Design 101: Advice on How to Choose Your Banner Design

The beauty and visual appearance of your banner is of the utmost importance. It’s the first thing the customer will notice and it needs to be able to draw them in. With banner design graphics can be a tricky tool to advertise with, too much and the message you’re trying to convey will be lost in the effects, too little and it’s not worth noticing in the first place. Key thing to remember is that the one or two key elements are necessary to grab attention at first glance and always keep in mind the position of your banners.

Fonts 

A huge emphasis should be placed on the font you use. The typeface needs to be able to stand out and be eligible form a distance. It is recommended to choose two fonts from the same family e.g. Sans-serif family. Clear fonts should be used for the body text and more italic/fancy fonts should be used for headings.

Colour 

When thinking about banner design it is important to use high contrast colours between background and letters. Meaning 1 to 3 primary colours and an additional secondary colour, or vice versa, will compliment each other nicely. Finer type faces need stronger colours to balance them out. Contrast in the perfect effect to emphasise mood within your target audience. e.g.  A bright tone background means dark lettering. A common mistake is using too many colours for fonts or blocks of colour for paragraphs, used to highlight certain points. However, instead of highlighting this message, it gets lost in the colour and viewers become disinterested quickly.

Layout and White Space 

‘Clean banners are more likely to attract readers then bundles of colour.’ – Do not underestimate the use of white space and abuse of colour. When creating your banner use margins or grids to ensure the fluidity of graphics but let them stand out to readers with white space- it is made to effectively highlight points or images and will do so justly. But like colour, the overuse of white space can be a mistake. Not presenting enough information or design will also lose the attention of readers and not give your brand the recognition it deserves.

Content 

The content of the banner is just as important. It is where you will be representing your brand with a few short sentences and contact information. Consumers shouldn’t have to stand there and read paragraph after paragraph; it is an information overload and effects the visual presentation as well. Keeping it simples with a few key points, possibly even being divided into small sections.

Consistency

Consistency is key. the layout of your banner needs to keep consistency for aesthetic purposes and also to keep it interesting enough that people will stop and read it. Using the same colour patterns, fonts, and grid layout is a fantastic way to ensure consumers will pick up on important elements and grasp the concept of what your business is about.