Looking to design pull-up banners for your next event? We’ve got the best tips, tricks, and ideas to help any business make sure their pull-up banner really pulls in the crowds. Check out our 6 pull-up banner printing tips below! 

1. Logo: Always Top for Pull-up Banners

Keep it simple and keep it direct: the first thing that anyone who sees your pull-up banner should notice is your logo or the name of your business. Why? Because the top part of your pull-up banners is the natural place for people to view first.

With the first look, your business branding has to be embedded in any onlooker’s mind. This also means keep the top free from any sort of complex design or junk that might make the logo or name harder to see.

2. Design As You Would Read

Think of how you read a book. Do you start from the middle? The bottom? The right side? If you’re reading in English, then no — you start from the top and the left, and you go right and downwards.

This is a huge mistake that a lot of amateur designers make when creating promotional material: they design their poster or pull-up banner as if it’s a piece of art, meaning they think about it from the centre. But people naturally don’t look at a poster the same way you would look at a painting or a picture: we don’t start from the middle, we start from the top.

3. Don’t Go Cheap on Images

When planning for an event, there are a lot of things you have to prepare (and pay for), so you might be tempted to cut corners here and there. One common way to cut corners is by using free and low-resolution images that were taken from a google search.

Aside from legal issues, this can end up causing a disaster when printed on a pull-up banner. With cheap, low-quality and low-resolution images, you will end up with a banner filled with pixelated and stretched out images.

So buy the best images you can, and make sure they’re saved in CMYK rather than RGB. Not sure how to source appropriate stock imagery? Don’t worry, your local Kwik Kopy Centre can give you advice or source and purchase your imagery for you.

4. Make the Most of Colour

Speaking of colour, it’s time to start treating colour like your best friend. No matter what your business might be, what industry or audience you might serve, pull-up banners should almost always be colourful.

This is because the purpose of the pull-up banner is to pull potential customers into your store or booth, and you do that by appealing to them visually. So keep it bright, fun, and light-hearted enough so that they will want to find out more. 

5. Pick an Aesthetic and Go For It

It’s time to think about your aesthetic. What is your brand? Do you serve an older audience? Are your customers young and hip? Do you want to appeal to families and children? Think about these things, and the sooner you get your answers, the sooner you can figure out the top design aesthetic.

6. Don’t Stop At Pull-up Banners

You weren’t just going to print a pull-up banner and stop there, were you? The pull-up banner might be an amazing piece of promotional material at any event, but if you let it stand on its own, it will look like a tree in the middle of a desert.

So print an entire set of promo material around your booth to go with your pull-up banner. Every piece further emphasises the pull-up banner’s appeal, until you turn your tiny section of the event into an entire area truly dedicated to your brand. This includes table covers, promotional seating, flyers, pop up displays and more that share the same aesthetic and colour scheme as your pull-up banner.

Done? Analyse, Study, and Try Again

Like any kind of marketing, you never know how good it will be until you try. Don’t judge the effectiveness of a pull-up banner after a single event or pop up shop set up; if it didn’t help out as much as you would’ve hoped, maybe you can figure out what went wrong and fix it for next time. A few questions you could ask yourself include:

• How was the placing of the pull-up banner?
• Is the design as eye-catching as it could be?
• Did I pair the pull-up banner with other marketing materials?

With enough insight, you can start building your brand to the behemoth it deserves to be. And yes – starting from the humble but awesome pull-up banner is the perfect printed piece to start with.