Decide what each banner needs to achieve

Charity events rarely have a large signage budget, which is exactly why every banner should earn its place. Before you choose a size, a colour or a printer, write down the single job each banner has to do. A banner at the entrance to a sponsored walk along Madeira Drive has a different task from one propped behind the cake stall in a church hall. The first needs to stop people, confirm they have arrived and point them towards registration. The second needs to explain what the money is for and how to donate.

Group your messages into three buckets: welcome (event name, cause, date), direction (where to go and what to do next) and gratitude (sponsors, volunteers, donors). Once that list exists, you can work out how many banners you genuinely need — usually fewer than you think, which frees up money for the cause itself.

Keep the wording short enough to read in three seconds

Most people will see your banner at walking pace, or glance at it from across a crowded green. Aim for a headline that can be absorbed in three seconds, then one supporting line. Anything else belongs on a leaflet, a poster or a QR code that takes people to your donation page.

• Headline: the event name and the cause — “Brighton Memory Walk — for families living with dementia”.
• Supporting line: date, time and venue, in that order.
• Call to action: “Register inside”, “Donate here”, “Follow the blue arrows”.
• Avoid: full sentences, charity registration numbers in 20mm text, and long lists of thank-yous crammed into the footer.

As a rough guide, letter height should be about 25mm for every 10 metres of viewing distance. If a banner is being read from 30 metres, your headline needs to be at least 75mm tall. Printers will happily set 10mm text that nobody over the age of 30 can read from the other side of a marquee.

Choose materials that survive the Brighton weather

Seafront events are wonderful and unforgiving. Wind funnels along the promenade, salt spray attacks cheap inks, and a banner that acts like a sail will either tear or take a gazebo with it.

• Standard PVC banner (around 510gsm): fine for indoor halls, marquees and short outdoor displays in sheltered gardens.
• Mesh banner: perforated material that lets wind through. Essential for anything fixed to railings or fencing on the seafront, along the pier approach or on exposed sports fields.
• Finishing: ask for welded hems and brass eyelets every 500mm, with reinforced corners. Pole pockets are useful if you are using a frame or a lamp post banner bracket.
• Fixing: cable ties, bungee cord and water-ballast bases work well. Never rely on rope alone in a coastal breeze, and always check whether you need permission from the council before attaching anything to public railings.

Make your thank-yous legible, not just present

Sponsors and volunteers deserve better than a logos-in-a-line strip that nobody can decipher. If a business has supported your event, give their logo enough space to be recognised from a few metres away — a minimum of 150mm across for a printed banner. Group logos neatly on a single line or a grid, align them to a consistent height, and leave breathing room around each one.

Consider a dedicated thank-you banner near the exit, where people naturally pause on their way home. Wording such as “Thank you to the 84 volunteers and 12 local businesses who made today possible” lands far better than a bare wall of logos, and it gives attendees a reason to read the names.

Signpost the event without clutter

Directions should live on small, cheap, repeatable signs rather than on your beautiful main banner. A single 3m x 1m banner cannot explain the route, the raffle, the toilets and the first-aid point at the same time.

• Use A2 or A1 correx boards for “Registration”, “Start”, “Refreshments”, “Toilets” and “First aid”, and place them at eye level.
• Keep directional signs in one colour that contrasts with your main branding, so they read as instructions rather than decoration.
• Repeat a sign at each decision point — the gate, the corner, the top of the stairs. One arrow at the entrance is rarely enough.
• Number your route if it is complicated: numbered arrows are easier to follow than paragraphs.

Colour, contrast and accessibility

Charity events welcome everyone, so design for the widest possible audience. Dark text on a light background — or the reverse — will always beat mid-tone colours that blur together at distance. Avoid placing text over photographs unless you add a solid or semi-transparent panel behind it, and steer clear of long passages in block capitals, which are harder to read for people with dyslexia.

Check your banner colours in daylight before signing off the proof. A deep burgundy that looks rich on screen can turn to mud in bright sunshine, and pale yellow text vanishes entirely against a white marquee. Ask for a printed proof or a material sample where possible, then take it outside and look at it from ten metres away. If you can read the headline without squinting, your attendees will too — and they will arrive, donate and leave feeling properly welcomed.