3 Things to remember when using images on banner stands « Back to list
Banner stands and banners can be a great way to ensure your product or offering gets noticed at an exhibition or trade show. Whether you are using a standard vinyl banner, a pull up banner stand or a pop up banner stand, the addition of image, colour and graphics can really help the visitors to this shows take notice of your stand. But how can you stand out if everyone is using colour and images and what should you avoid? Well, one thing you should definitely avoid is going overboard with images. With this in mind we wanted to look at 3 things to remember when using images on banner stands.
Using images with your banner stands
1. Quality, quality, quality
The most important thing when using images for roll up banner stands and print in general is to ensure your images are high quality. Remember that in almost every case the quality that you see on screen will be different to the quality you will see on a paper, or in this case on a banner. When dealing with images for print it is important to save them as 300 dpi (dots per inch). This means that the size at which you save the image (i.e. 100mm x 100mm) is the size at which it will appear in your document. This allows you to get the exact size that is required from your image for your banner stand, without compromising the quality.
For those of you with limited design experience who simply cannot afford the help of graphic design professionals, do not simply copy and paste an image from the web and try to make it bigger – this won’t work. Most screen images will be 72 dpi so this means changing it to 300 dpi and resizing it won’t increase the quality. It will just leave you with a pixelated image that will look extremely poor on your banner and effect the perceived quality you want to get across either instore or at a show.
2. Think of your message
Images can be a powerful tool when it comes to evoking emotion and creating memories for your customers. Think of an image like the red Coca Cola van and you instantly think of Christmas. This shows how powerful images can be, but it can also have a double-edge sword effect in that sometimes this emotion can be a bad one. It’s important to think about your message and have a clear message in mind when it comes to designing your banner stand. What do you want it to achieve? Are you looking to drive sales from it, generate enquiries or simply create some awareness around who and what you are? Once you know what you want to tell your customers, it will be easy to get an image that works to provide this message.
3. How will colour and text fit in
If you’re planning to use images on a banner stand, think of the role they will play with text and colour in getting your message across. Colour can help get the attention of your customers or visitors at a show from a distance but it must fit with your brand and it must work with everything else on the board – including images. If you want to grab someone’s attention with a strong message or offer then a powerful text-based headline is the best way to do this. This does mean however that any artwork or imagery should be used to help support this heading and therefore should complement it in the background. If the image is to be the hero (which is the case for many products) then showcase it in its finest light with small bits of text to support it and highlight the features and benefits.
Images are there to help not hinder
The biggest challenge facing many of you who are planning a banner design is knowing when enough is enough. Banner stands provide a larger surface area than many of you will be used to working with (think posters, brochures, leaflets), but this doesn’t mean you can go crazy. You still want your message to be clear and images should help this not detract from it. For more information on using images and tips for designing for detail printing, please read here.
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