When it comes to designing and printing a banner for your business (or on behalf of a client), there's a lot of things that you need to consider. Even if you're relatively experienced in other forms of print design (e.g. sticker or leaflet design etc), there are a few aspects of a great banner design that many designers tend to neglect and often, these are crucial to the success of your banner.
Unlike many other printed marketing materials, banners need to be quickly readable and viewable from a distance and therefore, there are certain elements of the design that will need to be emphasized to ensure that this is the case.
Banner Placement
The first thing you should think about before making any other design-related decision is the intended placement of your banner. Although it might seem like we're working backwards to some extent, the intended placement of your banner is likely to affect the choice of color scheme (or even the entire design) used for your banner. Ideally, the color scheme of your banner should be highly contrasting in comparison to its placement.
Use Large Text
One thing that you need to remember about banners (that differs from many other marketing materials such as leaflets and flyers) is that in most cases, the aim is to attract attention from a distance. Because of this, you need to make sure that any content written on your banner is written in large readable text as without doing this, it's unlikely that your banner will be readable to anyone more than a few meters away. Read more about banner text size here:
Choose A Bold and Readable Font
It isn't just the size of your text that matters though; you also need to think about the font that you're using along with the weight of that font. There are a lot of different fonts out there and it can be tempting to choose an overly flamboyant one but when it comes to banners, you always need to factor in readability. Typically, bold sans-serif fonts will be more readable than serif fonts but this rule isn't set in stone. For example, some serif fonts such as Times New Roman can be highly readable even as newspapers.
Provide A Simple Message
Another extremely important point to remember when designing your banner is to keep the copy/message as simple as possible. Many successful banners are very simplistic in terms of the actual text content as most feature nothing more than a few words. The reason for this is simple; banners need to communicate your message in as little time as possible as most of the target audience simply don't have time to be reading paragraphs of text (most are walking or driving by). When designing your banner, make sure to really think about the copy that is and isn't needed. Try to remove anything that is unnecessary and communicate your message in the most simple way you can.
Include Necessary Information
Reinforcing the previous point about removing anything unnecessary, it's also important that you apply the same idea to the information contained within your banner design. In order to know what to include, you need to think about exactly what you want to achieve with your banner. Are you simply looking to increase brand awareness? Or are you looking to inform viewers about a certain product/service or aspect of your business?
Is there a specific action you want them to take? If you're just looking to increase brand awareness with your banner, you might need nothing more than your company name and/or logo. When you're designing your banner, you really need to keep in mind the aim and include only information that is likely to help bring results. For example, don't include your business address if it isn't needed at all; it will just clutter the design.
Unlike many other printed marketing materials, banners need to be quickly readable and viewable from a distance and therefore, there are certain elements of the design that will need to be emphasized to ensure that this is the case.
Banner Placement
The first thing you should think about before making any other design-related decision is the intended placement of your banner. Although it might seem like we're working backwards to some extent, the intended placement of your banner is likely to affect the choice of color scheme (or even the entire design) used for your banner. Ideally, the color scheme of your banner should be highly contrasting in comparison to its placement.
Use Large Text
One thing that you need to remember about banners (that differs from many other marketing materials such as leaflets and flyers) is that in most cases, the aim is to attract attention from a distance. Because of this, you need to make sure that any content written on your banner is written in large readable text as without doing this, it's unlikely that your banner will be readable to anyone more than a few meters away. Read more about banner text size here:
Choose A Bold and Readable Font
It isn't just the size of your text that matters though; you also need to think about the font that you're using along with the weight of that font. There are a lot of different fonts out there and it can be tempting to choose an overly flamboyant one but when it comes to banners, you always need to factor in readability. Typically, bold sans-serif fonts will be more readable than serif fonts but this rule isn't set in stone. For example, some serif fonts such as Times New Roman can be highly readable even as newspapers.
Provide A Simple Message
Another extremely important point to remember when designing your banner is to keep the copy/message as simple as possible. Many successful banners are very simplistic in terms of the actual text content as most feature nothing more than a few words. The reason for this is simple; banners need to communicate your message in as little time as possible as most of the target audience simply don't have time to be reading paragraphs of text (most are walking or driving by). When designing your banner, make sure to really think about the copy that is and isn't needed. Try to remove anything that is unnecessary and communicate your message in the most simple way you can.
Include Necessary Information
Reinforcing the previous point about removing anything unnecessary, it's also important that you apply the same idea to the information contained within your banner design. In order to know what to include, you need to think about exactly what you want to achieve with your banner. Are you simply looking to increase brand awareness? Or are you looking to inform viewers about a certain product/service or aspect of your business?
Is there a specific action you want them to take? If you're just looking to increase brand awareness with your banner, you might need nothing more than your company name and/or logo. When you're designing your banner, you really need to keep in mind the aim and include only information that is likely to help bring results. For example, don't include your business address if it isn't needed at all; it will just clutter the design.
Read Full Article Here: Effective Large Banner Design
