Five tips for persuasive banner design

When it comes to vinyl banner design, you need a harmonious marriage of form and function. As printed.com customers, you’ll have a keen eye for what looks good, but it’s crucial that your outdoor vinyl banners are visible and readable, to make sure your message gets through. Your banner needs to catch the attention of people some distance away, who are probably engaged in something else, so it’s always best to keep it simple.

Here are our five top design tips for vinyl banners that get results.

1. Keep text brief 

You may have lots of details you’d like to get across about your event or product on your vinyl posters, but remember that people will usually only have a few seconds to read it as they travel past. So in order to get your point across, only include the absolute necessary information. Text-heavy banners are off-putting for the viewer as they look like too much hard work to digest. It’s far better to nail your message with just a few carefully chosen words and print a contact number / email / web address for interested parties to find out more.

2. Choose your fonts wisely

Stick to just one or two fonts on your custom vinyl banners, and go for readability over style, although you can have both! Popular fonts for banners that are high-impact and easy to read include:

Fonts that look great on stationery, but don’t work well on large formats such as banner vinyl include:

• Comic Sans – too soft and childish looking
• Script fonts  – too fancy and hard to read at a glance

When choosing a font size for vinyl print, think about how far away you need it to be read. If the viewer is 30 metres away, letters should be at least 10cm high, and at 110 metres distance, letters need to be 40cm high.

3. Get the right contrast 

When it comes to choosing colour combinations for background and font for your vinyl printing, it’s all about contrast. Choose colours from opposite sides of the colour wheel, or visit inspirational websites such as www.kuler.adobe.com for modern takes on tried and tested combinations. Here are some of our favourites:

4. Harness the power of the image

Take some time to consider the type of people you want to attract, and choose imagery that will resonate with them. When printing on vinyl, choose striking, uncomplicated images that are easy to ‘read’, and make sure they have room to breathe.

5. Go large

Less is more in banner design, but when it comes to size, bigger is better. For launches and events, find out how much space you have, and then fill it! At printed.com, we can print up to 10 metres wide and 1.7 metres wide and also offer a large range of custom sizes for easy ordering.

If you are looking for a vinyl printer, click here for an instant quote. At printed.com, we use odourless latex inks made from recyclable materials, and print out of eight colours. We use only heavy 450gsm scrim, to ensure your vinyl banners are tear resistant, waterproof and extremely hardwearing.