How to Design Graduation Yard Signs and Banners
By Naomi Golbeck
It’s almost that time of year! It’s finally your grad’s turn to be anticipating the final days of class and imminent summer freedom (except for that part-time job). Decorate your yard with some yard graduation signs and banners!
Designing either product is super easy. In this little guide, we will go over what to include in your designs and more!
Let’s get started on saying, “congrats, grad”!
Chapter One: Picking a Yard Sign, Yard Banner (or both)
Chapter Two: What to Include in the Yard Design
Chapter Three: What to include in the Banner design
Chapter Four: Yard Sign Finishing Options
Chapter Five: Banner Finishing Options
Chapter One: Picking a Yard Sign, Yard Banner (or both)
You can choose to use both signs and banners. Yard signs outside, banners inside. Or you can simply place some directional yard signs around the neighborhood and county highways. It depends on your community (rural vs city) and also your budget.
Community
If you’re located on a typical city block, with bustling traffic and crowds of people, then a banner may draw more attention to your graduation gathering. Whereas, if you reside in a more suburban or rural location with large expansive yards and country highways, then it may work out better to use multiple yard signs for directional and informational purposes.
Cost
It’s just a fact that a couple of banners will cost more than a couple of yard signs. Though one yard sign probably won’t do much in the way of gaining foot traction to your graduation party, it’s a start! One colorful, great-looking banner may be well worth the cost depending on your decorating needs. So, we recommend determining your budget before designing and choosing your product(s).
Chapter Two: What to Include in the Yard Sign Design
The important things to include on your sign are the address, date of the event and perhaps your graduates last name. There are also some things to consider when designing the sign. You should keep in mind the surface area, amount of info to share and if you want to feature any photos.
Surface Area
Because yard signs have a smaller given surface area than banners, (usually 18” x 24”), the design should be more specific. Lawn signs are usually used for brief messaging and advertising — be it for a business or graduation party. They’re also used for directional purposes like pointing people to garage sales.
Information
Some suburban neighborhoods are literal labyrinths! So, it is important to clearly print the address of the party or event and a contact number in case people get lost. Back in my advertising sales days, I saw plenty of phonebook and online advertisements that failed to include basic contact information. Granted, I worked in the middle of WY and everyone knew everyone. Incomplete marketing however, left visitors (like me) wondering where restaurants, salons and other businesses were actually located. So, help out your guests by giving them the information they need to arrive on time and stay stress-free!
Chapter Three: What to include in the Banner design
Printed up to 8’ x 50’, graduation banners can give a ton more space to design and work with! Any of the five material options hold up well indoors and outdoors in the elements. They also show-off color photos quite beautifully. When designing a yard banner, you should also consider what info you’d like to display as well as design features like borders or graphics.
Information
Print CONGRATULATIONS!! Banners are used more as decorations or declaration of a special event rather than advertising the location, time and dates. Though you could also use them for that. Think of a graduation banner as a mobile display of everything spectacular about your awesome graduate. Include their name, school and maybe even some advice.
Design Elements
This is the fun part! Begin planning your design based on the school colors of the alma mater or the next school they’ll be attending. Either option works and will be greatly appreciated. Create a cool border or blocky sections of the colors. You can also decide to find some clipart of a mascot. Be sure to feature a senior photo with their best winning smile!
Chapter Four: Yard Sign Finishing Options
There are a few options you can use to get your yard signs up and functional in their seas of grass. Wire stakes are the most common way to display lawn signs. You can also have them grommeted in the four corners and hang them or put them on an easel.
Chapter Five: Banner Finishing Options
The standard finishing options for our banners are hems and grommets. You could also order your banner with pole pockets and use poles to display them. Our double-sided material options include standard 13-oz. Vinyl, 18-oz. Extra heavy duty matte vinyl. Mesh and fabric banners are only printed single -sided.
Hanging Your Banner
We strongly recommend that you hang your banner using ball bungees. We have actually conducted experiments hanging banners using different items. The only ones that consistently held up were the ball bungees. They’re easy to use, too! They have a 9” cord that you slip through each banner grommet and attach to a sturdy object.
Marketing Generalist
Naomi Golbeck is a content creator and marketing generalist at Banners.com. She has a diverse background in sales and customer service, but her real passion has always been writing. She is originally from Minneapolis, MN. and is a recent transplant to central MN. Naomi enjoys fishing, hiking and loves hockey.