Most bookmark artwork arrives as a shrunk-down poster. It rarely survives the proportions.

Only the top inch is visible in use

While the bookmark is doing its job, all anybody sees is the part sticking out of the book. Put the mark, the name or the colour block there.

Everything below it is for when the bookmark is picked up, which is a different and much rarer moment.

Both sides get read

A bookmark is turned over constantly. Printing one side and leaving the other blank wastes half of what you have paid for.

The reverse is the natural home for the practical content — a reading list, a due date box, opening hours, a QR to the catalogue.

Magnetic fold-overs are a strip, not a rectangle

The design is read on the front face, the back face and across the fold at the top. Laid out as a single rectangle it will be cut in half by the fold.

We redraw for that as part of the mockup, and it usually improves the design.

Leave room for the eyelet and the trim

A tassel eyelet needs clear space at the top, and anything critical within about 4mm of the edge risks being trimmed.

For die-cut shapes the safe area follows the shape, not the rectangle, which is the most common reason a shaped bookmark comes back with clipped type.