Kandy Records
Guides / Promotion

A Show Flyer People Can Actually Read

Most flyers are art projects that forget to say when the show is. Fix that first.

A flyer has one job: get someone who glances at it for two seconds to know who, where, when, and how much. Everything else is decoration. Great decoration helps, but only after the job is done.

The four things, in order of size

  1. Headliner (biggest text on the page)
  2. Date including the day of the week. "SAT MAR 14" not "3/14".
  3. Venue and city. People screenshot flyers and send them to friends in other towns.
  4. Doors / show time, cover, and ages. "Doors 8 · $10 · 21+"

Support acts go under the headliner, smaller. If there are more than four bands, group them: "with Band A · Band B · Band C".

The two-second test

Put it on your phone, hold it at arm's length, and look away. Look back for two seconds. Can you say the date and venue? If not, the text is too small or the background is fighting it.

Readability rules

  • Contrast. Light text on dark, or dark on light. Never mid-tone on mid-tone.
  • One or two fonts. One for the big stuff, one for the details. Three fonts looks like a ransom note.
  • Leave room. Empty space is what makes the important parts pop.
  • Don't put text over the busy part of the image. Darken that area, or move the text.
  • Skip the social media handle salad. One link or a QR code beats five tiny icons.

Sizes you'll need

  • Instagram / Facebook post: square, 1080 × 1080
  • Story / Reel cover: 1080 × 1920
  • Print: 8.5 × 11 (letter) or 11 × 17 (tabloid), 300 dpi, with everything important kept half an inch from the edge

Make the square first. It's the one that gets seen.

The QR code

A QR code that goes to the ticket link or the venue's event page is the single most useful thing you can add to a printed flyer. People don't type URLs off a wall.

Where to put printed flyers

Record stores, coffee shops, tattoo shops, music stores, the venue itself, and the other venues in town (ask first). Twenty well-placed flyers beat two hundred stapled to telephone poles.

Make one now

StapleGun is our free flyer maker. Type in the bands, date, venue, and price, drop in your art, and download all three sizes with a QR code. No login.

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