Tips for Designing Effective Outdoor Vinyl Banners
February 18, 2021
Vinyl banners come in a variety of sizes to get visitors’ or prospective clients’ attention fast. Since they come in sizes up to 10’ x 4’, they can stretch large enough to be legible from dozens of feet away outdoors or at trade shows. Vinyl is durable enough to last for years, especially if printed by a company specializing in large-format printing.
Your vinyl banner needs to be well-designed to be memorable, and printing in full color is the best way to create a banner design that looks professional. Whether you team up with a professional graphic designer to design your banner or try to do it on your own, you’ll need to pay attention to design tips and best practices specifically for banners.
Use a Large Font Size
When printing flyers and other handheld items, you have flexibility in how much space your text takes up. When printing on banners, it’s in your best interest to make sure your font is as large as possible. It’s better to have less text printed bigger than have more text printed smaller.
Your outdoor banner needs to be visible from a distance, especially if you’re hanging the banner on your building and trying to reach drivers on a nearby road. Letters should be no less than 8” tall and preferably 12” or more. Although including an image can help in some cases, you should avoid sacrificing text size to accommodate an image.
Although letter height is extremely important, keep in mind that your letters’ width and spacing matter as well. Avoid cramming in extra words by switching to a narrower font, as this may just cause the letters to blur together when viewed at a distance.
Limit Text to Three Lines
Banners with four or more lines of text will be too long for viewers to skim. Even if the font is theoretically large enough to read from a distance, the number of words will be too much for them to process while driving past.
Banners near intersections and in areas with high pedestrian traffic have a little more flexibility, as viewers may have more time to read the text. However, they may still lose interest quickly if they see a long string of text. Less is more, so stick to your company name and a call to action or basic information about a sale instead of trying to list all the details.
If you want to create a list of products or services for people to read, consider designing a banner that hangs vertically or using a retractable banner stand with a smaller design. Reading a long list of items from left to right may be difficult for viewers to process at a glance.
Stick to Sans-Serif Fonts
Serif fonts have a small line at the end of each letter’s strokes, making them look more traditional but makes them harder to read at small font sizes. Sans-serif fonts like Arial and Calibri omit these lines, giving them a modern appearance and keeping them easy to read.
As a general rule, your text must be easy to read, so stick to sans-serif as much as possible. If your logo or existing artwork already uses a serif font like Times New Roman or Georgia, you can still use that if printed in a large enough size. Any additional text should be in sans-serif to keep the letters legible from a distance.
Remember Your Target Audience
Although bright colors are eye-catching, they are challenging to use in large quantities without sacrificing professionalism. Colors like red, orange and yellow are suitable for accents and are acceptable to include if they are already part of your logo. They also may work well for attracting customers to sales and other events.
However, professional and financial services should stick to shades of green, blue, gray, white, and black to create an effective banner. These colors help convey your trustworthiness, and you can still use colors that contrast nicely with each other to keep the text easy to read.
Get a High-Quality Banner
Comix Well Spring provides banners for your business or organization with standard 14-day production turnaround and multiple rush options. We’ll print your design in beautiful full-color on your preferred size.
Besides vinyl banner printing, we have retractable banner stands, posters, and other large-format printing to meet all your business needs. Order online today or call us at (734) 346-7864 with questions.