Graphic Design for Trade Show Displays – It’s the little things
Designing graphics for large Trade Show Displays can often be a daunting task for designers who normally deal with smaller canvases. As objects are scaled up to larger sizes, you tend to find small imperfections that were not obvious beforehand. Therefore, strict attention to detail is important when working with large layouts to ensure everything is perfect.
Designers who have never worked on large displays sometimes get caught up with resolution as a problem they can’t quite solve. When you work all day with 300ppi files and strict offset printing guidelines, switching to the world of large format can seem alien and confusing. And, many forget to view every object at 100% zoom to ensure the image quality is what they intend.
American Image Displays provides some helpful large format graphic design tips in our FAQ section that can guide you through these issues to ensure all files work as you intend. However, one item I would like to discuss today is that attention to detail.
Years ago when I started working in graphic design I found my vision was forever being stressed by viewing the computer screen all day. Even with proper lighting, monitor adjustments, and special eye-wear, my eyes would become strained over time. Therefore, I came to a simple solution that would ease the strain a little. That is, I changed the desktop color settings on my computer so all software applications displayed a light gray background rather than a white background. It’s a simple procedure that can be performed on most operating systems and is a huge help. But as an added bonus, the simple color change provided me with a window to imperfections with graphic design.
Specifically, the color change exposed many web sites online that were not coded properly from a visual design standpoint. As most computers come with desktop application background color settings set to white by default, you probably have not noticed this. But changing the background to gray allows you to view web sites online that have not had a background color hard coded into their programming. What you see instead is a number of images that are meant to be on a white background, whether hard edged or feathered off to white, that just end abruptly next to gray. Needless to say, the sites do not look as they were intended and appear unprofessional. Certainly the navigation of such sites isn’t harmed by this simple mistake, but the visual impact leaves a lasting impression on me every single time. And you would be surprised by how many of these sites are large, corporate mainstays on the web.
Specifically, the color change exposed that many web sites online were not coded properly from a visual design standpoint. As most computers come with desktop application background color settings set to white by default, you probably have not noticed this. But changing the background to gray allows you to view web sites online that have not had a background color hard coded into their programming. What you see instead is a number of images that are meant to be on a white background, whether hard edged or feathered off to white, that just end abruptly next to gray. Needless to say, the sites do not look as they were intended and appear unprofessional. Certainly the navigation of such sites isn’t harmed by this simple mistake, but the visual impact leaves a lasting impression on me every single time. And you would be surprised by how many of these sites are large, corporate mainstays on the web.
10ft Displays with Great Resolution!
When looking for a graphic designer to work on your next Trade Show Display graphic, be sure to stress the importance of detail. Even the smallest mistakes can become huge, glaring sore spots when enlarged to such big graphics. Designers must be vigilant when reviewing the designs to be sure everything has been taken into account. A missed bit of code on a web page changes the entire appearance for some, just as a missed error in a photo, or a resolution mistake on a file enlarged to 10ft, can lead to a graphic that has an undesirable appearance.