The square brochure
A square brochure is a bound publication with equal sides — a multi-page piece that's as tall as it is wide.
Proportion1:1
Common sizes210, 148 mm
TypeBound, multi-page
FilesLayered PSD, smart objects
A square is the one proportion nobody prints by accident — it has to be cut from a larger sheet, so the format itself signals a decision was made, and that reads as care before a single page is turned. It's the shape for work that wants to be an object rather than a document: lookbooks and catalogues, brand and design books, record-label and music booklets, coffee-table and photo books, wedding and boutique-hotel collateral. The 210 mm square is the everyday size; 148 mm is the compact one, close to a CD booklet.
Inside, the balance cuts both ways. With no long edge pulling the eye, the layout has no built-in direction, so you set the rhythm yourself — and a square is unusually good to a grid, halving and quartering cleanly for tidy image tiles. Open it and two squares make a wide 2:1 spread, room for a panorama or a full-bleed image across the fold. The flip side is that dead-centre everything and it goes static fast, so the good ones break the symmetry on purpose — weight a corner, run an image off one edge, let the white space sit unevenly.
In the sets: closed on the cover, open on a spread and shot from above, so you can present the cover and an inside spread together. Each is a layered PSD with smart objects — the artwork sits on its own layer, so replacing it leaves the paper, lighting and shadow untouched.