Tips to Make Great Custom Decals
Effective branding can make or break a business, and decals can play a major part in these efforts. Businesses can use custom wall decals, window decals, promotional decals, and other related products to decorate their premises and promote their brand.
It’s not easy coming up with a design that looks good and represents your company the way you want it to. If you’re struggling to decide, our ten tips can help you narrow down your options and create an effective and memorable design.
10 Tips for Making Custom Decal Designs
Consider Size and Shape
Before you start thinking about any other aspects of its design, decide on the shape and size of your decal. How big does it need to be to serve its purpose?
If you plan to put it on a wall, floor, window, or other specific location, measure the area to find out how much space you have to work with. If you’re making decals to give out to customers and leads, you don’t know where they might want to put them. Keeping the decals on the smaller side keeps costs low and opens up more possibilities for consumer use. Customers might place a small decal on water bottles, binders, laptops, and other personal items.
The shape of the decal is another important consideration. Do you want a basic rectangular decal, or would you rather get more creative with the item’s shape? Many brands even get decals that are custom cut to fit their logo. Think about what shapes might suit your brand best and go from there.
The Right Material
From window clings to matte or clear vinyl, there are many materials decals can be made from. Using the right one for your decal will make your design more effective.
Window clings are great for promotional decals because they are easy to apply and remove, allowing any recipient to enjoy them. Clear vinyl is good for situations when you need to be able to see through your decal. Very large window decals should be made from perforated vinyl, an innovative material that displays an image on one side and is easy to see through on the other. These decals are great for creating show-stopping window displays without limiting visibility for the people inside.
The Right Finish
Once you’ve decided on the perfect material for your decal, you’ll need to complement it with the right finish. There are many different finishes that can be applied to custom decals, including high-gloss, satin, frosted, and more.
Choose your decal’s finish based on its intended use. Decals meant to help with navigation or provide store information shouldn’t be so glossy that they become hard to see. On the other hand, custom wall decals are usually meant to be showy, so a high-gloss finish might be the perfect enhancement to make them really shine.
The Right Design
Now that most decal designs are done using computer software, it’s easy to experiment with your designs before committing to one. Try out a few different ideas and see what they look like before you submit your order request.
If you aren’t sure where to start, consider getting expert help with your design. Your graphic artist will be happy to show you a few rough outlines and help you refine those starting ideas into a final decal design.
Explore Shapes and Keep Stickiness in Mind
Most decals are shaped like simple squares or rectangles, but this is far from the only option. A professional printing shop can also make decals shaped like circles, triangles, hexagons, bubbles, and more. It may cost a little more to have your decals printed this way, but the investment is well worth it if it makes their message more effective.
You should also think about how sticky you want your decal to be. A decal that is too sticky will be a nightmare to remove, but one that doesn’t stick properly will only frustrate the people using it. Think about how often your decal is likely to be removed or replaced, and choose your stickiness accordingly.
Use Clear Text
If your decal is going to include text elements, they need to be easy to read. Choose large, simple fonts with little extra ornamentation. It’s okay to choose a quirky font if it suits your brand, but make sure it still gets your message across clearly. Putting the font in bold often helps with this, as does choosing high-contrast colour combinations like black and white.
Be sure to test your decal’s readability by stepping back and seeing how it really looks from a distance. If the text is even slightly confusing, make some changes and test it again. This is arguably the most important element of your design, so it’s worth taking the time to get it right.
Colour and Background
Every decal design needs an attention-grabbing colour scheme. The safest choice is to just use your brand colours, but sometimes an extra accent colour is just what you need to make the whole design pop.
Don’t forget about your font and background colours, too – these elements are the best places to experiment with colour. Try a few different colour combinations to see which you like best. You might be surprised to see how well certain colours work together to tell your brand’s story.
Testing
Decal design can be tricky, and you probably won’t come up with a winning design right away. Make sure you get the best final design possible by testing a few ideas before committing to a final product order. Experiment a bit with different colours, fonts, and graphics. Try some different shapes to see what feels right.
You can even print out some of your better designs on sample sheets to see what the result looks like. Sometimes a design that looks great on paper or on a computer screen doesn’t live up to that promise in the real world. This allows you to tweak the design before the final order is delivered to ensure you are fully satisfied with the final product.
Consider the Intended Audience
Thinking more deeply about your decal’s purpose can also help you refine its design. Who is your decal for? What message are you hoping to communicate to those people?
No matter what the answer to these questions is, try to get feedback from that audience before finalizing your design. Finding out what people really think of your design can be eye-opening and will help you find the right combination of elements to make the final product effective at achieving your goals.
Promote Your Brand
Decal prints stand out from most other types of corporate messaging. They feel more informal, and that gives you the freedom to communicate different things about your brand. Make your decal interesting and understandable to a wide audience. You should be able to show it to anyone on the street and have them understand something important about your company in the process.
Order Your Top-of-the-Line Custom Decals at Our Toronto Shop
Custom decals can make a big marketing impact for a relatively small investment. Make sure yours make a splash by ordering them from Sign & Graphics Manufaktur.
Our Toronto sign company is the best place to get custom wall decals in Canada, including 3D wallpaper printing and wall mural printing. In addition to decal printing, we also offer design services for customers who need them. Contact us at 905-670-0797 or request a quote online to get started on your custom decal project today.
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