Turn your Vinyl Banner into an Advertising Masterpiece
by Rick Hendershot,
Trade Show Tips
By its very nature, a vinyl banner is meant to be like a big
flexible poster or billboard. That makes it a piece of ADVERTISING, so all the
rules and techniques that apply to advertising design should apply to
vinyl
banners as well.
Rookie Design Mistakes
In the advertising business you see rookie advertisers making
the same design "mistakes" over and over again. They think people are going to
walk up to their poster, billboard or vinyl banner and examine every detail. So
they cram it with lots of product information, a detailed map of how to get to
their store, and the phone numbers of all their sales reps.
It comes as a bit of a shock to learn this is not how things
work. In fact what happens is this: since we are bombarded with advertising
images all day, every day, we do our best to ignore them. Especially the
ones with lots of boring details.
It gradually dawns on the budding advertiser that what people DO
notice is something striking, different, loud, funny, or shocking. That is why most
professional advertising tries to create a distinctively memorable selling
feature, and then focus on it with striking images, snappy, memorable slogans,
or catchy, sing-able (often loud!) music.
1. Keep it simple
The first, most important rule of thumb when creating a
vinyl
banner design is to KEEP IT SIMPLE. Stick to two or three main
elements that communicate your most important selling points. Identify your
product with a striking photo (if you have one), and then define the most
important selling features with the other elements: usually a striking headline,
and some other "feature" like the price, the amount of discount, or the "free"
thing you are giving away.
2. Use Striking, Colorful Elements --
the "Photo ID Model"
Of course these days we are talking about
vinyl banners made with full color digital
printing. So when creating your vinyl banner design, it is usually safe to use
what I call the "Photo ID Model"
for digitally printed state-of-the-art vinyl
banners. The "Photo ID model" uses four basic elements:
1. Product photo or photo collage
2. Main Headline
3. Product Description
4. Company Identifier
The Photo ID Model is not the
only design style you can use for your vinyl banner, but it gives you a
professional looking, highly effective place to start. For a more complete
description of this design approach, see my article titled "The
Photo ID Advertising Design Model"
3. Use Color Effectively
Use colors to your advantage. Use full color
photographs that contain interesting bright colors. And make your headlines,
special offers,
and company identifiers jump out by using red, white or yellow on a black
background.
This is called the "reverse text" or "knock out" technique. Look
at the hundreds of signs you see everyday, and notice how often reverse text is
used. The contrast between the light colored text and black (or dark) background
gives your text much more graphic impact.
4. Use Your Imagination. Be Creative!!!
Unfortunately the "Photo ID Model"
is so effective --
so obvious -- it is very tempting to use it without thinking much
about the IMPACT or CREATIVITY of the various elements. So for instance, a
typical vinyl banner or other type of display ad for a fictitious company called "Perk-it-Up Coffee"
will often start out like this:
"Perk-it-Up Coffee" (headline)
Photo of can of coffee (photograph)
"Made from the finest coffee beans, blah, blah, blah." (description)
Order yours today from Perky People Coffee, 1234 Java Highway (identifier)
Notice how this is just list a series of relatively
unimaginative "facts" about the product: the product name, what it looks
like, how it is made, where you get it. Not terribly inspiring. No clear
statement of its most important features. No attempt to "sell" the product.
You can do much better than that! With a little bit
of imagination your "Perk-It-Up" vinyl banner
could have MUCH MORE IMPACT. For instance, even a fairly uninspired headline like the one above
will come to life if you associate it with an interesting photograph.
And I'm not just talking about a picture of the product. Use good looking people if you can. For example, a photo of
happy, wide-eyed person holding a "Perk-It-Up" mug looking as though she just
had a major java hit. Now even a boring headline like "Perk-It-Up Coffee"
means something. And now you can go the next step and be more creative
with your headline too!
Keep it simple, make it striking, use color effectively, and be
creative. Then your vinyl banners will have the impact you are looking for.
Category: Vinyl Banner Design
|
