Format for Animated Web Banners

If you’re reading this you have probably seen a web banner. Maybe there’s one on this screen at this very moment. Try hovering over it. Does it have a loop if it is left untouched? Depending if it is a good web banner it would have a; seamless loop, hover animation, and a call to action. There are six things to take into consideration in making an animated web banner: responsiveness, animation, file size, design unity, simplicity, and eye-catching.

Responsiveness

Having a fully functional responsive web banner is very significant because it allows the potential customer to at least look at the web banner. Perfect responsiveness creates a professional look with out bothering the potential customers.

Animation

Never ever put too much animation in a web banner or else it will annoy the viewer of the website and (1.) drive the viewer off the website and most important (2.) not want the viewer to click on the web banner out of suspicion it will cause a virus or possibly because the web banner is terrible. Less is more; even a slight animation is enough to attract the viewer’s eyes to the ad.

File Size

Careful now, file size is super important. I doubt anyone is willing to wait for an ad to load unless you’re the creator of the web banner. File size should always be kept to a minimum so it loads on to the web page easily and rapidly. One way to do this is to keep your frame rate to 24. However, if your web banner does not have many elements it would be acceptable to use 29 FPS (frames per second) which is supported by Google.

Design Unity

The design of your web banner must be similar to the website or landing page in order to prevent confusion to the potential customer. If the design of the web banner does not match the website, then you’re a bad designer! Sorry to break it to you, it’s not variety that you want, it is the repetition of elements with the product and designs of all platforms. If you’re still confused, look up the Joshua Tree of Design.

Simplicity

The final design should be simple and not overcrowded. Too much information can be overwhelming to the viewer and will make it harder to pick out the purpose of the ad and what it is exactly.

Eye-Catching

Try making a web banner that is clever. Thoroughly think about your web banner. Plan out what kind of animations you want to use. Create a storyboard to help visualize the web banner.

To learn more click here

Photo by Serge Kutuzov on Unsplash

PMS (not what you think)

It’s not that kind of PMS you silly goose! This is about different kinds of printing. In this case, PMS is the abbreviation for Pantone Matching System. :3

Spot Color

Spot colors are a printing a printing process that uses a special formula to mix colors using the Pantone Matching System. It is basically like when you mix red and blue paint together to create purple! However, the Pantone Matching System is much more complex and precise. Spot colors are printed in one single run, unlike process color.

Process Color

Process color uses percentages of CMYK inks to create whatever color someone would need. Process colors are useful for images like photographs. However, it is not as necessary for projects like text and logos that are only going to consist of only two colors. Most digital printing is done on CMYK at home.

More About Spot!

One advantage of spot colors is that they are far more consistent than Process Color because of the amounts of runs process color has to go through.

  Spot colors also have the ability to print in metallic colors which is a great advantage over process color. Humans have the instinct of looking towards any movement developed from survival skills. In this case, people would look at metallic text because of how it is reflecting the light around its environment. Therefore, it is more likely to be viewed first over some plain old black text.

  A con to using metallic ink is that it is very expensive. As shown on pantone.com, metallic ink guides can cost up to $160 USD. It is important to note that basically, every color guide is very expensive. From a professional perspective, it is almost necessary to use PMS on every final product being printed especially for commercial projects. If you think of it in terms of production, printing in spot color is not that expensive because it is being reused in for example business cards, brochures, flyers, posters, and other mass producing paper products. Another con to spot color is that there has to be a  special cartridge for the Pantone color to print. This would contribute to the part of expenses of using spot color.

To learn more about Spot Color click here

To learn more about Process Color click here

Photo by Matthew Hamilton on Unsplash