I deliberately wrote about tips to design banners and billboards after one of my blog readers wrote to me and asked me to write some ad design tips and such. Actually the first time we need to understand in making an advertising design are: the right visual communication. Not only the best design or just something interesting, but rather to match the target audience of consumers, it must attract attention, creative (originality), fresh ideas, unique and marketable.
Designing the Banners, Billboard Ads & Posters: Tips
1.Use a large font that matches the headline or title. You can see examples of these fonts here. And for the main design concept please read here. Even billboards have resemblance to the poster design.
2. If the source bitmap image then it's better be large (300px/inch = good image quality with a large size as well), this is done so that the printing and scalability (size enlargement) is always in prime condition, aka quality, no blur or break even grainy.
3. If you work in Adobe Illustrator, it is better to export the result files to JPEG with 300 dpi resolution and original size (CMYK). The larger the canvas, then the resolution must be reduced by including the percentage of its size. Please note that the resolution and image quality will be directly proportional to the size of the file.
4. If you plan on printing using digital printing machine, make sure the file has been converted or exported to JPG files with CMYK color process, rather than RGB. Why should be in CMYK mode? The reason is that digital printing uses CMYK format which is actually better in terms of print.
5. When you do design, you have to work in CMYK mode, because it is a necessity if we are talking about printing. Re-read 'the difference between RGB and CMYK' to know the main reason in this matter.
6. If the size of the banner is too big eg 2m x 3m, 3m x 4m, 3m x 5m, 10m x 2m, 25m x 3m or other big sizes, you can use an alternative resolution of 96 or 100 dpi. But if your computer is a super computer with large capacity, you should still use 300px/ich at that size.
7. Don't work in real size canvas, use the comparison, ie the desired output size is 3 × 5 meters, then you can work on a canvas size of 1.5 x 2.5m with a resolution of 100dpi (in Photoshop). If your computer is working too slow, don't force it, of course the result will be different but still within reasonable limits.
8. Keep the memory size on the work sheet does not exceed the rate of 500MB (the amount of memory required when working on the design, usually can be seen at the bottom of the navigation toolbar, for example Doc: 100M: 50M). Well if it exceeds that amount then you should change your swap memory. I use swap memory / cache 4GB memory. Memory cache is already should be changed from the default, each software already includes this facility. If not then change the memory cache on its Operating System.
9. We recommend that you seek additional sources, or images source related to design especially when you have a picture with great resolution, but less quality. Don't force to use images which aren't optimal, because it greatly affects the yield and quality. As good as any design that you created, it will reduce the quality if the image is broken or blur.
10. Remember: Design area size to be printed should be made larger than the size to be printed. Usually marked with colored circles CMYK with a plus sign '+' at the time of printing. So make the design size exceeds the size of the mold.
11. Always check the final result of your design, check if there may be a broken image, blur, detail, and objects that are not necessary. It would be better when the final design files are available in a variety of cross file format software. Such as EPS, TIFF and JPEG; don't forget the raw files such as AI or PSD is also included if at any time there is a change .
Conclusion
Actually there are many more detailed tips for designing banners and billboards, the tips above are basic tips in designing bilboard (preprints). The basics of print design work that must be known is about the resolution, and pixel size, but in terms of non-technical, it's back again on the extent of the ability of the designer in creating.
