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Custom Banner Design Breakdown: Letter Size, Luminance, And More

At MetroCenter Signworks, custom banner design is limited only by your imagination. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore best practices. Today’s post highlights some of the keys to a great custom banner design in Nashville, TN.

Light Up Your Custom Banner Design With Brightly Colored Text

Luminance is often discussed in the context of optimizing digital signs and other illuminant media, but it’s also a critical consideration for effective banner design. Although your custom banner will not be internally illuminated, luminance plays a huge role in its visibility, especially at nighttime and when lit up by exterior rigs.

Clearly, green, yellow, and white are some of the strongest options. If you choose any of these colors for your banner text, make sure to follow the guidelines in Karen and James Claus’ Visual Community Through Signage to create an eye-catching contrast. Yellow-on-black, white-on-blue, and green-on-white were among the most readable color combinations uncovered by their research.

How To Use Vector Images For Custom Banner Design?

Since most custom banner designs are intended to be blown up into big images, opt for vector images whenever possible. Unlike JPEG and bitmap formats, vectors aren’t composed of individual pixels with fixed colors values and locations; instead, they’re plotted out via mathematical equations. These equations adjust to any size, which means vector images always come out sharp and crystal-clear. In contrast, bitmap images start to blur, giving your image jagged edges and destroying your banner’s legibility.

Another reason to choose vector images is that the file sizes tend to be smaller than bitmaps, which can come in handy and reduce storage/uploading problems when trying to order entire sign systems at once.

But don’t worry if you don’t have vector images—or if you’re not even entirely sure what that means! MetroCenter Signworks’ in-house team of design professionals is always standing by to help, whether you need to tweak your existing logo or scratch-build something never-before-seen.

Choose Letter Sizing That Suits Your Target Audience

According to the Arts & Science of Sign Design, bigger is often better when it comes to banner letter sizing.

For maximum legibility and comprehension both day and night, aim for at least 1 inch of letter height per 40 feet of viewing distance. Additionally, banner lettering should include strokes (i.e. measurements of the thickness of each letter) that are at minimum one-fifth the total letter height. Thus, for example, if you intend to use your custom banner design to target audiences passing your business 200 feet away, every letter should be at least 5 inches tall with 1-inch strokes.

Not Just For Banners

By the way, these tips don’t apply only to banners, they’re important for all your signage needs – window, door, and wall graphicslighted signstradeshow displays, etc.

Get A Free Quote On Custom Banner Designs In Nashville, TN

Call 615-649-5003 or request a consultation online to set up your 100% free quote today. We are proud to serve businesses of all types in Nashville and Middle Tennessee, as well as nationwide through our network of partners.