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When you set up shop at a trade show, you’ll be going toe-to-toe with hundreds of businesses competing for the same thing as you: guests’ attention. Do you have a plan to stand out and get noticed?
One of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to help you with this issue is to set up trade show displays and design your banners so that it’s impossible for attendees to ignore your booth.
Unsure how to do this? This blog will help you by providing proactive and helpful trade show banner design tips.
Key Takeaways
- Trade show banners come in various sizes and styles. The one that is best for you depends on your environment, booth size, and goal.
- While thinking about how to design a trade show banner, consider your brand’s messaging and customers’ pain points.
- Our trade show banner design tips include using a proper structure, correct color contrast, and legibility. These might seem easy to overlook, but they are essential for optimal messaging.
Things to Consider for Effective Trade Show Banner Design
It might seem like a throw-away thought, but there are, in fact, some key ingredients to add to your banner design recipe. Before you learn how to best design a trade show banner, you should prepare by having these considerations at the forefront of your strategy.
Think of the Trade Show Environment
Trade shows are often large, loud, and confusing. It’s easy for folks in attendance to get a visual overload and develop a short attention span. Vendors might be placed in small and cramped areas, meaning they’ll have to think about booth size constraints and banner placement.
Space is also important, as some trade shows are indoors or outdoors. All of these factors will affect your overall success. It’s up to you to adapt and ensure that, regardless of these issues, you can still get people to visit you and learn about your product.
If you know you’ll be in a small space, you can still optimize your brand presence with items like counter cards, tabletop banners, and table tents. If you have more room, then you’ll have the freedom to choose large displays such as curved pop-up displays, SEG displays, or step and repeat banners.
Choose the Right Type of Banner
The wide variety of banners might seem overwhelming at first. But it’s easy once you know how much space you’ll be occupying at your tradeshow and your marketing budget.
Retractable banners are some of the most popular choices due to their lightweight, portable nature. If you only have a table, then a tabletop banner can solve this problem for you. If you have a lot of space, consider filling it up with hanging or backdrop banners.
Define Your Banner’s Goal
Once you’ve figured out what kind of banner you want, you need to remember an important rule: each banner should serve a single purpose. You don’t want to jam-pack your banner with information and confuse your readers with mixed messages.
Instead, focus on one thing. Your banner can be used to capture a lead or highlight a new product. You can also convey brand awareness or announce a special offer.
Trade Show Banner Design Tips to Get Eye-Catching Displays
Here are eight ways to design your banner for optimal use. Implementing these tips will make your banner stick out and serve you at future trade shows.
Structure Layout and Visual Hierarchy
Think about how you process information. When you read, your brain goes from left to right and top to bottom. White space helps you scan for the most important information, and a text’s spacing, size, and alignment help guide you along the way. Apply these exact elements to your banner.
It’s also best practice to organize your content in this order: headline, imagery, text, and a call to action.
Choose Color, Contrast, and Branding With Intention
Structure isn’t the only thing that improves readability. Color and contrast can make or break your banner’s goal. That’s why it’s crucial to incorporate high-contrast color combinations and minimal backgrounds to avoid information overload.
It’s also important to remember that while you’re designing a trade show banner, you need to keep branding consistent. Use your brand’s established colors to avoid confusing your customers.
Select Legible Typography
It’s clear how color contrast impacts your banner, but so does your typography. If your typography is illegible, then your message will be null and void. To ensure this doesn’t happen, you should print with an appropriate font size and type that fits well within your banner and is easily visible from a distance.
Because it’s so easy to read, sans serif is a popular font that banner designers use. They also don’t go overboard with the font styles and limit them to two.
Use Images and Graphics Effectively
Since icons and illustrations can quickly communicate ideas and emotions, you have a lot more freedom compared to text and structure. Since you want to choose between a photo that highlights one of your products or a lifestyle image, think back to your banner goal. The banner’s purpose will be the deciding factor in your choice of photo.
Here’s another tip: don’t use generic stock photos. This can weaken your brand’s credibility because you’ll be perceived as lazy, impersonal, and inauthentic.
Write Catchy Headlines
Including a captivating banner headline can reel guests in just as much as your image, text, or color palette. A headline can pique interest, inform, and generate buzz. A few good ways to write a memorable headline are to incorporate adjectives, nouns, numbers, and pain points. For example, “5 Fun Ways Square Signs Can Transform Your Bland Banners.”
Include a Strong CTA
Your banner should be more than an attention grabber. It should be a path for potential clients to begin their buyer journey with you. Including a call to action all but seals the deal.
If you include a QR code in your banner, you can lead curious individuals to a landing page, homepage, or product page. Or, you can include your social media channels to encourage them to follow and engage with you after your introductions.
Keep Banner Design Consistent With the Rest of the Booth
Your booth design should be cohesive, just like your brand. That means displaying the same colors, shapes, and messages that also emanate from the banner. Your banner’s design should be an extension of your booth, or vice versa.
Design Banners That Communicate Your Brand
A useful trade show banner should successfully engage with guests and communicate your brand’s message. The best ones have a solid layout, proper color contrast, legible fonts, good imagery, a strong CTA, and remain consistent with the rest of the booth.
Should you come across any design issues, contact our design team, and they’ll be more than happy to help you out. Happy designing!
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