Retail Banner Printing
Partner with Hopkins Printing to create vibrant, high-impact retail banners that elevate your brand and capture attention. Our durable materials, precise color matching, and expert designs ensure your banners make a lasting impression in any retail space. Fill out the form to become a Hopkins Partner and transform your banner displays into powerful marketing tools.
What are Retail Banners Made of?
Just as banners are used for a manifold of reasons, their composition is similarly diverse. However, their most common materials are:
- Scrim Vinyl: The most common substrate for outdoor banners, scrim vinyl is polyethylene-based and reinforced with polyester cording, which helps banners withstand the throes of weather without ripping when faced with wind, rain, sleet or snow.
- Scrim-less Vinyl: Built to last, scrim-less vinyl is composed of a highly tensile material that is smooth and lays flat, preventing lettering from looking wrinkled, misshapen or disheveled. However, with the fabric scrims being removed, it is advised that these banners be used indoors.
- Polypropylene: Otherwise known as polypropylene, this lightweight material is a form of plastic that’s highly resistant to wetness and moisture, making it ideal for custom banners positioned inside or outside. Polypropylene is quite durable and used in a variety of applications aside from actual signage, such as flooring and banner stands.
- Polyethylene: The most widely used and disseminated plastic in the world, polyethylene is a thermoplastic polymer, whose durability makes it ideal for banners mounted for longer than a few weeks.
Things to Consider When Using Larger Banner Printing
When ordering, there are a few considerations that are unique to banners over any other signage product.
- Grommets: Grommets are used to reinforce any needed holes to hang your banner. They are made of brass or other metal and installed using a special punch press.
- Pole Pockets: Since the edges are sewn, banners have the unique advantage of being installed around poles or rope which can then hang or dangle.
- Artwork Bleed: Banners require more print bleed than other signage types because the sign is folded over and sewn. If the banner is double sided, be sure to consider what the backside will look like when the graphic is folded over and sewn and what that matching point will look like. Some designers choose to mirror the image within the bleed.
- Sew Pattern: There are several sewing patterns that can add additional reinforcement such as single stitch, double stitch, reinforced webbing, etc.
As durable and heavy-duty as banners may be, their resilience must be paired with a few best practices for messages to truly resonate. For example, it’s important to get an idea of where viewers will be positioned when they see banners, be it walking on sidewalks or while driving. The lettering must be big enough for them to see and comprehend after a quick glance and from the appropriate distance.
Large Vinyl Banner Printing Uses
Here are a few example instances of when banners might be used:
- Store Aisle Markers: Stores with a low cost, often changing, or wholesale pricing model may elect to use banners to elude that overhead and costs are stripped as much as possible to benefit the customer.
- Entryways using banner stands: Banners can be often seen installed on banner stands inside of stores, expos, or restaurants. There are several varieties of banner stands available, but they allow the user to have a large sign wherever they wish, along with the flexibility of rolling it up or moving it.
- Job openings: When businesses are hiring, banners positioned on storefronts, fences, and buildings help to get the word out.
- Charity announcements: When a charitable event is taking place – whether for the first time or an annual affair – banners let people know.
- Real estate listings: Is a condo or an apartment ready to be shown? Banners can inform property seekers about open houses taking place.
- Sporting events: Be it a regular season game, tournament or championship, banners are ideal ways to communicate with fans about when sporting events are occurring. They can also be used for recognition purposes, such as when a team wins or to express appreciation for a fine performance.
- Fairs and expositions: During annual festivals, trade shows, fairs and expos, banners let visitors know where food trucks, booths and kiosks are located, thereby generating customer volume. Many companies use banners to display the company name and logo on the backdrop at trade shows.
- Election campaigns: Whether running for office or urging community members to get out and vote, campaign banners can help get people to the polls and improve name recognition, one of the factors that influences voter choice.
- One-time events: From 10-year business anniversaries to “everything must go” liquidation sales, banners can inform the general public of proceedings that won’t happen ever again, creating a sense of urgency.
- Billboards: Did you know that the largest signs around are usually made of banners, sewn together or stuck using VHB tape?
Custom Retail Banners with Hopkins Printing
Regardless of your business or the occasion, Hopkins printing is your ideal partner for your banner job. Our competitive pricing and state-of-the-art digital printing capabilities are why customers come back to us again and again for all their printing needs. Find out what sets us apart by contacting Hopkins for your next banner project.