Ways to print different banner size designs
When it comes to creating and printing a banner for your company (or a customer), there are a number of factors to consider. Even if you have some expertise with other types of print design (e.g. sticker or leaflet design), there are a few components of effective banner design that many designers overlook, and they are often critical to the banner’s success.
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To assist you with your banner design issues, we met with our graphic design team and drew on their expertise to develop this tutorial that takes you step by step through the full banner design (and printing) process.
Consider Where Your Banner Will Be Displayed
Prior to making any other design choice, you should consider the intended location of your banner. Although it may seem as if we’re going backwards, the intended location of your banner is likely to influence the colour scheme (or possibly the whole design) utilised on it.
It’s possible that the planned location of these banners was overlooked throughout the design process.
Select Vibrant and Contrasting Colours
In addition to the preceding point, it’s a good idea to ensure that your banner is created with a combination of bright and contrasting colours.
When it comes to banner design, using bright and contrasting colours is nearly always a good choice.
Make Use of Large Text
One thing to keep in mind with banners (as opposed to many other types of marketing materials such as brochures and flyers) is that their primary purpose is often to draw attention from a distance.
Since a result, you must ensure that any material on your banner is printed in big, legible language, as it is doubtful that your banner will be decipherable from a distance of more than a few metres.
If you spotted the banner from afar (say while driving by), it’s doubtful that you’d be able to understand any of the other text on it.
There are several typefaces available, and it might be tempting to select one that is too flashy, but when it comes to banners, readability is always a consideration. Generally, strong sans-serif fonts are more readable than serif fonts, although this is not a hard and fast rule. For instance, certain serif fonts, such as Times New Roman, are very legible even at a distance, which explains why they are used in professional media such as newspapers.
Maintain A Simple Copy
Another critical element to keep in mind when creating your banner is to make the copy/message as straightforward as possible. You’ll note that all of the banners included so far in this article have been relatively plain in terms of text content, with the majority being just a few words.
The reason for this is straightforward; banners must express your message in the shortest amount of time feasible, since the majority of your target audience just does not have time to read reams of text (most are walking or driving by).
Much of this content is superfluous and serves only to make the banner’s design seem crowded and sloppy.
Include All Necessary Information
Continuing our earlier point about eliminating the superfluous, it’s critical that you apply the same principle to the content included inside your banner design. You must ensure that you provide only pertinent information.
To choose what to include, you must first consider the purpose of your banner. Are you only attempting to raise brand awareness? Or are you attempting to educate your audience on a certain product/service or element of your business? Do you have a particular action in mind for them to take?
If your banner’s only purpose is to raise brand recognition, you may require nothing more than your business name and/or logo. McDonald’s’ design is an excellent example of this kind of banner. As you can see, they’ve included nothing except their emblem, tagline, and a visual of their most recognisable product (i.e. Big Mac, Fries and drink).
How Do Banner Advertisements Work?
We’ve all seen banners used in brick-and-mortar establishments to promote products and services. Online banner advertisements are comparable to print advertisements in that they have a similar impact on internet users.
However, the main purpose of banner advertisements is to be noticed and clicked, directing the visitor directly to the business’s website, where they may presumably make a purchase.
Utilize A Call-To-Action Whenever Possible
Along with the relevant content, you should almost always include a call-to-action on your banner (unless you’re designing a banner only for the purpose of generating brand recognition, in which case it may not be a smart idea).
As you can see, the banner reads “Call us today for your free quotation” and includes two phone numbers. This is effectively a call-to-action, since it instructs the viewer to do a certain action (i.e. call the company to get a free quotation).
Incorporate Graphics of Superior Quality
Because the purpose of the majority of PVC banners is to grab attention (often from a distance), you must do all possible to direct passers-attention by’s to your banner. While we’ve previously discussed colour, typeface, and size, another ‘secret’ is to use high-quality visuals.
Without the picture of the bottles of wine in the centre, this banner would be quite bland and uninteresting, and would likely get little attention. While it may not seem that adding the picture would make much difference, a quick check at the banner will reveal that this is the place to which your eyes are directed.
Compressing the picture files’ byte size
Compressing a file is perhaps the simplest but most critical aspect of image optimization, since it directly affects the loading speed of the website. The preceding points will help you prepare for this last step of picture optimization.
What is the optimal file size for an image?
You should aim for a file size of less than 70 kb. When dealing with files larger than 300 kb, the most you can hope for is a file size of 100 kb. This prevents your photographs from loading more slowly and provides lossy, compressed images with no loss in visual quality.
