1. Creating Your Identity, With a Logo A business identity often starts with logo design. A logo may be a symbol or graphic that presents and image without words or it may be the name of a company presented in a special type font or presented in a distinctive manner. Often it is a combination of a graphic image and type. Consider how you wish to be thought of by your customers and prospects. What words and images come to mind when you consider your business objectives and how you want to differentiate yourself from your competitors? 2. Designing a Powerful Printed Document Ask yourself the following questions as you prepare documents to promote your business to customers or communicate important information to others. 3. Graphics and Copy Placement What do you want to communicate? What does the tone and look need to be? Do you want to project bold and powerful or subtle and understated? 4. Photo's Will the piece go primarily to people who know about your business? Will it introduce your company to prospects? Are you trying to reach target groups? Knowing just who will be reading the material will help you create and communicate the message, look and tone you desire. 5. Art and Borders You may be doing your own graphic design using desktop publishing technologies. If you're not experienced in graphic design, here are some common sense tips. 6. Use Process Color for my printed piece? The standard flat sizes are 4.25x5.5 5 ½" x 8 ½", 8 ½" x 11" and 11" x 17". These sizes can be folded in. 7. Use Screens as a Means to Increasing Color Impact Use the same margins on all pages for a neat, clean and consistent appearance. Find a style that works for you and stay with it. 8. Proofing Imaginative use of type can enhance every printed piece. Styles, sizes and weights chosen should be based on the objective of the document and the look and tone you want to convey. Boldface type is often used for headlines to attract the reader's eye. Type for the body (sometimes called text) is usually a lighter and smaller face. The text should be set at least 10 point type for legibility. Do not use more than three styles of type on a page. 9. Print Quantities Photographs, illustrations, graphs, etc., attract attention and help convey messages that would require the proverbial “a picture is worth a thousand words." However, don't make your page to busy with too many graphics. Generous use of “white space" makes a page more appealing and readable. Copy and graphics should be considered in groups. Lay them out in an orderly way on the page. Don't run the type across the width of the page. It's best to break the page into smaller columns of type and intersperse photos and illustrations. When laying out facing pages, think of them as a single unit. Don't run text across one page to another facing page, but consider spreading the heading and art across both pages to create continuity. 10. Choose the Right Paper Printed photographs are composed of small dots. As a result, continuous tone photos are converted to a screened photo (halftone) so it can be reproduced. Dot pattern density or screen changes throughout a photo. The 65-line or 85-line screen, used by newspapers, has 65-or 85-lines of dots per inch. A 100- or 133-line screen is used for high quality full color printed pieces. 11. Bindery and Finishing Clip art is a quick way to create visual appeal with your printed peice. Border treatment can carry a color theme through a piece and provide continuity on the various panels of a brochure. A border of single or multiple lines with photographs keeps them from dangling in space and creates a professional feel. 12. Vinyl Banner Design Tips Vinyl banner design is about as easy as it gets for the non-professional graphic designer. Generally speaking, a vinyl banner is easy to design, and anybody with a little bit of graphic design experience can do it. Even if you have no experience, printing4pros.com can point you in the right direction, or even design your banner for a small charge. 13. Vinyl Banner Design - Some things to watch for when designing a vinyl banner Use software that handles CMYK full color output. There are at least three kinds of software you can use: Image editors like Photoshop, Photo Paint, or Photo Impact Page Layout programs like Quarkxpress, PageMaker, or InDesign Illustration programs like Illustrator or CorelDraw Generally speaking, programs that are designed for consumers or general office applications are not recommended: e.g., Word, WordPerfect, Publisher, Excel, etc. If you have a specific inquiry, don't hesitate to ask your vinyl banner supplier. A good source of information is the contact person at your supplier. 14. Vinyl Banner Design - The best designs contain two or three basic elements Usually, these will be a photograph, a large headline, and an "identifier" such as your company name, logo, or phone number. 15. Vinyl Banner Design - Use bright colors The most striking vinyl banners have lots of bright colors. 16. Vinyl Banner Design - Design your vinyl banner so it is readable for your target audience If it is going to be placed on a building or beside a road on a fence, or on an outfield fence at a baseball or soccer field, make sure your most important message is easy to read. 17. Vinyl Banner Design - Make sure your images have sufficient resolution For some advice on image resolution, see the faq page. 18. Vinyl Banner Design - Make sure your vinyl banner fits the area where you're going to mount it Don't guess the size. Most people who are not familiar with signage will UNDERESTIMATE the required size. 19. Vinyl Banner Design - Consider alternative methods of mounting your vinyl banner Grommets are the default method of mounting a banner on a wall or fence. But often "pole pockets" are simpler and more efficient. 