How to Design a Retractable Banner: 10 Best Practices
Retractable banners work well for places with limited horizontal space, such as walkways and hallway walls. They’re also popular at trade shows, exhibitions, and conferences where brands must catch people’s attention.
Although a retractable banner’s vertical orientation offers unique benefits, it also means it requires a different design approach. That’s why in some cases, what works great for a horizontal sign may not apply to this banner.
To help you create an effective and memorable promotional tool, we have listed the top 10 retractable banner design ideas.
1. Identify Your Target Audience and Main Objective
Before creating a compelling message, you need to identify your target audience and the main objective. Do you want to introduce a new product to the target buyers? Advertise a sales promotion? Or promote an ongoing local event?
It’s critical to use words, graphics, and images that resonate with your audience on a deeper level. Thus, consider doing some market research to know their demographics (e.g., age, gender, location, etc.) and psychographics (values, interests, and lifestyle).
Remember, your target audience and main goal will dictate your banner’s primary message.
2. Use Enough White Space
When designing retractable banners, you’ll never go wrong with the “less is more” approach in which you take advantage of the white space.
In a nutshell, white space is the space between text, images, graphics, and blocks. Think of it as a breathing room between elements, helping readers focus on the most critical information and enhancing the visual appeal of your design.
With the right use of white space, your banner design will not look overcrowded and disorganized. Also, evenly spaced words and margins are easy on the eyes.
3. Use Relevant, Professional-Looking Images
Use compelling, high-quality images in your banner design so people will perceive your brand as reliable, professional, and trustworthy.
But what constitutes a high-quality image?
Designers use PPI (or pixels per inch) to describe the display resolution of an image. It refers to the number of pixels contained within each inch of an image. The higher the PPI, the crispier it appears to the human eye.
They also use the term DPI (or dots per inch), which refers to the number of dots of ink on a printed image.
300 PPI is the go-to option for those needing promotional materials. Although this is a great resolution to print at, this is not a hard-and-fast rule.
In some cases, you may need a higher or lower resolution since the ideal PPI for printing boils down to two most important factors—the viewing distance and the design.
To give you an example, a trade show retractable banner is typically viewed from a 4-10 feet distance. As a result, you could go a bit lower (150 or 180 PPI) without having to worry about the images looking shoddy.
4. Choose Simple, Easy-to-Read Font
When it comes to the ideal fonts, what works great for digital prints or horizontally oriented signs may not always apply to retractable banners.
Fortunately, you’ll never go wrong with Sans Serif fonts such as Helvetica, Bebas, and Arial. As a general rule, choose fonts that are legible and thick enough for large format printing.
Additionally, use dark text on a light background to make the message pop.
If applicable, you can also take advantage of retractable banners’ long and vertical shape by using bold fonts and all-caps text.
No matter what font you use, avoid excessive texts and clutter.
5. Include a Call to Action
A retractable banner ad without a call to action is an open loop. Your target audience is unlikely to act (e.g., buy a product, visit your store, or register at an event) if there’s no message prompting them to take action.
Your CTAs should always include actional verbs and phrases, encouraging viewers to complete one task. It’s also nice to add a sense of urgency to make your message more impactful.
Examples of effective CTAs:
6. Consider Your Visual Brand Identity
When designing your retractable banners, always consider the elements of your visual brand identity, which includes the logo, color scheme, icons, and illustration style.
The goal is to make your retractable banner’s design consistent with your website, other promotional tools, and anything that represents your brand.
Consistent branding offers many benefits, including increased customer acquisition and loyalty, recognition, and trust.
7. Follow the KISS Principle
Since retractable banners have limited horizontal space, you need a message that is compact but is still impactful to catch people’s attention.
You’ll never go wrong if you follow the principle of KISS, which is an acronym for “keep it short and simple.” After all, you only have a few seconds to capture people’s attention.
A good rule of thumb is to use a headline that’s no more than 5-7 words and add a brief statement to support it.
8. Use Colors That Pop
Although you need to design your retractable banners in a way that they are consistent with branding details like the color scheme, it’s still advisable to use colors and color combinations that pop.
Here are some color combinations that can draw people’s attention, especially when applied to large format signs and banners.
9. Make Your Design Balanced and Easy on the Eyes
People will read and view your retractable banner from top to bottom and left to right. Consequently, avoid design that goes against this natural eye movement pattern.
These are some tips to help make your retractable banner achieve a balanced and “easy on the eye” design.
10. Use the Right Banner Template
The “right” banner template reflects your industry and theme. In this way, it can help you create content that looks visually appealing and consistent with your brand while avoiding lots of manual formatting.
Fortunately, NextDayFlyers offers free theme templates with bleed and margin, which can make the design process quicker and easier.
Whether you choose the 23.5” x 80", 33.5" x 80", or 47" x 80" retractable banner size, these templates can help you organize the information in a natural manner.
Conclusion
With an eye-catching and memorable retractable banner, it’s easier to stand out at trade shows, exhibitions, and other events.
If you need to print high-quality retractable banners with a quick printing turnaround, or you want to check out free banner templates, visit Nextdayflyers.com.