Outdoor banners can be a truly powerful way of promoting your products and services to local customers at your shop, tradeshows or other events that you might be participating in. Plus, banners are usually quite large, which helps your brand to stand out and get noticed – reach many potential customers for minimal investment. They can only make a statement, however, if they’ve been designed effectively. Here are some of our top practical design tips:

• Define its purpose – The very question you should ask yourself is what you want to accomplish by displaying the banner. Do you want to raise awareness about your brand? Or encourage people to purchase a product or service? This way, you will be able to easily settle on its ultimate goal and the best way to proceed through the design process.

• Strategically plan the placement – Effective outdoor banners require intelligently targeted placement. There are two main ways to target placement, and both strategies can be quite effective if used correctly. Firstly, you can place them to achieve the greatest number of views. Secondly, you can place them to reach a well-defined audience.

• Create an attention-grabbing design – The design of your banners must capture attention, as you want people to read them. It sounds logical, but this is something that we sometimes forget to consider during the planning process. After all, they must first be noticed before they can be understood and used to drive action.

• Keep it simple – The most effective banners will generally have a simple design and a simple message. Convey only one idea and use a maximum of two fonts. Choose your colours wisely – colour can attract attention, but it can also be distracting and costly. Don’t be afraid of white space – giving your text some room helps it to stand out.

• Match it with your business and your clients – What is your business all about? What kind of clients do you work with? The overall design concept of the outdoor banner should give passers by a hint about your businesses’ work style so that they can determine whether you are the sort of business that they would like to work with.

• Include a call to action – What do you want people to do once they read your banner? Do you want them book, call, ask, apply, sign up, donate or something else all together? Make the call to action clear, easy and visible. If you want people to book or call, for example, ensure that your phone number or website is front and centre.

Once you have created an effective design for your outdoor banner, it’s time to have it printed and displayed. It’s important that you have chosen a quality vinyl, vinyl mesh or canvas material using UV resistance inks. This will not only increase the longevity of the banner, it will ensure that they look amazing – which, in turn, will make your brand appear more trustworthy. Do not hesitate to employ a professional graphic designer to put your design together.

Displays Direct is a supplier of trade show displays in and around the Sydney area. Whether you’re looking for shopping centre displays, brochure holders and displays, roll up banners, teardrop flags or something else entirely, you can rest assured that the Displays Direct team can deliver.