Banner Design | Top 5 Tips (2019)

Banner Design Tips

Details

Define your Goal
Your goal is to draw attention to your event, or business promotion.   Banners are fast, efficient and effective tools to connect you with new customers.

Identify where will your banner go?
Will it be indoor, outdoor, subject to wind.  How long do you plan to leave the banner in this location?  Figure this out first. It will determine your banner’s size, color, messaging and material.  Ask some simple questions.  Will your banner be above your head, at eye level, How do you see mounting it?  What capabilities do you have to mount it?  Is a banner stand an option.  Make sure you have grommets or a plan in mind before you start.   A lot of people use rope, bungee cords,  zip ties,  tack, pins or even nails in some cases.  What is important is to mount it in a manner that is clean and professional, not shabby.   What you mount it to will be important.  Here is why.  Try to make sure your design jumps off the background.  Make it stand out.

Now that you know where you’re placing your banner, let’s consider how your audience will respond when seeing your banner?  To answer this question consider one thing.  SPEED. How fast will they be moving?  Are they, driving, walking standing in line,  This leads us to our next tip.

Perspective

The faster your audience is moving the simpler the banner should be.  If your trying to catch the attention of someone in a car, be bold, be brief because they are gone in seconds.  Counter to that is if you’re at a trade show, and you have 3 minutes to use your banner to highlight the benefits and key features of a product or service.  It can be very detailed.   So in general use short and simple words.   Use the right size fonts.   Lettering needs to be legible from a distance.  If you did your homework on step one, you should have a pretty good idea. Here is a chart to help you determine how big our letters should be.

Letter Height Readability Distance For Maximum Impact Maximum Readability Distance
3″ 30′ 100′
4″ 40′ 150′
6″ 60′ 200′
8″ 80′ 350′
9″ 90′ 400′
10″ 100′ 450′
12″ 120′ 525′
15″ 150′ 630′
18″ 180′ 750′
24″ 240′ 1000′
30″ 300′ 1250′
36″ 360′ 1500′
42″ 420′ 1750′
48″ 480′ 2000′
54″ 540′ 2250′
60″ 600′ 2500′

When you design signage, use short and simple words. Simple phrases with 3-4 words are fine. Try to write your message in headline style. Your message should be focused.

Pictures and logos

A picture is worth a thousand words.  And so is your logo.  Our brain thinks in images, not words.  So communicate the way we think.  That the cool thing about digital printing.   There are no design limits.  Be creative, but remember to keep it clean.  Your goal is to win customers, not win a design contest.

Colors & Fonts

Be thoughtful while you select colors and fonts.  Use easy to read fonts like sans-serif and times new roman. Use contrast colors for background and foreground in signage. It will make your banner easier to read.

Message
“A hierarchy of messages summarizes the unique position and story.”  That’s tech marketing crap, but it is somewhat important.  .Every banner should consider the order of your message and information. To figure out what to prioritize just define your story in one or two words.   If you’re having a sale,  Sale should grab your audience’s attention.   The What, When, Where, and Call to action info is all smaller.  It can because if your audience is reading it,  They are interested in your story. 

Add a Call to Action

Don’t assume your customer will automatically know what to do.  Tell them.  Include a call to action in your on your banner.  Call to action will tell your audience what you expect from them. Call to actions are really simple to write.  Just say “I want to”  and then add what you want them to do.   Give it a shot. I want to LEARN MORE,  SIGN UP NOW, SAVE THE DATE, REGISTER NOW and then put your website, phone number or additional information below it.

Building your File.

You have a couple options for designing your banner.  If you have the skill set and software (or graphic arts department) We encourage you to build your own.  All you really need to do is pick your size,  build your file at full size and save it as a PDF.

Review and proofread

Once you are done stand back 10 feet from your computer and check it out. (Fonts should be visible from far.) This quick way to understand your audience’s point of view.  Your looking for readability, and is it easy to understand.  Check for grammar and spelling.