Banners and flags can be a fun way of branding your business and bringing attention to your storefront, especially if you’re located in an area with plenty of car or pedestrian traffic. The other good news is that when compared to other outdoor advertising ideas, they’re relatively affordable to have printed by a professional printing company, ensuring top quality that will draw in customers.
But like all types of advertising, advertising banners and store flags need to be carefully designed in order to be effective. To get you started, here are three important tips for designing banners and flags that will catch the eye of potential customers:
- Think About Color:
People respond to different colors in different ways, even if they’re not aware of it. Brighter, bolder colors are the traditional choice for outdoor ads, since they grab attention right away and energize potential customers to actually come inside to check out your products or services. If you look at a color wheel, you can find good color combinations by choosing two or three colors that are evenly spaced around the wheel (either directly across from each other or forming an equilateral triangle). These colors will have high levels of contrast. Choosing colors that are cooler, such as blues and greens, or two or three colors that are adjacent on the color wheel, creates a soothing feeling that’s better used inside your store in most cases.
- Think About Size:
It’s important you not see large format banner printing as a way to facilitate fitting many words or elements onto your project. That space should be used to appropriately size elements and leave plenty of white space (or whatever color the background of your banner or flag is). Don’t underestimate the type size needed for people to clearly read your message, either; each inch makes the text readable about 10 feet farther away. That means that if you want people on the sidewalk 30 feet away to read your message, no type should be less than 3 inches high. If you want drivers 80 feet away to read your banner, nothing less than 8 inches high will be effective.
- Think About Flexibility:
The first two tips could apply to inflexible outdoor advertising signs, too. But when designing banners and flags, it’s important to think about how readable the project will be even when slightly distorted by movement. You want to make sure your message or image is still clear even when there’s a breeze. This means it’s even wiser to keep your design simple.
Have you ever used banners or flags to promote your business? Share your advice in the comments.
