Winter is one of the busiest seasons for events, with Christmas markets, school fairs, carol concerts, pantomimes, charity runs and January trade shows all competing for attention, often in the same few weeks. If you're running a stall at any events this year, a well-made banner is one of the simplest ways to tell people where you are and why they should stop.
Sadly, winter also makes banners work harder. Days are shorter, the weather is unpredictable, and people move more quickly when it's cold.
Here's a quick guide on how to plan, design and display indoor and outdoor banners that do their job, whether your event is in a village hall or on a windswept high street.
Know your event before you order
Before choosing a size or material, be clear on three things:
- Where will it be seen? Inside a venue, outside on a fence or railing, or both? This decides the material.
- How far away will people be? A banner on a roadside barrier is read from a passing car. One beside a stall is read from a few steps away. Viewing distance decides the size and how much text you can fit.
- What is its job? Promoting a date in advance, guiding people to an entrance and branding a stand on the day are three different briefs. Trying to do all three on one banner usually means none of them works well.
Answering these first stops you paying for a banner that is too small to read or too fragile for where it ends up.
The right banner for the conditions
Outdoors, your banner has to survive rain, wind and cold, sometimes for weeks. Heavyweight PVC is the standard choice. As an example, YouLovePrint's outdoor banners use 500gsm banner-grade PVC printed with waterproof inks, built to resist water, UV and tearing. Cheaper, lighter banners can look fine on delivery but stretch, tear at the fixings or fade long before the season is over.
If your site is very exposed, such as open fencing or a high bridge railing, ask your printer whether a mesh banner is an option. Mesh lets wind pass through, which puts less strain on the fixings.
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Indoors, roller banners (also called pull-up banners) are the go-to. They stand on their own, set up in seconds and pack into a carry case, so they suit school halls, foyers, church hall fairs and exhibition stands. Most are designed for indoor use, so keep them back from doorways where cold gusts and rain blow in.
Designing for dark afternoons
In December the sun sets before 4pm across much of the UK, so outdoor banners often need to work in fading light or under streetlamps.
- Use strong contrast. Dark text on a light background, or the reverse. Pale-on-pale colour schemes that look elegant on screen disappear at dusk.
- Keep it short. Event name, date, time, place and one call to action. If people need more detail, add a QR code, but make it big enough to scan from where people will actually stand.
- Go bigger than you think. Text that looks huge on a laptop often looks modest on a fence. Before ordering, view your design at full size or step well back from a large screen.
- Think about light. If your event runs after dark, place banners where existing lighting falls on them, or plan your own.
Get the technical basics right too. Most printers ask for CMYK artwork at 300dpi with fonts embedded. Keep important content away from the edges: on YouLovePrint's outdoor banners, a 30mm quiet area allows for the hemming and eyelets, and on roller banners the bottom 150mm is mostly hidden by the stand's base.
Putting outdoor banners up in winter weather
- Fix at every eyelet, not just the corners. Banners with eyelets along the edges (YouLovePrint fits 12mm eyelets every 50cm) can be pulled taut with cable ties or bungee cords. A banner fixed only at the corners flaps, tears and is hard to read.
- Read the site and the forecast. Avoid gaps between buildings that funnel wind. If a storm is due, take banners down or check the fixings afterwards. Cable ties can turn brittle in the cold, so pack spares.
- Get permission first. On private land, ask the owner. On public land, railings or lampposts, check with your local council before putting anything up. Some temporary signs for local community events can be displayed without applying for consent, but limits on size and timing apply.
- Place them where people decide. Junctions, car park entrances and the walk from the bus stop catch people at the moment they choose where to go.
Making indoor banners stand out
Indoor events bring their own problems: busy halls, competing stalls and crowds blocking the view.
- Use banners to guide people. One at the entrance tells guests they are in the right place; another by your stand, stage or registration desk shows them where to go next.
- Put the key message up high. Once a room fills, the bottom half of a roller banner is hidden behind people and tables. Keep your headline and logo in the top half.
- Check venue rules. Many venues restrict what can be fixed to walls, so ask before bringing PVC banners, tape or hooks. A free-standing roller banner avoids the problem entirely.
Plan ahead and get more than one season out of it
- Order early. Printers and couriers get busy from November onwards. Allow time for proofing, printing and delivery, plus a buffer in case anything needs reprinting.
- Proof carefully. A wrong date on a banner is an expensive mistake. Use your printer's online proofing tool if there is one, and ask someone who has not seen the design to check names, dates, times and spellings.
- Design for reuse. If your event runs every year, consider leaving the year off the main banner and showing dates on a smaller, cheaper sign or sticker.
- Store it properly. Let a PVC banner dry fully before putting it away, then roll it rather than fold it to avoid creases. Roller banners should be retracted gently into their base and kept in their case.
Final thoughts
A banner is often the first thing people see of your event, and in winter it has to work in poor light, cold wind and wet weather. Choose a material that suits where it will hang, keep the message bold and simple, fix it securely and order in good time. Get those basics right and your banner will keep pulling people in long after the novelty of the season wears off.
