over, we wanted to make sure that the same elements made their way back to the company’s website. Here are a few tips that help:

  1. Use the photography, or angles of the photography on the website. This particular company had out of home boards, so we used the same general designs when we shrunk a massive platform into a small one. It was important that people recognize the same image that they were driving by every day.

  2. Use similar copy, but not the same. The print audience is not the same audience. The print audience prefers print or they would have gone to the website to begin with. Adapt the personality of digital to the need-to-read-in-one-minute viewer. Even if it means leaving out a lot of the content, you can still say the same thing with less words. You can always have a link off to a PDF if someone wants to see the print. Don’t make the digital piece identical to the print piece. Digital viewers have their own language.

  3. From the beginning of a print campaign, there should have been a URL to the digital campaign. The print may not live, but the URL will, so make sure the URL is easy to remember because the sustaining value is the recognition of the URL, not necessarily the content of it.

  4. Take advantage of the unique aspects of digital that can only be offered by a digital campaign. Video is a perfect example of how to make the digital side of a campaign engaging, unique, and compelling. From the beginning, always imagine that your audience is going to end up on the digital side so keep elements on the sidelines so that the digital element always has fresh aspects.

Print is great and we’re big fans, so if designed properly, print can be the preface to a successful digital launch of a product, campaign, or any other statement you’re trying to make.

Do you have a story about converting print to digital? Share it with us!