Flyer

What is a flyer?

A flyer started out as a small printed sheet handed out in bars, record shops and outside other clubs. In club culture it became an art form of its own, with collectors and designers known for their style. Today most flyers are never printed: they live as an Instagram post, a story, an event page header and a ticket shop image.

Whatever the format, a flyer does the same job. It says what, when and where in a few seconds, and it sets the tone. Someone scrolling past should know from the type and the colours whether this is a techno night, a disco party or a festival, before reading a single word.

What goes on a flyer

Most event flyers carry the same core information:

• The event or series name, and the organizer or venue behind it.
• Date and time, including when doors open. "Doors 23:00" answers the most common question.
• Venue and city, with the district if the city is big.
• The line-up, headliner biggest, in the order the event wants people to read it.
• Where to get tickets and, if known, the pre-sale and door prices.
• House rules that affect who comes: age limit, photo policy, awareness team.

Example: one artwork, four formats

Say an organizer in Frankfurt has one artwork for a club night. They export it square for the feed post, at 1080 × 1920 for Instagram stories with the date large in the middle, wide for the event page header, and as A6 for a small print run to leave at the record shop. The design stays the same; only the crop and the amount of text change.

Tips for a flyer that works on a phone

• Design the story version first. Most people will see your flyer on a phone, in a story, for about two seconds.
• Keep the top and bottom of a story clear, where Instagram puts the profile name and the reply bar.
• Make the date readable at thumbnail size. If you have to zoom in to read it, it is too small.
• Give promoters the finished files, not a link to your post. A clean story asset gets posted; a screenshot of a screenshot does not.

Flyers on Parmo

On Parmo the flyer is the event's header image or video, shown on the event's public page next to the ticket link. Each story in the posting brief can carry its own portrait story asset: 1080 × 1920 works best, up to 5 MB per image, with the date and the ticket call-to-action on it. Where the organizer has not added one for a date, the header image stands in, and the organizer can also let promoters post their own shot. See Write the posting brief.

Common questions

What size should an Instagram story flyer be?

1080 by 1920 pixels, a 9:16 portrait format. Keep the key information away from the very top and bottom, where Instagram shows its own buttons.

What information should a party flyer have?

At least the event name, date, start time, venue, city, line-up and where to get tickets. Add the age limit and the price if there is space.