When it comes to signs and banners, we tend to take great efforts and details in creating an attractive design that suits our needs. With that being the case,why do we show negligence when to comes to taking care of them in maintaining the quality? After all reusing them saves us a lot of time, effort and of course money! You may have heard the 5S methodology for manufacturing but here let’s converge on 5S tips to make sure you can extend your banner life:

• Sanitize:Sanitize your banner using ammonia free (non-solvent) detergents and water. You could also use mild dishwasher soap. In case of exposing harsh chemicals the prints do come off at times or even distort the material of the banner.

• Soft cloth: Always use a soft cloth to clean the surface of the banner. Avoid using coarse cleaning pads for they highly damage the quality of prints. In fact even keeping the printed side of the banner facing down towards the ground while cleaning on a rough surface hurts the banner.

• Side:Strictly avoid folding the banners since they cause creases. A better solution would beto roll the banners and prevent permanent crinkles on them. Keeping the prints on the outer side, a good indicationisto wrap a sheet of butter-paper while rolling the banners. This way the color used during prints along the sides will not stick to the storage device. For minor wrinkles, you can put a soft cloth on the ground while facing the printed side down,run a semi-hot iron on the backside of the banner. Never overdo the heat since that can melt away the material, shrinking the banner size and permanently causingimpairments to the prints.

• Seal:It is ideal to seal the banner in a tube or cylinder of about 5-inch diameter or a little more.

• Store:While storing your banner keep it away from direct exposure to sunlight since that may affect the quality of prints and fade away with time.  A cool dry place works just fine.  

Many times banners can get damaged due to improper installation as well. Remember to make appropriate use of grommets, holes and pockets while they are being put up. These banners are often mistaken as permanent prints. Due to the varied adverse weather conditions in which outdoor banners are being exposed to, their state will eventually give up but with proper care their lives can surely beprolonged.

Our hope is these tips will come in handy to take care of your banners and increase their longevity, though in case of further questions or concerns contact us at  +1 800 580 4489

Been on a blind date before? No! Chillax, in a gist it’s just that you don’t really know what to expect from the other end. Simultaneously, if you decide beforehand whether you are interested in a long-term commitment or a mere fling, it helps you talk to the other person accordingly. Funny right? Well, tradeshows are no different. You decide on a vision to be able to make decisions based on them where would you be inclined towards generating leads for your company or say be there for market presence and networking.By this I mean, settling a clear aim as to what your expectations are from this tradeshow is important.

As a first timer, there are a lot of points that one needs to keep in mind while doing an exhibit. A few of these may come in handy:

• Based on your aim for the tradeshow, decide on the budget you would want to spend after the fair. You eventually don’t want to end up burning a hole in your pocket. 

• A well thought of budget and proper vision in mind will help you choose the right size of the booth and in some cases even the location. Many a times, early birds do even get an option to choose between a high traffic area setup. 

• Plan ahead of time and prepare a checklist. You would not want to miss on an opportunity and later repent on it. By planning I would say, be it all; your allotted area, tentative design, electrical points available, your neighboring stall owners, competitor stall locations, type of traffic expected pretty much everything. 

• Of course you want to attract potential customers or spread across a message in a single look for the passersby. So design your booth with this concept in mind. You could also go through the list of pre-registered participants that gives you an idea about the type of crowd expected. It’s almost like an elevator speech, where you have just a few seconds before they leave from your area. The key is to be concise and clear in what you do. 

• Product display should be such that the customer doesn’t need to dig through a lot of information to know what is the exhibit about. Clarity in thoughts will simplify your presentation.

• Avoid clutter. It is not necessary that you fill up all walls of your booth. Simple is always elegant. Instead look for different efficient means to convey your message better. Remember flooring is a part of your exhibit area where you could have appropriate signs put up; have directional stickers to your stall or decals or even signboards to your booth. Create curiosity for them to come see you.

• Give at least a day or enough time to yourself and the tradeshow organizers to put everything up together, as you would have wished. Since the entire exhibit is being put up at the same time and everyone wants a piece of the cake, it is better to be more organized and well prepared.

• What are your potential customers or the market taking with them when they come see you? Your image, correct! The way you present yourself, the way your talk, they way you attentively listen to what they have to say, all matters. So refine your people skills and make sure you have the best of your resources present there since it is a vital part of what brand image you create. Show them your passion, your enthusiasm about your product and people will show interest. 

• Believe me or not, the way you dress up is a part of your personality. Wear comfortable clothes that boosts up your confidence. You can choose to have your folks dress up in similar/same clothes to show team spirit.  

• It is sometimes ok to spend just a little extra but have your custom brand prints reusable. This way the more you participate, the lesser you may have to invest the following times. 

• Last but not the least just be confident and inviting. Never underestimate a visitor for any one of them could be your potential customer.  

Sure keeping these are just the basics of tradeshow participation. Don’t go over board with a lot of expense on your very initial attempt. The first couple times you participate at a fair, it would be like a learning curve. You would know from various experiences what worked and what didn’t. After all it is a gimmick and you learn from your mistakes, soon to master the art of captivating one’s attention!

