Principles of Good Marketing Design
The design can be done by your content-providing group, but it is the marketing and development group that orders the content and outlines the main framework. You are not supposed to become a designer, but when you know the general concepts, you can work with the designer much more easily. The most important point to consider in design is your brand.
The goal of designing marketing materials is to convey a message. The next principle in a proper design is simplicity and clarity. The design should not be cramped. If you have one page, you need to put enough material for only one page. You should avoid putting 25 pages' worth of catalog on a single page, turning the design into something unintelligible and making your brand overlooked despite all the expenses on design and print. Your main message must be noticeable in the design.
The colors used must be consistent with your works' general setting and in sync with the dominant culture in the market location. In India, nearly 300 people work for me. These individuals' designs are based on India's culture, while we work internationally. We had a hard time convincing them not to use their culture's color themes. If you design a catalog for international customers, its color theme is most likely different from the one you design for the domestic market.
The design for each advertising item is formulated based on the type of audience. A large banner needs to be seen from a long distance, so the important points belong in its top third, which has the best view. Designing a half-page ad is different from designing a full-page ad, and a colored ad is different from a black and white one.
Another point is the font. There shouldn't be more than two or three different fonts in the design. Consider the fact that your goal is to convey a message, and that you are not practicing how to work with fonts!