-RKO-
In this world splashed with exotic color and 'snazzy' art, a really effective brochure might be the simple use of good illustration printed on a bright white paper stock in stark black ink. I don't know if your brochure will be a direct mail piece, or a hand-out, but it's bound to 'stand out' among all the 'clutter' in print today. 'Snazzy" is important: there has to be eye appeal that grabs attention. But, just as important is the message and information conveyed. Good, creative copywriting, factual data, and solid customer information will help create the sense of urgency, create awareness of your product or service, and motivate the customer to act. I've been in advertising and marketing for 40 years, and I have seen countless "snazzy" brochures that missed the mark when it came to the actual job it's supposed to do: generate $ALE$. -RKO- 05/13/07

Computer Lady
Are you planning on creating this yourself, or hiring a professional? Teaching someone the fundamentals of good design theory in one question/answer is impossible! There are ways to save money, even when hiring a professional. I strongly recommend you write your own text content, for example, as know one knows what the purpose or intent of the brochure is better than yourself. Take your time on this step, as you need to keep it pointed yet cover all the appropriate details. Assuming you are planning to create this yourself, I recommend the use of some program that has page layout tools. For most people, this will mean Microsoft Publisher and NOT Word! Trying to make anything beyond a simple brochure design within Word is a good to go crazy! If, however, you're planning on using any of the nice pre-printed card stocks found at your local office supply store; that is one way to go. Use the Column function inside Word to break your page up into the brochure panels. Publisher has templates for use with certain kinds of pre-printed card stock as well as sample layouts. For those who are not very graphically inclined, those are probably the best way to start out. I would encourage you to change out the graphics to other things, customize the color scheme and/or fonts so as to suit the purpose of your brochure. Getting into all of the options and methods involved is simply impossible to do in one short message. In regard to printing, again there are a lot of options. For those on a budget, I still recommend making up a 'master' and using a good color copy service in your area. When making your master (what will be duplicated), do your print out on a printer capable of doing photos with the best type of paper and settings for that machine. If you don't have one, find a friend who has one. (Offer them a few bucks to cover the cost of the ink!) An even better choice, that will produce far better quality will be to use a fast-print service that can take your design from a CD. Output your design to a PDF file, using settings in the 1200dpi or better range. When you burn that to the CD, include copies of any font files used too, in case the shop needs those. Be sure to tell them you are providing a composite master. (One with all the colors merged.) This avoids the costs - with traditional printing - of paying for CMYK separations and risk of poor registrations. But, then again, if the number of brochures to be printed is high enough going that route may be worth it.

madkad
snazzy isnt really the answer :-S there are lots of ways to make your own, use word then print into pdf format and play more, or use photoshop etc etc.