Yes, unfortunately aesthetics are more important than content, because without hooking people and appealing to their artistic and instinctual sensibilities, nobody is going to be interested, certainly not in information they have already been poisoned against, and not in a society where they have been trained to value aesthetics above all else. Making our cause as attractive as possible to as many people as possible should be paramount.

I’m not sure exactly what the content of your flyers is, or what the express goal is, but there are some general rules of thumb I would follow:

Make the front page the most graphical and artistic. Have the most important words–as few words as the message can be condensed to–nice, BIG, readable, and eye-catching; if you have access to colored printers this is where I would put the most “pop,” but NOT at the expense of readability. Same goes for the font; find a font that is interesting (also don’t be shy using WordArt functions in Microsoft Word or designing your own if you have the skill) but that above all maintains readability at a glance and at a distance. Besides the main major text on the front, there should be very little words, at MOST a tiny amount of information such as relevant times/location for an event, the name of the organization, etc., although even these are highly subordinate to making sure the front page is free from any excess clutter and that it looks good. Text should be accompanied by strong graphics, typically a picture. Like the text, the picture(s) should catch your eye, be easily readable, and inspire feelings you want to hit, whether that’s intrigue, connection, hope, etc.

The inside body is where things get a little loosey goosey. This is where you can have sections that have perhaps a paragraph or two worth of words–HOWEVER you should ALWAYS strive to keep as LITTLE words as you possibly can while retaining the core messages you are trying to convey. Think of a movie or a game trailer: their goal is to barrage you with a taste of the various feelings, themes, aesthetics and content that the media has to offer, just a TASTE to leave the recipient wanting more, you do not want to overload information. Obviously communists and would-be communists read more than the average person and have a higher tolerance for it, but just keep in mind when designing flyers that if you are going for a general audience that brevity is always a strong suit.

Aesthetics are still fairly important; try to do something creative with the layout of the various texts and graphics but again, without sacrificing readability or making the flyer feel overwhelming. I would have 2-3 different text sizes: 1 that’s big (not as big as the front page eye-catcher) to add a sub-header to the front, or to chop up major sections, 1 that’s middle-sized to emphasize words or small phrases or to chop it into smaller sections, and 1 that’s small and is the bulk of the text. The biggest sized font can have the most artistic leeway, but for the smallest sized font I would choose something that is readable and simple and nothing else.

Graphically, in the body is the best place to have a wider variety of images, just make sure that for the most part they all tie together with the theme of the flyer. If there is a lot of text, make sure there is either abstract empty space or that the pictures give the reader some room to breathe; however also make sure there is something a little interesting to look at for skimmers who aren’t sure if they want to commit to reading the text yet.

The back flap should be considerably blank in comparison to the front and the body, and this is where some dry information should go if you really can’t fit it in the end of the body. It should complement the front graphically as far as colors or images (and can even be a continuation of the front image) but it should absolutely not be competing for it as far as attention-grabbing; if you held up the two next to each other it should be obvious which is the front of the flyer and which is the back of the flyer, even if we didn’t already know (because of left-to-right reading in our language(s)(?)). If this sort of stuff is not already on the end of the inner body, this could also be a place where you put a “call to action,” a phone number, again dry information.

. . .

It really doesn’t have to be that complicated or excessively professional, if things are as you describe quite literally any improvement will do wonders. Just always remind yourself of some basic tenants of advertising, which a flyer in essence is:

-Readability.

-Eye-catching.

-Builds emotions that benefit the “sale.”

-These days, having something like a QR code is always a plus, or, if that fails, social media handles denoted by icons.

-Other psychological tricks like sex, bandwagon/FOMO, appeal to authority (that a regular person would respect, e.g. no Stalin, obviously), artificial scarcity, appeal to morality/duty, astroturfing, the many different forms of humor, etc. etc. can be considered. I would not do anything that you consider to be immoral or unethical, and if you DO choose to use any such methods be subtle and not infantilizing with the audience’s intelligence, but at the same time just keep in mind what sort of BS you see in normal psychopathic advertisements and remind yourself that advertisers use such debauchery for good reason, and its because it is SUCCESSFUL. On the flipside, however, keep in mind the types of people who WOULD be particularly affected by method XYZ, and those who might be TURNED OFF by it.

-Imagine your ideal “customer” and what they would want to see; if you are casting a wide net (cheers!), go for the common traits shared by all groups.

-Make sure the message is clear, there is some sort of call to action, the necessary dry information is easy to find, and that someone could skim it once and remember all of the most key points.

. . .

I can give more specific advice if you share what the flyers are specifically meant for, what the orgs are, etc., or, even better, if you want to share the actual material I would offer a degree of help for free, I have ideas that are a dime a dozen, it is only the execution of creating it that I couldn’t commit to.

Hope this wasn’t overwhelming or came off any type of way, blah blah blah conditionals blah blah blah self-deprecation etc. etc. Kudos to doing this work, I would love to help you help yourself too, I’m not just trying to be like “give it to me and do what I say” just wanna help comrades out 😎