Best Design Tips for Banners

Coming up with a memorable and eye-catching design for your graphic or banner is absolutely essential. Your goal is to draw potential customers into your event space. Having a stunning banner design can help you accomplish your objective. However, designing a banner isn’t as easy as adding a few words to a picture and sending it out to print. There are several considerations to keep in mind when putting your design together. Here, we break those down for you and explain why each step is one you can’t miss.

Be Brand Conscious

The most important thing to keep in mind while designing a banner is your brand. You want people to walk away knowing who you are and what it is you’re trying to say. Not every color, font or design is going to work with your brand. Make sure that your design is truly reflective of who you are.

Decide on a Message

The best way to start the design process is to decide on your message. If you’re stuck, think about why it is you’re designing a banner in the first place. Whether it’s to advertise a new product, expand awareness of your brand, or announce a sale or special, your message should clearly state that reason. You want to keep your message simple so as to not overstuff your banner with too much text.

Choose Your Images

Once you’ve decided on a message, you can start to bring that message to life. It’s good to begin this process by choosing images to use as your background. Make sure the images you’re using are high quality and high resolution. Low resolution images will print blurry on your graphic, which will make it look unprofessional. You also want to avoid using too many images and risk making your banner look overcrowded.

Pair with Eye-catching Text

The goal of your banner is to attract people, usually from a distance. The best way to achieve this is with large, readable text. This means you should choose fonts that are clear and easy to read. Often, the best choices are sans serif fonts in a bold typeface, but don’t limit yourself to those rules if you can make something else work. Make sure your text includes your message and any other necessary information about your product or company. Font colors should be readable and should complement the rest of your design.

Make Sure Your Colors Make Sense

The colors you choose to use in your banner can be just as important as the message itself. You want colors that are eye catching, but still make sense for your brand and evoke the right emotions in your customers. Understanding what colors are appropriate for your brand or message will go a long way in designing a successful banner. What follows is a list of colors and the emotions they tend to evoke.

Black

Black is a sleek and sophisticated color that is commonly used by luxury brands in their advertising. One of the most versatile colors, black can be associated with everything from power and formality to evil and grief. However, don’t let that scare you away. This traditional and timeless colors can be easily paired with many other colors.

White

White represents cleanliness, simplicity and honesty. It is common in the medical industry, as well as in luxury brands who are trying to evoke a sense of nobility.

Gray

Gray is another common color used in design, across a variety of industries, as it is associated with everything from science and cold temperatures to calm, maturity and balance.

Red

The color red is often associated with strong emotions, like anger, excitement, passion and love. It is a powerful, attractive color that is often related to speed and studies have shown it to stimulate appetite. However, because not all emotions associated with red are positive ones, the color is best used in moderation.

Orange

Orange is a positive color that is commonly associated with happiness and vitality. It is friendly, inviting and energetic like yellow, without being overpowering like red. Orange is a great color to use for brands trying to come across as playful or youthful.

Yellow

Even more so than orange, yellow is the color of positivity and light. It is also often associated with creativity and motivation. It is particularly useful in catching the customer’s eye, but if used too much it can actually be irritating because of how much light it reflects.

Blue

Blue is one of the most common colors used in brand identity and advertising. It is known to put people at ease, and is often associated with trustworthiness, integrity, clarity, elegance, and truth.  Blues of any shade can convey calmness.

Green

Green is synonymous with health, freshness, growth and nurturing. It is also one of the most calming colors, while also being associated with wealth in deeper shades and new beginnings and serenity in lighter shades.

Purple

Purple is a mysterious color, as it is often related to magic and spirituality. It is also a sophisticated color and is often associated with luxury and royalty as well as wisdom and elegance.

Pink

Pink is generally associated with love, compassion, and tenderness. Usually used for brands and products that are geared towards women and young girls, pink can also be associated with friendship and beauty.

Brown

Brown is most commonly connected to nature and natural products like wood and leather, but is also used to show strength and durability. Careful consideration of color, image, text and font can help you maximize impact and make your brand stand out!