[dc]I[/dc] made an important decision early 2016. No, not if I should see Star Wars: The Force Awakens for a third time or not.¹
I decided to invest in a vertical banner for my artist alley appearances. Such banners are very common with other artists at shows I’ve attended, and I thought it would be a good investment.
I did learn over the course of my first two years of attending shows how professional looking signage is always a good idea. We’re told you shouldn’t judge someone or something “by it’s cover,” but let’s face facts: people do this all the time.
Here’s my brand new retractable vertical artist alley banner. It’s over six and a half feet tall!
Cats for days.
I ordered mine through eSigns and the uploading and ordering process was super-easy (use their template file, it will save you a lot of headches). Thank you to artist buddies Jay Jacot and Jason Strutz for giving me tips with this project (Jay suggested eSigns, and Jason told me where to place important info, like my name²).
I decided to have the banner promote me, not Clattertron, although clattertron.com is listed under my name (as is danieljhogan.com). When I go to shows, I’m there as me, not necessarily as Clattertron. Plus, this makes the sign a bit more versatile.
The art is a page from my coloring book, and probably my favorite page. I wanted a simple look for the banner, just my name, URLs, and some eye-catching art. The cat page from my coloring book worked well, because it could fill the banner, and if the bottom is hidden by my table at shows (which it will be), there’s still enough interesting images visible. I decided on the cut-off look because it meant I could have a bigger image of the cats and fill as much as the “frame” as possible.
For the colors of the cats, I scanned the page Stephanie colored in her copy of my coloring book (the same one I use as a sample at shows). I opened the scanned page in Manga Studio, and used the eye-dropper tool to grab the colors.
Colors!
Coloring each of the cats was tedious, but I’m happy with the result. I am looking forward to seeing this baby behind my table at the MSU Comics Forum next month (Sat. Feb. 27—it’s free!).
The quality of the banner itself is great. The colors are bright and the images are sharp. Set-up is easy and takes a few seconds. While the banner seems stable enough on our carpet, I will bring a small weight or two to place on the banner’s feet at shows, just in case.
This means the look of my table for the upcoming convention season will change, but that’s OK. The banner speeds up my table set-up and tear down, and makes it look a bit nicer. The Clattertron banner I usually had attached to the front of my table cloth is going bye-bye at least, and I might do something different with my No Filter Fox “C’mere!” sign.
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¹ I saw it on Christmas Day (evening) and for a second time a few days later. I liked it a lot.
² Like keep all of the important stuff within the top two feet so it won’t be hidden by the table. I can stand in front of my banner and my name is still visible, which will be handy for photos.
