Website Marketing Club

5 Steps to Great Banner Design

Oct 23, 2009 Advertising

With the advent of digital banner printing, what you can do with vinyl banners has greatly expanded. No longer are you locked into text only phrases like \”For Sale\” or \”Grand Opening.\” Now, anything you can imagine, you can put on a banner.

Just what are the components of a great vinyl banner?

1.Material

2.Material size

3.Letters

4.Contrast

5.Images

Part 1 — Banner material

Lightweight, standard and heavyweight are the three primary classes of banner material. Light banners are usually 10 ounces and are not a good choice for outdoor use. This type of banner is great for indoor use at birthday parties of holiday celebrations.

Any banner that is around 13 ounces is considered a standard weight banner. This banner is not only the standard for outdoor use, but is a terrific option for short term, multi year use banners. For example, if you have an annual winter clearance sale, this type of banner can be used for many seasons to come.

Heavyweight banner is any material at 17 oz or above. It is optimal for harsh weather or when extreme strength is needed. For example, if you need to hang a banner across a street, then you would want this type of banner material.

Part 2 — Size

Larger is not always the best option when sizing a banner. You need to keep the size in scale with where you are installing it. Everyone has seen a really small banner mounted on the side of a large wall. That banner is not readable except if you are standing right in front of it. The opposite is just as bad. You want your banner to stand out from the background, not blend into it.

A general rule of thumb is that you need 1\” of letter height for each 10\’ of viewing distance. So if your banner will be viewed from 50\’ away and you want 3 lines of text, you need 15\” just for the lettering not to mention \”white space\” separating the lines. I use a general rule that you should have the same amount of separation as you have print. In this example, that means a minimum of 30\” for a basic banner.

Part 3 — Characters

The fonts that you use are critically important. Your font should be readable yet consistent with your brand image. The absolute worst thing you can do is to use a script font and use all capital letters. This is unreadable at any distance. If you want to employ all caps, be sure to use a sans serif font that is clean and readable. Other than that, feel free to be as creative as you want with fonts. There are some amazing ones out there that can greatly enhance your designs.

Part 4 — Contrasting color

The first is font contrast and the second is the contrast of the banner and its background. These are the two contrasts that you need to be aware of.

blue on white white on blue blue on yellow yellow on blue

These combinations are just some of the many great color that you can use to create that contrast you are looking for. This is not a step that should be taken lightly as it is just about the most important design element.

Why would you place a tan banner against a tan wall in your retail establishment? The banner is lost in a sea of tan, when what you want is for the banner to pop against its background.

Part 5 — Graphics

Digital graphics are where modern banner design earns its money. No longer do you have to limit yourself to lines of simple text, not when you can design them with full color digital images. Banner printers have so many resources open to them for images that there is no reason not to have a visually stunning banner. ***Important*** If you plan on using your own images, be sure they are taken with enough resolution to blow up to the size you want to use.

Conclusion

Now that you have some basic understanding of what goes into a great banner design, your should be able to tell your banner printing supplier exactly what you want.

Looking for banners online. Check out your sign shop source. Be sure to check out our options for vinyl banners and our wide selection of banner displays.

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Tags: Advertising, banner design, banner printing, banners, Business, business advertising, business marketing, full color banners, marketing, sign design, signs