5 Steps to Great Banner Design

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 outdoor banner.

There are five elements that go into creating a great vinyl banner.

1.Material

2.Size

3.Fonts

4.Contrast

5.Images

Part 1 — Substrate

There are three categories of banner material; lightweight, standard and heavyweight. Lightweight material is normally around 10 oz. in weight and are preferred for indoor use. This type of banner is great for parties and one-time events. A lightweight banner will not last outdoors for any length of time.

Standard weight banners are generally around 13 ounces and are perfect for outdoors. They also work really well indoors if you want to reuse them from season to season. For example, if you have an annual spring sale, this weight of banner can be used for many years and will look as good for your 5th annual sale as it did during the first one.

Anything 17 ounces and above is considered heavyweight material. It is really only needed in extreme weather conditions.

Part 2 — Material 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 character set you employ in your design is just about the most important choice you can make. You need something readable and one that stay consistent with your groups brand. Using all caps can add a striking design element, but be careful. All caps with a script font are a disaster no matter what you do. If adding all caps is important to you, be sure to look for one that is clean lined as it will work much better for you.

Part 4 — Contrasting color

There are two type of color contrast that we need to look at. The first is font contrast and the second is the contrast between the colors used on the banner and the color of the location the banner will be installed.

black on yellow white on yellow yellow on black black on white

These are really good color combinations to use for your fonts/background colors. You want your words to pop off the page and draw the attention of the reader. Using the right combinations of colors can do just that.

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 — Digital 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.

In summary

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.

Michael Pingree is the creator of Salem, Oregon-based oregonbannerprinting.com , an web source for custom full color vinyl banners and banner displays. Using the company’s web-based technology, you can design and purchase affordable banners web quickly and easily, 24/7, from anywhere in the United States. Check out our banner display prices