Banner making and drops

Construction considerations

What’s the purpose? Is it to be carried or held aloft in a march, held outside an office for a photo op, attached to the outside of a squat or hung from a factory roof? The use will influence the size/shape, material and construction method.

The main factors influencing size are whether it is to be carried or hung. If it is to be help in front of people during a march then you want it wide rather than tall, but not wider than the roads you’ll be going down. However, if it is to be carried aloft between poles then you can’t have it so wide.
Banners held by a group of protesters in front of a building should probably also not be too wide since it is difficult to take a good photo of small group of people holding a really wide banner. However, banners hung from buildings need to be large so that they can be read from a distance and more easily photographed. Often it is easier to hang large banners vertically rather than horizontally so bare that in mind. Vertical banners work best with minimalistic slogans.

You need a large space to make a large banner. Where will that be? Are there security issues to consider?

The factors influencing the material choice include the desired size -ie. you won’t be trying to make a really big banner from a bed sheet! Your available budget is also a significant influence when it comes to materials.

In terms of methods employed, this relates mostly to available materials but time is another important factor – if you need the banner quickly then you’ll not want to start cutting out fabric letters and sewing them on.

Slogan Considerations

What do you want to say? How does it fit in to your key messages, press release, flyers, etc. If you are considering more than about six words then you are probably writing a placard not a banner! Use both, the banner for the big eye catching generality and the placards for greater detail.

Less words/letters means less effort and time is required to produce the banner and also means each letter can be larger/bolder for any given size of banner.

Amusing or pun based slogans are good, assuming your audience will get the joke so probably best avoided if aiming at international coverage.

Using slogans which are not too event/target specific means you might get to use the banner again. For example, one saying ‘stop the arms trade’ might be preferable to one which says ‘Stop Arms Mart Expo 2010’.

Design/Fonts

High contrast colours are best – black on white works well, blue on green might not.

Coloured fabric make more ascetically pleasing banners.

Can the colour/font choices be meaningful? eg. borrowing the font/colour scheme from the corporate logo or brand of your target or parodying contemporary popular culture such as the X-factor.

Consider adding background effects such as black or red splatters indicating blood or oil if appropriate.

Methods

1. Freehand painting

This is old school style. The trick is to avoid the embarrassing situation of having the finally few letters being all squashed up in order to fit them all in. Count how many letters there are in your text (and don’t forget to count the spaces). Now, using a pencil or chalk, divide up the width of the banner so that all your letters will fit. Also draw horizontal lines to mark where the top and bottom of the letters should be. If you are doing more than one line of text then obviously you need to divide up the slogan and the banner to take that into account.

Character spacing isn’t uniform, for example, the letter ‘I’ uses less space than a ‘W’. It will look more professional if you account for these differences when sketching your letters in place.

You can either use spray paint or paint brushes. Spray paint tends not to look very good but you can knock out a banner really quickly. Spraying is much easier if your banner is hung rather than laid flat. When using a brush it’s good to have a couple of sizes, a fine one for doing the outlines carefully and larger ones for filling in. For really large banners you might find you can use a roller. It will look better if you pay attention to the edges, perhaps using a small brush for these. Feel free you use a different colour for the outlines or perhaps even do fake 3D or drop shadow.

2. Gaffer tape

Another use for the always versatile Gaffer Tape (duct tape). There a several ways you can use the tape to make a banner. The quickest and easiest is to simply create letters on your banner using the tape itself. The letters will look a bit blocky without curves but it should look fine. You can make thicker letters by doing double width. Alternatively you can paint over the gaffer letters (spray or brush) and then peel off the gaffer to reveal what is hopefully an artistic but legible outline font. You could also do the opposite, ie. create the outline using tape and then paint the inside before peeling off the tape. This method allows you to have larger thicker and more chunky font.

Whichever method you use, you should still first divide up the banner as described in the freehand method above.

3. Stencils

If you make lots of banners or need several the same then you might consider using stencils. This is very similar to the last two methods described using gaffer tape. You basically cut out stencils from card or lino etc for each character you need. You can do negative stencils or positive stencils, or a mixture of both.

You can use a computer and printer to get professional looking characters.

Stencils can be used with either spray paint, brush or roller.

Again, before you start painting anything, divide up the banner based on the number of letter required.

4. Fabric letters / stitch / glue

This is a bit posh and there is quite a bit of labour involved. Unlike most paint based methods, the design doesn’t really show through on the other side and you could even have a double sides slogan if you wanted.

As with the stencils, it is good to print out the character you want using a computer, having selected a good font. Cut the letters out (laying them out so that you get the most out of your fabric). Then lay the letters out on the banner, adjusting their spacing so that they look their best before either glueing them into place or pinning them down for stitching. A sewing machine is obviously desirable.

