How Can I Get Started With Designing Outdoor Banners?

With such an incredibly effective method of grabbing potential customers’ attention, you’ll be able to transform your brand’s identity, familiarize the public with your products and services, and show off just how professional and creative your business is. Many aspects go into creating an effective and high-quality banner for your business, and many people don’t know where to start. However, once you know the basic steps of creating your outdoor sign, ordering your vinyl banners is easy.

If you’re considering using outdoor banners for your business, you should assess your situation to ensure they’re right for you. Some questions to ask yourself include where your sign will be placed, what budget you have for the project, and what other job specifications you have in mind. Depending on your wants and needs, local printers may be more or less suitable for the project. Producing a custom banner can be a significant investment, so it’s essential to consider the project details beforehand to ensure you’re satisfied with the results.

Why Should My Business Use Outdoor Banners?

There are plenty of reasons to use outdoor banners, but to get a specific idea of how your business could benefit from them, it starts by asking some simple questions: What are you trying to say? Who are you marketing to? What are you spreading awareness for? While these questions might seem basic, your outdoor banner design process should ultimately revolve around providing satisfying completion of the goals these questions establish.

The benefits of printing a custom outdoor banner ((((link to mesh and vinyl banner page)))) include:

• Advertising your business to potential customers and educating potential clients about your services.
• Promoting limited-time deals, special events, sales, or seasonal offerings.
• Spreading brand awareness in your local community and establishing a solid presence for your brand.
• A double sided banner is particularly effective at boosting customer impressions and awareness of your brand when placed in a high-traffic area.

Effective advertising campaigns take time and patience, so don’t be worried if you don’t see immediate returns. Each day passersby see your sign, they’ll become increasingly familiar with your brand. And eventually, your message will stick! Similarly, while you might have the misfortune of only attracting one or two extra customers per day with an outdoor vinyl banner campaign due to an uncontrollable circumstance like lousy weather, within a month, you’ll have had 60 new customers - and if they’re impressed with your products or services, many of them will return for more!

How to Design a Custom Banner For Outdoor Use

Now that you know how vinyl banners can benefit your business ((((((link to banners, signs and flags for homebuilders))))), you might wonder how to produce them. While there are some core principles of graphic design and the vinyl banner printing process that you should remember to stay involved in, the process is quite simple — and if you’re involved with a skilled and dedicated printing team, you can trust that your vision is in good hands. You should start by considering design aspects like your new banners' intended durability and design. Once you know what you’d like, you can work with your printers to choose materials and features.

Long-Term vs. Short-Term Usage

To start, you should determine how you intend to use your custom vinyl banner. You should not add dated references and information if you want a timeless banner. For example, if you have recurring BOGO sales, don’t include any details on when the sale will happen — the customers will immediately understand that the deal is ongoing when they see the banner posted, so there’s no need to complicate things. If you have a recurring banner with a specific use case, such as an autumn banner or birthday banner, it’s okay to include information that you know will stay relevant. And while it might come with some extra upfront costs, choosing to print your banners double sided will improve their versatility.

Whether you’ve decided to use the banner over the short term or long term, you may find different materials more suitable. Vinyl banners are the most durable, withstanding fading damage from the sun and easily weathering damage from extreme conditions. They’re also quite vivid and offer visual appeal. But if you prefer to use your banner over the short term, fabric banners are an option worth considering. Regardless of how you make your banners, cycling them will keep your customers coming back excited. As they become familiar with your recurring sales or offerings, they might feel especially incentivized to visit your cafe for a delicious peppermint coffee or a unique Black Friday sale. And when outdoor banners are posted to catch their attention as they pass by, you’ll find that this effect only increases!

What to Consider When Designing Outdoor Banners

You should work with your printer’s graphic design professionals to develop a banner that is visually appealing, digestible, and easy to read. Whether you prefer bold imagery or thematic tones, all banners should have clear text that immediately resonates with viewers. The layout should be simple to understand, with the viewer’s attention first drawn to the centre of detail and then branching outwards. High-contrast colours are optimal if you’re looking for a punchy and quick message, but using colour psychology can open up many more possibilities!

It’s important to remember that you don’t need a lot of text to create memorable and noteworthy advertisements. A good advertising slogan or tagline is generally brief but highly effective. If your banner requires a lot of text, you should use a hierarchical design to help maintain reader interest. It’s important to factor in the typical viewing distance and conditions as you design your banner. If it is hung far from viewers, the text will need to be particularly large — the rule of thumb is to upscale text by 2.5cm for every 3 metres from the viewer. If your banner is hung in a dark or rainy place, you may also need to factor those conditions into your design to ensure it’s consistently readable.

You’ll also need to determine the materials used to construct your banner. Vinyl is generally the better choice for durability and quality, but fabric banners are a good option if you envision a beautiful flowing banner. It’s important to note that because light flows through fabric banners, they may be less readable when used outside. When considering finishes for an outdoor banner, you should generally opt for a matte finish because banners with glossy finishes are difficult to read in the sun. It’s also worth considering having your banner printed double sided since this will allow it to catch more attention. 

Lastly, as you work with your designer, you should ensure that the images are produced at an appropriately high resolution and DPI. If the image files aren’t produced and saved at the correct specifications, you may end up with a fuzzy vinyl banner that is difficult to read. And unfortunately, poorly produced outdoor vinyl banners can have a negative effect and make your business appear unprofessional. As a rule of thumb, raster (pixel) images should be printed at 300 DPI, and vector images should be printed between 150 - 300 DPI. The images should also be produced in the CMYK colour spectrum to ensure that colour prints accurately.

Let Us Help You Design Your Custom Banner!

If you need a full-service solution for your next outdoor banner project, we can help. With almost 50 years of experience providing incredible printing services and solutions to our community in Edmonton and Calgary, our team at Carbon Graphics Group is dedicated to providing a level of quality and expertise that you can rely on. From the moment you call for a consultation to the day you install your new banners, we’ll keep you involved in the process and ensure that your experience is stress-free and fully satisfying.

Carbon Graphics not only designs and produces custom vinyl outdoor banners but wall graphics, window clings, floor graphics, and much more.Call our customer service team today, and we’ll help you find the perfect solution.