Little League Banners with a before and after.

[SignManiac]

Last year I was asked to design the outfield fence banners for the local little league organization. I think we printed about thirty of them. They came back this year again for the new ones. They hand me a sales sheet with some copy written on them or a business card to go by.

Well we all know that everything on a business card will not be visible from across the field and I explained this to them. So they agreed to let me do my thang...

Here's a batch I designed yesterday, all told about two hours start to finish. I go for maximum readability first and foremost. Keeping it most down to name and what they do. I try hard to omit phone numbers whenever possible.

Over the years I've seen them done by another company and they were hideous. There's no reason to make ugly signs.

I included one of their previous banners for a propane company and I simply tweaked the design to fix what was wrong with it. What's nice is we can print and finish all of these in a day. So I don't really mind doing these.

 

[signswi]

That's a lot of extra design time for a dozen banners. Big improvement, was there any profit left in it after the time spent on the front end?

 

[Jillbeans]

Bob can probably design each of these things in 15 minutes tops.
He probably gets a lot of enjoyment out of polishing all those turds, so it's worth it to him.
I like doing jobs like this too, when I can get them.
Usually the person whose name is on the banner calls later on wanting me to email the artwork.
Ha!
Love....Jill

 

[SignManiac]

That's a lot of extra design time for a dozen banners. Big improvement, was there any profit left in it after the time spent on the front end?

$1,500 worth of banners that take six hours to complete with design time. $250 in material cost. So I'm okay with that. And Jill is right, fifteen minutes is going slow for me.

 

[OldPaint]

i do these for little league every spring. mine are smaller on coro 32" x 48". i get 3 signs from a single coro sheet. i keep most of em simple, and if i do logos they pay more for em. i get em with so much text they want on the sign, i call them and explainit this way. take your business card across the room, sit it so you can see it then come back to your chair and tell me what it says)))))) that makes the point LESS IS MORE.
i do bout the same dollar value, but i dont get all of em the same time. between march-may i get a couple here and then a couple next week. then i do the same for football.

 

[tsgstl]

Why omit the phone #?
I see that a lot on this site. I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything I really want to know. It seems to me to create a extra step for the end all form of corresponding the most common way (at least for me) with the client. To me a ez way to talk directly with a customer outweighs "how good it looks"

On topic I also have done oodles of these. Nothing like the smell of a old banner if you have to peel off something. I actually kind of miss doing multi colored vinyl logos. There was a sense of accomplishment I just don't get from printing.

 

[Charlie J]

There's no reason to make ugly signs.

:U Rock:

 

[SignManiac]

A parent is at a little league game to watch their kid play baseball. They aren't sitting there reading all the banners and saying, holy schit, its the bottom of the ninth inning and I need to call an insurance company right this minute. The banners are there for one reason, branding. To let the parents know who is supporting their kids and to keep their "NAME" out in public view.

That is the only purpose of these banners. In this day and age, the only thing you need to know is name and what the business is, Google is magic. All you have to do is a Google search and you can find the business phone number in seconds. Keep it simple stupid is the rule. When viewing any banner or advertising from afar, less is more. Put the laundry list on a banner viewed from a hundred yards and I guarantee nobody will be able to read anything...

 

[tsgstl]

Thanks I almost feel stupid for even asking now because it makes so much sense. I have 18 years worth of oversized phone numbers out there haha
I always knew nobody was going to call that number that was why I always turned down trading out a banner of my own.

 

[OldPaint]

like maniac said...........its there for the SPONSORS....THEY WANT THEIR PHONE # on the sign..........plus it fills up the bottom of the sign))))))

 

[signswi]

$1,500 worth of banners that take six hours to complete with design time. $250 in material cost. So I'm okay with that. And Jill is right, fifteen minutes is going slow for me.

I agree 15 minutes would be long for us too, just asking . A lot of times little league and such will try to cut the absolute worst bare bones cost price, glad to see you still have good margins on that type of work. Printed at 4-pass there's enough profit left there to be happy with. Good improvements all around.