5. Projection, trace and paint

Needs computer and video projector

1. Create artwork on computer, ideally with something good for playing with fonts and layout but a word processor will do.
2. Fix banner material to the wall
3. Set up projector and adjust so image fills the banner.
4. Use a felt pen etc to trace the outline.
5. Take banner off the wall and lay on newspaper covered floor.
6. Water down acrylic paint 50:50 and paint inside outline.
7. Use finer detail brush for the edges.

Material choices:

Fabric

One of the cheapest ways to get material for smaller banners is to use a sheet or duvet cover purchased from a charity shop. You should be able to get one for £2 or £3 which will probably be cheaper than you can buy discounted remnant fabric off the roll.

With sheets, the proportions may not be optimum (especially if it’s a double) so you might want to cut the sheet in two and make two banners. If you have a duvet cover, you can open it out by cutting two seams to make it twice as long.

If you want something larger then you either have to saw multiple pieces together or use off the roll fabric. Rip stop nylon is a good choice (because it doesn’t rip) but depending on the intended use, you’ll probably save money by choosing your fabric on the basis of price.

For really large banners you might consider scaffold netting. This is the stuff hung from scaffolding around buildings to stop stuff falling down into the street. In the UK this is typically green in colour but red and black has also been seen. What’s nice about this stuff is that it lets the wind blow through it. Because it is netting, pretty much the only viable method of putting your design onto it is to saw (or glue) fabric letters onto it.

Another option which can be freely obtained are the PVC banners used for adverts, the kind you often see around retail parks and supermarket car parks etc. There may either have designs printed on them or have vinyl lettering stuck onto them. It’s possible to peel of the letters (perhaps rearranging them to create your own message). Generally you’ll want to use the backside for your own slogan. These banners are fairly heavy but they are much more weather resistant and come with reinforced holes all around for attaching ropes. They are ideal for putting on our own spaces for long term use.

Paint

If you are using paint then consider how long it will need to dry. Spray paint dries very quickly and is by far the obvious choice for a last minute banner. It also stinks so do the painting outside or in a well ventilated area. Be aware that the spray will pass through fabric like bed sheets.

Gloss paint takes ages and many people have regretted using it for their banner. However, it’s easy to obtain gloss paint for free which is why people end up using it. If you plan to use it then prepare your banner well in advance and do it somewhere where it will be possible to leave it undisturbed to dry. Apply as thinly as you can and be aware that it will dry even more slowly on PVC than on fabric.

Other paints which are often freely available are matt and satin emulsions but not so often in dark colours. Although they dry faster than gloss, they may not be water proof which could be an issue.

Acrylic paint is ideal but you’ll have to buy it. It need not cost masses, there are cheap brands if you buy in bulk. You should mix 50:50 with water as it is much easy to apply this way. It dries quickly but is not fully colourfast unless heated/ironed. This is good as it means that if you get it on your clothes etc you will probably be able to wash it off, even if you let it dry.

Seams

Having sewn seams can be very useful. For example, they would allow you to thread rope along top and bottom edges with which to string the banner up between lamp posts. Vertical seams are useful for threading poles into when the banner is going to be held aloft. You’ll really want to have a sewing machine for sewing seams.

Grommet holes

If you are re-using a commercial PVC banner then it will probably already have grommets fitted. If you want to fit your own you can buy a kit for doing this which includes the crimping tool and the eyelets. Don’t expect miracles, these grommets aren’t very strong. They can be improved by sewing round the round the eyelets.

DIY holes

If you have to make your own holes then reinforce them with plenty of gaffer tape or sew in some re-enforcement. For example, cut some isosceles triangles from some spare fabric and sew them front and back at the corners.

Corner lanyards

Here’s a handy trick for attaching rope to the corners of banners which doesn’t require holes:

Find a marble size stone (or a marble) and place it in the corner of the banner, a couple of inches from the edges. Now fold/wrap the fabric over the ‘stone’ and then tie string/rope around so that it tightens above the wrapped stone. This makes a strong mounting point but causes the corners to wrinkle so you need to have a reasonable amount of space between the corners and the writing otherwise the creasing may make it look crap.

Wind

A major consideration must be the effect of wind. If you are carrying a banner, especially on poles, then you need to think about a way to let the wind spill from the banner, otherwise you’ll find yourself carrying a sail! You can cut slits or holes, perhaps incorporating them into the overall design (eg. holes cut from the centre of letters like O, D, P B etc). If you haven’t used ripstop fabric then you will need to think about stopped the slits/holes from extending. Superglue is one quick and simply way to reduce the chance of fraying.

Hanging / weights

Two litre soda bottles filled with water make good corner weights. Hang them with strong string from the lower corners.

If you have a bottom seam, you can thread garden cane or something along the entire length which would stop the corners being blown up. If you don’t have seams you might wrap the bottom edge around a length of time baton (2″×1″) and then make liberal use of a staple gun to secure the fabric in place.

Fold or roll

Banners can be folded or rolled up. A rolled banner is convenient for banner drops, especially with vertical banners. Make sure you’ve thought about which end of the banner should come out first, and which end of the roll is top or bottom. Hanging a banner upside down or back to front it embarrassing but not unheard of.