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The Basics of Good Banner Design:

Check out our banner design service.
Introduction
Some of the best, and most effective banners are usually simple and very direct. The point is delivered quickly and without a lot of glitz and glamour. You don't want to leave a lot to the viewer's imagination, as that just takes up too much of their valuable time.

You only have a couple seconds to grab the attention, and get the message home. Most of the time you will want your particular banner ad to stand out from the rest of the page its displayed on, but with the exchange, your banner is displayed on a wide variety of pages, so a more globally effective design is required. Not an easy task!

So knowing this you will want to create a banner that can hold its own and stand out on any page. Of course we don't want to go over board, and offend the site owners either!

Using Animation
Animating is often an effective way of getting a message across, and catching the attention of a viewer. Just remember that myfitbanner.com only allows up to 13k for their banners so you will have to be fairly strict about how many frames and colors are going to be used in the banner.


Time of the Animation
3-5 seconds max. Anything longer than that and you loose the interest of the viewer, and anything shorter is generally to quick to get the message across clearly. Find a good balance.


Text-Type
Text on the banner must be readable, and stand out against whatever background you have. It should also be short and concise. Test, it. If it takes longer than 2 seconds to read…its too long. You can break the text up into a multiple frame banner to solve this or edit the copy to make it more focused.

As far as readability just remember that Serif fonts (fonts with hooks and slabs attached to the letter forms) are harder to read at smaller type sizes. Sans-Serif fonts (Those without the hooks and slabs) are better for smaller text. This is only a guideline not a rule however.

Sample Serif font: Times New Roman
Sample Sans Serif font: Helvetica

Conclusion
So keeping all this in mind, if you design a banner with your audience and the message in mind (being most important) and keep it simple, you will already have a good start on your banner!

 
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