At Bannerbuzz, we are a dedicated team who’d love to help you achieve success in tradeshows by designing your ideas. For more tips on tradeshow banners, signs, banner stands, roll up banners, directional yard signs or any other type of sign feel free to contact us at http://www.bannerbuzz.com

The tag line surely reminds us of our home teams in school, cheerleading, mascots, scouts and the numerous other sports being played with zest. A vital part of these teams was the spirit with which people would hoot for them. Breakaway banners can give that little extra edge to support your favorite sport or player. They can be used in several ways most popular being placed at the finish line for athletes and races. And yes with the commencement of yet another football NFL season how can we forget that the enthusiasm builds, when a team gets introduced by breaking the banner! Wouldn’t you get excited to see Peyton Manning tearing off the Denver Broncos breakaway banner and making a grand entrance? Don’t lie;for sure you’d love that!!

As compared to their paper counterparts, these banners are now made of silk-based cloth and are really light in weight.  That increases their portability and reusability. Simply roll them and gear up for yet another game. At bannerbuzz we tactfully break your graphic in the center and place tiny buttons at an overlapping edge for an easy break. The break is placed vertically and not horizontally. Being printed on a cloth the image does not pixelate giving premium clarity. Side pockets for poles, grommets and stitches can be added on request. Edges have flash cut. It can withstand extreme weather conditions. They come in various sizes with the restriction of 5ft or 60inches width and any length.

Breakaway banners can be offered on vinyl banners with an option to choose Velcro. Alternative could be to have it installed on the top and bottom; both sides or all four sides or we can send it along with the shipment. But a downside of using Velcro could be if the Velcro is too strong, it makes it difficult for the player or athlete to tear apart and if it is weak, the two halves can easily fall off. And of course because of the break in the graphic, these banners are printed on a single side only. Graphic selection is the next key step. One can simply choose from a variety of pre-made templates or make one graphic using our expressive tool. Make sure the banner is kept as simple as possible and not too wordy since they are built to promote the team or organization brand.

These are great for football, basketball, softball, wrestling and various types of races. Be it running, hurdles or derby.  Breakaway banners can surely bring out the fire from within for a team or player one supports building excitement!

To charge up your team tempo and more suggestions on banner design please visit us at http://www.bannerbuzz.com/

Often we tend to get confused when it comes to scaling the artwork during banner design. I am sure many of you might have faced issues due to improper picture resolution. There are times when you design a banner on your computer, it looks just fine, but as soon as you submit them for printing, the picture gets blurry or in other terms it pixelates.

Graphics could be either raster or vector. The raster graphics image is a dot matrix structure generally representing a rectangular grid of pixels. They are resolution dependent so they cannot scale after a certain resolution without affecting the picture quality. e.g. MS Paint. For CMYK 4 color process printing 150-300 pixels per inch works decently good. While on the other hand, vector graphics use geometric principles like a line, curve and shapes all of which are based on mathematical expressions to represent images in computer graphics. Line art is scalable to any size and never loses resolution; hence image will stay clean and crisp. They can be submitted at any size proportionate to the banner size ordered.They use controlled points and nodes each of which can be expressed in x and y mathematical co-ordinates. e.g. Illustrator. Yes, all more so for the 2D images.

For sure there are certain norms to be kept in mind whiledesigning the graphics to maintain certain high levels of resolutions. Mainly these three metrics matter:

• File type: Using vector software to develop images helps a great deal in keeping the file size restricted along with maintaining a very high picture quality. The images so created are vector graphic image. 

• File format: The format in which you submit a picture for printing matters say a lot about the picture as well. The most acceptable formats are EPS (Encapsulated Post Script), AI (Adobe Illustrator), PDF (Adobe PDF), PSD (Adobe Photoshop), JPG (High Resolution JPEG) and TIFF (High Resolution TIFF). 

• Resolution: If using raster graphic images, depending on the resolution, they get blurry as enlarged for e.g. PSD, JPG, and TIFF. The rule says: 

• 100% scale (full size output) at 100 dpi
• 50% scale at 200 dpi or higher
• 25% scale at 300 dpi or higher10% scale at
• 600-1200 dpi recommended 

Thumbnail sized jpg and gif.files are not at a high enough resolution to be used on large prints like banners.

The following tips may come in handy:

• No bleeds are necessary (unless ordering a banner stand that requires one).A page bleed is shown on the following image:

• To reduce costs, if possible, redesign to eliminate the bleed or reduce the page size enough to fit the work on a smaller sheet of paper.
• Set up size proportionate to the exact size banner you are ordering.
• To prevent any text or important images from falling on the hemline or interrupted by a grommet, you will want to keep them at least 2″ away from edge such that they are not on the trim edge. Of course any image past the trim line is cut off.
• While submitting any of the acceptable forms of image file, be sure to convert all text/fonts to outlines or curves. 

For more details on image scaling feel free to contact our expert designers who provide artwork services for no additional cost only at http://www.bannerbuzz.com/