- What it is
- A large printed banner suspended over a stand, an atrium or a hall — flat, double-sided, or built as a hanging cube, cylinder or rectangular frame carrying a printed skin on each face. It is read from a distance and from below, and that changes what may go on it: the bottom edge is closer to the eye than the top, everything is seen at an angle, and a message that only works head-on does not work at all.
- What it is printed on
Either a PVC banner material, hemmed and eyeletted, or a woven polyester skin sewn to a silicone bead or a pole pocket and tensioned onto a light aluminium frame. Fabric travels folded and hangs without the ripple a banner develops under its own weight; PVC is heavier, tougher and far more forgiving of being rigged badly. Venues commonly require flame-retardant material and will ask to see the material’s fire documentation before anything goes up, so that question belongs at the start. Neither material is a sheet the caliper table holds.
- How it feels
- Fabric hangs soft and dead, with no rattle, and takes no glare from a spotlight. PVC banner is heavier and slightly cold, and it creaks as it moves — which is why an under-tensioned one is audible from the floor of a quiet hall long before anybody looks up at it.
- What it suits
- Exhibition stands that have to be found from the far end of a hall, atrium and concourse takeovers, conference halls, and any venue where floor space is expensive and headroom is free. It does not suit a room with no rigging points, a false ceiling that carries no load, or a site where nobody has yet confirmed the drop height and the clearance beneath it.
- Lead time
- Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days. Installation, where it applies, is scheduled on top of that.
- The common mistake
- Designing the banner before asking the venue what it will allow. Rigging is the most heavily ruled part of any show: halls set who may work at height, what may be attached to the structure, the maximum load at a point, and a fixed slot in the build programme when rigging happens — usually before the stand goes up, and never once it has. A banner drawn to a size the hall will not hang is a banner that stays in its bag.
Print idea
Ceiling-rigged banners
A printed drop hung from the structure above rather than fixed to anything below it. The graphic is the simple part; the rigging rules, the load and the window to work in are the job.
Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
What ceiling-rigged banners is
A large printed banner suspended over a stand, an atrium or a hall — flat, double-sided, or built as a hanging cube, cylinder or rectangular frame carrying a printed skin on each face. It is read from a distance and from below, and that changes what may go on it: the bottom edge is closer to the eye than the top, everything is seen at an angle, and a message that only works head-on does not work at all.
Either a PVC banner material, hemmed and eyeletted, or a woven polyester skin sewn to a silicone bead or a pole pocket and tensioned onto a light aluminium frame. Fabric travels folded and hangs without the ripple a banner develops under its own weight; PVC is heavier, tougher and far more forgiving of being rigged badly. Venues commonly require flame-retardant material and will ask to see the material’s fire documentation before anything goes up, so that question belongs at the start. Neither material is a sheet the caliper table holds.
- The finished drop.
- The visible area.
- The sewn pole pocket. The pole goes through it and the artwork inside it disappears.
- The seam, where the drops join. Anything wider than the web is welded from two drops, and the weld is a line across the artwork.
The specification
Six fields, and the last one is the useful one.
The same six questions are answered for every entry in this section, in the same order, so two objects can be compared without reading two pages of prose. The mistake is stated last and stated plainly, because it is the one that costs a reprint and it is the reason this page is worth sending to a colleague.
Where this sits.
Every entry is indexed three ways, because a buyer arrives knowing the occasion, the object or the material and almost never all three.
- Application
- Material and effect
Also worth looking at
- Mesh bannersStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Tensioned fabric backdropStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Carpet graphicsStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- BannersThe specification, and how it is quoted
- BackdropsThe specification, and how it is quoted
- Every print idea, indexed three waysThe section index
- The materials libraryCaliper, weight and what each finish costs
Send the specification for this, and it comes back quoted.
Every job is quoted from its specification — stock, quantity, sides, finish, size and deadline.
- Quantity
- Stock — or the feel you want, if you do not know the stock
- Sides printed
- Finish
- Flat and finished size
- The deadline
Artwork is welcome but not required to start. Email sales@ezprint.com.sg if you would rather attach files.