20. More Vinyl Banner Design Tips - Introduction The first and most important thing to remember is keep it simple. Since the primary goal of a professional looking vinyl banner is to grab the viewer's attention and then communicate a message, the vinyl banner should be readable and visually attractive up close and at a far. 21. More Vinyl Banner Design Tips - Step 1 The first step towards a professional vinyl banner design idea is to know what you want to say. Don't start into a design without a clear destination in mind. Write a brief description of what the purpose of the banner will be and write down a few things that will help you to achieve the end result. 22. More Vinyl Banner Design Tips - Step 2 Keep your vinyl banner design simple and legible. We at printing4pros.com recommend you generate ideas for you designs by visiting events and small businesses, browsing magazines, online clip art libraries even searching the web for a key phrase description of what you want on your vinyl banner design. 23. More Vinyl Banner Design Tips - Step 3 In most cases, the farther away you can read your advertisement the better. Always ask yourself, "How far away will the banner be from the viewer?" For instance, if a for sale banner will be on the front of a business with a large parking lot between the storefront and the street, the letter height must be large enough to be viewed by drivers on the street. Also, keep in mind that a driver only has about 1 - 4 seconds to read a message while in motion. Good color selections are white with any dark vinyl color and yellow with black. The best way is to choose colors that sharply contrast each other so as to leap off the professional banner design. If you're set on using dark combinations, like red on black, consider outlining the edge of your letters in white. This allows for separation between the colors and will attract your audience's eye and give them a much better focal point. 24. More Vinyl Banner Design Tips - Step 4 Choose a shape that fits your vinyl banner design's intended purpose. If you are designing a banner with long rows of text, then opt for a long rectangular sign to accommodate your lettering. Do not attempt to squeeze it all in on a square banner. Doing so will force you to use smaller letters and will result in a lot of wasted space. The same rule applies if your intended custom banner design requires several short rows of text, one on top of the other. In this instance, opt for a sign shaped to fit your lettering. 25. More Vinyl Banner Design Tips - Conclusion One final piece of advice is to not get carried away with information overload. Remember the keep it simple. principal and give your audience only the details they need. Do not try to squeeze too much into your design, this will detract from your sign's effectiveness. 26. Graphics and Copy Placement What do you want to communicate? What should the tone and look be? Do you want to project bold and powerful, or subtle and understated? 27. Photos Who do you want to reach? Will the printed material go primarily to people who know about your business? Or do you need it to introduce your company to new prospects? Are you trying to reach target groups? Knowing just who will be reading the material will help you create and communicate your message with look and tone you desire. 28. Use Process Color for my printed piece$1 – Size of printed material The standard flat sizes are 4.25×5.5 5.5" x 8.5", 8.5" x 11" and 11" x 17". These sizes can be folded in to produce an array of sizes. 29. Proofing – Font Type Imaginative use of type can enhance every printed piece. The choice of font style and size, and weight should be based on the objective of the document; and the look and tone you want to convey. Boldface type is often used for headlines to attract the reader’s eye. Type for the body (sometimes called text) is usually a lighter and smaller face font. The text should be set at least 10 point type for legibility. Do not use more than three styles of font type on a page. 30. Print Quantities - Photos and Graphics Photographs, illustrations, graphs, etc., attract attention and help convey the proverbial message, "a picture is worth a thousand words." However, don't make your page to busy with too many graphics. A generous use of "white space" makes a page more appealing and readable. Copy and graphics should be considered in groups. Lay them out in an orderly way on the page. Don't run the type across the width of the page; it's best to break the page into smaller columns of type, and intersperse photos and illustrations. When laying out facing pages, think of them as a single unit. Don't run text across one page to another facing page, but consider spreading the heading and art across both pages to create continuity. 31. Choose the Right Paper- Photos Printed photographs are composed of small dots. As a result, continuous tone photos are converted to a screened photo (halftone) so it can be reproduced. Dot pattern density or screen changes throughout a photo. The 65-line or 85-line screen, used by newspapers, has 65-or 85-lines of dots per inch. A 100- or 133-line screen is used for high quality full color printed pieces. 32. Bindery and Finishing - CLIP ART AND BORDER TREATMENT Clip art is a quick way to create visual appeal with your printed piece. Border treatment can carry a color theme through a piece, and provide continuity on the various panels of a brochure. A border of single or multiple lines with photographs keeps them from dangling in space and creates a professional feel.