http://www.exhibitsolutionsnm.net/banners2.htm

I see these a lot. They would fit in my spider flex bag and are very light. They'd make a good set dressing.

What do you think?

Looks great.

I use this company a lot: http://onlinesignshop.com/ Like their quality, product, price and service!

Leapinglizards - do have this sort of banner? Are they good?

These banners are quite common on the trade show circuit. If my client will allow, I have three that I place behind me when I perform trade shows. They a very durable and travel very easily. Any local print shop can make replacements.

I use these banners all the time. I use http://www.ahbanner.com I paid for printing and the housing for under 99.00

Ken

Thanks Ken...and the ship to Australia for $20!!!

Ken,

Thanks for the link. Are the banners fairly robust/strong? I'm definitely looking to get a few (at that price it's a bargain!), but just wanted to check with you first.

Many thanks in advance!
Mike

I use one of these in my other life when we go to meetings with booths. The banners are very strong. The hardware that they are in gets a little beat up after a few trips through the airport, but it still works. The bags to zip it all into are cheap and you end up having to replace them after a year or two on the road (they are tossed around hard by baggage handlers).

One thing that most people don't think about at first with these is that the graphics for the banners have to be unusually high resolution. Photos must be printed at a resolution of at least 100 dpi, and the banners are three feet wide by about six or more feet high. A photo taken with your digital camera will not be of sufficient resolution to look good. You will either have to shoot on film and send it out for a drum scan, or use a vector graphics program to produce something that is not based on a photo. I have seen folks use a bunch of small photos, but to me that defeats the purpose of the banner, which is to display a large graphic element.

Having said all that, these are nice units and we are happy with ours. I have seen people use three of them to set up a booth, which is a very nice solution compared to the alternatives.

Yours,

Paul

Yes they will hold up. I have tow of the them. I get one every year now they are so cheap. I think they get shipped from Hong Kong.

My contact is Winston at the company.

Ken

What do your signs look like, please post them, sounds interesting! what about cheap signs also in OZ?

I appreciate these links! Not only can you create custom stage/set design pieces, but they can be used with a regular portable backdrop to create side wings, etc.

Great thread here and thanks so much for everyone contributing their thoughts and links. Just a few things to remember when designing the artwork for these types of banners and some questions you will want to find out ahead of time to help you save money and aggravation.

- Ask what file formats they except. You will want to make sure you are setting up your artwork in an application they accept and can use.

- What resolution do they want the final artwork to be done at? This varies from place to place so it is best to simply ask up front. Some want 300 dpi (hi-resolution) while others prefer something around 150 DPI.

- Find out if they can except both Raster or vector based artwork or if they only take one format over another. Raster format is anything that is like a photo. Raster artwork works based upon how many dots per inch there is in the art. The greater the number of dots per inch, the greater the resolution or quality. Vector art is artwork that is done entirely by the computer and so it is based upon mathematics only. These are things like logo designs and flat artwork graphics. vector artwork is great for banners and such because you can increase the size of any vector artwork without ever losing any quality. So best bet is to ask the place which they can accept for you.

- You need to find out what size they want the final artwork at. Some will allow you to make it a smaller scale but a lot want you to design it at 100% to size. it is best to find out so that if you have to design smaller, you can keep the resolution in mind as you are creating the artwork.

- What file formats do they support. This means what suffix or extension do they except. You will need to know this so you know how to save your artwork. Some common file formats are (.jpg, .psd, .tif, .eps, .ai etc). Knowing ahead of time will help you to save your artwork correctly.

- You will want to ask what color format they except. Most will want you working in CMYK formats but some may allow you to select and use Spot or Pantone colors that they can match. It is best to ask so you set up your artwork correctly and will not see so much shift in color on the final piece.

- As silly as this sounds, you will also want to ask if they can accept MAC or PC based files. most these days can accept both but it is better safe then sorry.

I hope this helps some of you if you are planning on getting a banner made and want to do the artwork yourself. if anyone has any questions on any of this, or if I can go into more detail, please just let me know. It would be my pleasure to do so.

Kyle

My clients use these in trade shows all of the time. Sometimes, they will put my picture on them or some information about me. They look very nice and are very easy to put up and take down.

They do indeed work wonderfully to help brand you and get your message across to the public and prospects. They also pack down fairly flat and are easy to set up and travel with. Just keep in mind that when designing the banner, that you take distance into effect. By this I mean that your sign needs to be designed in such a way that people from a distance can see it, read it and get the message you are conveying long before they get closer to it.

Kyle

Not sure if I uploaded this right. but here is my current banner.
ken

Click here to view attached image.

Nice work Ken!

Ken,
Exactly what Banner do you use? Is it the (starts at) $99.00 version?

For aussies you may want to check out bannarama do a google search I forgot the adress but I think it's banarama.com or .com.au

good prices and local- it's where I get mine for my exhibitions. 2 meters tall 800cm wide (aussies know what that means)

The problems with going to exhibit companies are that they jack up the prices

I am want to use these banners to add to my shopping centre shows.

http://www.funnybones.com.au/IMAGE_00002.jpg

This photo was taken twenty minutes before a show. You can see that the top half of the stage is quite empty and the stage does not create enough promise of excitement to come. I thought that two small banners on either side might work as a prosemium(sp?) arch for the stage.

I DO NOT want them to look like giant advertisments as I feel this cheapens the show a great deal. Often, they can look like pop up adds on stage!