Feature Story

Banners! An Exhibit Staple

by Dr. Scott F. Grey

Imagine that you're looking for banners for exhibits. A cursory search through catalogs, the Web, and some exhibit industry trade magazines will take you amidst a sea of promotional materials, instant signs, badge holders and other plastic-based goods, as though they were all in one big category of trade show kitsch --and available at THE LOWEST PRICES ANYWHERE!

...Right and right!

• Basic and perhaps simple, doesn't have to mean cheap and cheap.
• They can be inexpensive and still have impact and quality.
• And why skimp on cost just because it's a banner?

The banner is not only an exhibit staple, it's potentially a highly effective means of communication that finds near perfection in its simplicity -- depending on the execution. And in poor execution it can cheapen both the message it's trying to convey and the organization it's trying to portray.

Think about it: A well-executed banner, arranged in an inviting and interesting way -- whether in a trade show exhibit, museum display, stage setting, retail environment, whatever -- can be -- ought to be -- an elegant, informative, attractive communication device that's part of a strategy. But it can also trumpet "CHEAP," no matter what the words on the banner say.
It all starts with the basics.

Since many banner projects are outsourced, exhibit builders bring two primary attributes to the table: creativity and added value.
Creativity may be as simple as knowing what's available and using it effectively.

For example, the stands on which banners might be displayed and the method used to attach them can make a statement -- even a silent one by their seeming absence.

Prezenta Products Group manufactures the MagicPak Banner Stand system. It uses a tension rod made from fiberglass-like material that's flexible, but which keeps the graphic tight. A company spokesman explained that metal at the top and bottom clasps onto the graphic with magnets for hold, with nothing extending past the edge of the graphic. A fine magnet down a seam allows the user to bump banner panels up side-by-side for a seamless appearance.

This kind of configuration can be used to create full back panels with three 2-3/4' banner panels forming a 10' backwall. It's lightweight and easy to put together. Installation, the company says, can be accomplished in about five minutes. Or, as one industry professional characterized such a structure, "It's so easy that it's probably best for exhibitors just to put it up, rather than hiring labor. It'd take less time and money [to do it themselves]."

In a continuing era of cost-consciousness (has it ever been not?), an inexpensive alternative that saves money not only in construction but also in installation and dismantle is the kind of value exhibit builders can add to a product.

Plus, because of its flexibility it can be used to hide certain portions of an exhibit space, such as where literature is stored or equipment that doesn't need to be seen by visitors is operating. Or a banner background can be used to highlight certain areas.
Testrite Instruments takes the idea of banner stands to new creative levels through a modular system of tubes, legs, connectors, bases, mounts and stands.

With a seemingly endless array of combinations, its aluminum components give the creative exhibit builder combinations of stand configurations that are a quarter the weight of steel, yet strong and rigid.

Some components are telescopic, allowing for compact packing and shipping -- and lower freight costs because of the weight savings and compact cubic compact. Yet others fold compactly, achieving the same advantages.

As with any modular system that has many choices, the Testrite catalog provides the opportunity for exhibit builders to create "custom modular" configurations. The value-adding capabilities of these kinds of product lines, along with the creative potential, are well-established in the exhibit field.

But since contemporary exhibit design isn't all about hiding the structure, Testrite offers a variety of finishes, including etched and clear anodized, bright dip gold and clear anodized, mill finish, black matte anodized, and black dip anodized. It can even provide PMS color matches to meet corporate identity requirements.

With spiral grinding the finish can provide extra gripping power when used with the company's clutch assembly and a top finish combined with spiral grinding can achieve the look of brushed stainless steel at a fraction of the cost.

A variety of mount options, from light in weight to heavy duty, tripod to tubular, the only limitation is the exhibit builder's creativity -- and the exhibitor's budget. But compared with typical custom construction or even modular components, the base price allows great creativity even with the most limited budgets.

Modularity in structures to support banners is a great thing. But it's not always the answer. Fabric Images has been a pioneer in creating custom metal structures for its banner projects. With its own in-house metal working facility, it can create a structure to hold any banner -- and that doesn't mean just a stereotypical horizontal sheet of vinyl.

The company has available five-color high resolution printing that produces up to 1,100 dots per inch on fabric. By using dye sublimation printing, this process provides a wider color spectrum available for reproducing graphics.

It also uses four-color dye sublimation for 300 to 400 dots per inch reproduction. Its transfer graphics capabilities, typically seen in economical solutions, uses lightweight fabric with adhesive backing which is machine cut and heat transferred to the backing fabric.
And it makes use of what the company calls a timeless classic: Applique graphics which are sewn into the fabric with zigzag pattern.

Although there is a price differential in each of these methods of producing the graphics, that shouldn't be the first consideration, industry professionals agree. They have noted that the right printing -- or sewing -- method for a banner is the one that achieves the client's objectives.

For close-up and detailed images, higher resolutions are essential. For more distant and less complex images, lower resolutions probably work.

Modularity and simplicity. Striking graphics or a subtle environment. They're the kind of considerations exhibit designers worry about -- and corporate marketing teams gnash their teeth in deciding on.

But banners aren't just about trade shows. And those considerations extend to every venue in which banners might be used. Creative solutions using banners may also be the means for exhibit builders to add value to their work for clients.

Banners, for example, have been used to create retail environments -- stores within stores -- for product lines, including Nike. Department stores nowadays are not so much general merchandise arenas as they are mini-stores for the featured product lines.
And in these kinds of image-conscious, close-up environments, the quality matters. That's where high-end graphics and better quality fabrics will convey the quality of the product being offered.

Sheer, textured, and layered fabrics consistent with product or corporate images can have a striking effect.
And banners, with their endless array of graphic possibilities and structural components, can be an ideal means of creating those stores-in-stores. It may not be a strategy corporate decision makers will automatically think of.

Banners are also commonly found in touring shows, such as plays and concerts to create a sense that a theater in Anytown is the Hometown of the show being presented. They adorn the lobby, perhaps the house doors, the wings of the stage.
Those kinds of atypical applications are where the exhibit builder's creativity comes into play.

It's all about communications. Banners are big and bold. Banners are appropriate and subtle. It doesn't matter as long as the right message gets across.

But think about this: the guy who makes all the banners hanging in front of pizza delivery stores, the guy who promises two-hour turn-around, the guy who has a banner hanging in front of the print shop promising the lowest banner prices in town, that guy is probably not the one an exhibit builder wants to turn to.

Conceive it right. Execute it right. The results will be right. eb