They’re inspiring, they’re bold—championship banners are an integral part of facility decor for sports teams everywhere. Not only do they catch and hold attention, but they’re also movable and strong, making them usable in multiple contexts and spaces year after year.

All that being said, there’s an art to getting your banners right; in other words, there are things you should prioritize, things you should consider, and things you should stay away from at all costs. Below, Fieldwallpads.com, your Clarion providers of everything from branded gym pads to championship banners, discusses how to design a product that you’ll cherish this season and beyond.

Stick to Just the Important Stuff

The purpose of a banner is as such: to inspire, hype up, and decorate. Nowhere in that purpose does it inform beyond a surface-level standpoint, Think of banners like the on-foot equivalent of highway billboards. You don’t stop to read the fine print, and you don’t stop to really consider them from a comprehensive aesthetic standpoint like you would a work of art.

The message on your banner, therefore, must be short, snappy, and to-the-point. What event are you commemorating? For what team or whom? When? Though you might be able to fit a bit more than that on there, these sole three pieces of information (if applicable) should be at the forefront of the banner design.

Prioritize High-Contrast Colors

Banners, though sometimes hung at eye-level, often are stationed above the ground, or at least far away from where people walk—think hung from gym ceilings or on walls. Because of this, you need to make sure that text is readable from a distance, and the best way to do this is by making sure font colors and their background are significantly different from one another. Just make sure it’s pleasing to look at and not garish!

Brush up on Graphic Design Basics

There’s a reason entire college degrees exist on this stuff! While it might be unreasonable to expect you to become a pro in graphic design concepts, learning a bit about the basics—like color theory—can prove immensely helpful, both for this banner and further athletic padding and wall decal projects.

Check out this article from Rasmussen College on a few basic concepts for a good starting point.

Fieldwallpads.com: Custom Sports Padding, Banners, and More

Once you’ve got the design down, then it’s time to print—and we’re just the five-star company for the job. Reach our Clarion office today at 800-257-6405.