Here at Brightsea, we offer a range of banners from long, roadside vinyl banners to excellent exhibition roll up banners. To help pull back the curtain on our process and uncover some of the mystery of the print industry, we’ll be exploring how these are made in this article. Make sure you stay tuned to the blog for other useful and insightful articles on design, printing and the industry as a whole.
Design
As the name suggests, this part of the process dictates how the banner will look and the style that will suit it best. For exhibition banners, there are set sizes and restrictions in place that limit the amount of creative space you have to work with; so if you’re designing your own artwork, take these considerations into account. For roadside banners, you have a bit more flexibility as these can be printed either as horizontal or vertical designs (horizontal being the most common). Size is also less restricted, and you will be able to have more control over the size of the final product.
Similarly to designing a standout poster, you’ll want to make sure your banner is eye-catching. Whether it’s educational, advertorial or otherwise, you’ll want to make sure that people take notice. The design will be wholly responsible for this, so make sure your design uses strong colour combinations, easy to read and eye-catching font; while conforming to any brand guidelines you may have. If you would rather pass this job over to a professional team, get in touch with our design agency in Exeter who will work with you to build a professional and standout design.
Make sure that you incorporate the necessary trims and bleeds when putting your artwork together as this will ensure enough space is left around the finished design. This will allow our team to trim your banner to size and leave a crisp, clean edge on the design. Get in touch with our design team if you are unsure of the measurements required for the trims and bleeds.
Printing
There are various different types of banner material, typically used depending on the style and purpose of the project. Poly, mesh and vinyl are all popular choices for banners, with vinyl perhaps being the most commonly found. It is a hard wearing material that will withstand substantial wear and tear and can be used both indoors and outdoors. Poly is typically used for a cheap, one or two-time solution while mesh is also a reasonable option; suitable for outside use but typically lighter and less durable. There is also an option to print on fabric; this is a different style of printing as the ink goes through the material to create the colour, rather than just sitting on top.
Unless printing on fabric, the process will typically include printing in top of the material, leaving a very thin layer of ink stuck to the surface of the banner. Although this is also how our Litho printing works, the thickness and size of the material mean a different type of printing machine is required. Typically, a roll-on printer is used to create banners. This system works by using a very thin roller to print the banner one line at a time. The roller moves up and down the banner from left to right to create the image, while the material slowly feeds through the printer.
Finishing Touches
Once the banner has finished printing, it’s time to finalise the product with finishing touches. Typically, the design will have been printed with the trim lines, giving us a guide of where to cut the design down to. The excess will then be trimmed and, depending on the style, a small portion of each side will be folded over and stuck down, either with glue, tape or stitched thread. This process is called Hemming. Roadside banners can be fitted with eyelets or pole pockets for being displayed. For roll up banners, these will be fitted to the stand and tested to ensure the legs and tension system work suitably. There are many different options of banner unit available according to your budget or requirements. We can supply budget roller banners up to full modular display units for exhibitions and conferences. Our creative team can design all manner of applications.
This concludes our guide on how we design and print banners here at Brightsea. If you are looking to get your hands on either a roadside banner or a pull-up banner, why not get in touch with our Devon printing team? Or, you can check out our blog for more handy articles on print and design!