Banners and signs are a fantastic way to get your business noticed. A bold layout, clear text and striking colours can all do the heavy lifting for your brand’s message. But making sure your business signage stands out from the competition doesn’t happen by luck. Instead, you’ll need to make strategic design decisions that make your banner pop.
Know your purpose
Before you start making design decisions, you need to be clear on why you need a banner in the first place. Are you looking to increase brand awareness? Or do you want to promote a specific sales event or new product? Maybe you just want to get noticed at your next trade show.
Knowing the results you want to achieve with your business signage is the critical first step to creating a standout design.
Location, location, location
It’s a cliche, but location is everything when you want to get the most out of your business signage. Will your sign or banner be displayed inside or outside? At an exhibition centre or on your business premises?
Being aware of the surroundings is critical for maximum impact. For example, if you’re hanging a red banner against a brick wall, the chances are it’ll fade into the background. In contrast, a punchy blue or green scheme will definitely get noticed.
Create a focal point that pops
Creating business signage that stands out depends on several factors. And if you want your sign or banner to be truly attention-grabbing, it needs a solid focal point. That could be a striking image, your business logo, or a piece of text. Whatever you decide to use as your hook, you need to find a way to highlight it…
- Go big to differentiate your chosen focal point.
- Create emphasis by highlighting, boldening, or capitalising text.
- Create contrast with white space and clever use of colour, so passersby can’t miss your focal point.
Make smart choices
Memorable signs and banners have three critical elements in common: clever use of colours, images and text.
Colour has a massive impact on marketing, with 62% to 90% of product decisions made on colour alone. So if you’re aiming to create brand recognition, you need to use your company colours for visual consistency. If you’re rebranding, new business signage is a great way to introduce your new corporate colour scheme. Otherwise, think carefully about the associations and cultural associations of the colours you use.
When it comes to using images for your signs and banners, a picture really does paint a thousand words. To get the best out of your imagery, you need to create high-resolution graphics that won’t blur or distort when they’re printed on a banner or sign several feet wide.
Creating text for business signage is all about being concise and to the point. Don’t be tempted to fill a large sign or banner with text. Instead, focus on getting your message across as clearly as possible. Select a font for your key text that’s as readable as possible, even if your branding uses something more stylised, and consider using bold if the letters look thin. Finally, use the 10 to 100 rule for readability, which says that a ten-inch letter will be readable at a distance of one hundred feet.
Use a professional design service
Stand out business signage delivers incredible RoI, but getting it right can be daunting. At Colour It In, we have your creative marketing covered, with our graphic design and branding services. We don’t just create signs and banners. We look at the entire customer journey, so you get the best possible results from your marketing mix. Contact us today, and we’ll be happy to come up with banners and signs that really stand out