How To Buy Mesh Banners
Does your event or company need mesh banners? Tried flyers, business cards or hundreds of distributed papers with your logo and had no luck marketing your brand effectively? Have a new brand or a major sponsorship, headline show or featured speaker or singer and you need to market the brand? If any of these are true, then it is time to buy a mesh banners. And we can help you do it.
Which Mesh Weave Is Best?
The short:
- 70/30 vinyl mesh is perfect and most popular for indoor and outdoor
- 70/30 mesh is durable, lightweight and allows air/sound blowthrough
- The 30 percent holes are invisible to the naked eye
- 30/70 vinyl mesh is recommended only in very high wind conditions
For both indoor and outdoor events, 70/30 vinyl mesh is almost always your best option. 70/30 vinyl mesh means the banner is 70 percent material, and 30 percent air or holes. Therefore, the banner weight is reasonably light: for instance, a 15’x20′ 70/30 vinyl mesh weighs just 19.5 lbs. On the flip side, the 30 percent holes are mostly invisible, since your eye makes up the difference. From just 3 or 4 feet away, you’ll only see one clear, solid image print on the mesh banner.
What about very large format banners for music festival stages? Your number one concern when printing a 45′ HIGH x 15′ WIDE stage scrim, for instance, is the blowthrough, or acoustic transparency. 70/30 vinyl mesh is often called blowthrough mesh because the 30 percent holes will allow for air – and sound – to pass through without creating a billowing sail effect. This is why we print on 70/30 vinyl mesh for 95 percent of festival stage scrims and backdrops.
However, in high wind conditions, we carry a 30/70 vinyl mesh: 70 percent of the material on these mesh banners is holes, allowing for a maximum blowthrough. The obvious concern with this material is the print area. If only 30 percent of the mesh banner will be actual material, your eye will not make up the difference as well as it can on the 70 percent material mesh. The image can appear washed out or less vivid. We do not recommend 30/70 vinyl mesh unless your event will take place in very high conditions.
We carry a broad variety of substrates, including solid vinyls (13 Oz. 9 Oz. and more), dye sublimated poly poplin, eco friendly vinyl, and many others.
Finishings On Your Mesh Banners
The short:
- Reinforced hems, grommets, pole pockets are useful finishings
- Find out exactly how you will use the mesh banner before purchase
There are many factors that come into play when you’re ready to set up your mesh banners. What kind of stage are you dealing with? What types of rigging capabilities does this stage? Are you using the banners on poles, on a truss, or hanging them in a windy area?
The answers to these questions will determine if you need reinforced hems, grommets, pole pockets, wind slits and other types of finishings. For instance, we recommend 1″ reinforced hems for most outdoor stage banners, since they will be hung from large rigging and will need to remain sturdy in the wind. Grommets are handy or hooking cables through the mesh banner or stage backdrop, and pole pockets are useful for poles running across the tops and bottoms of the banner.
On the flip side, you may not need reinforced hems at all if you’re playing at only indoor shows. Let us know what kinds of events/uses you will have for your mesh banner, and we’ll be happy to help.
What Sizes Do You Need?
The short:
- Size the biggest factor in your budget for banners
- Check with event coordinators on sizes of stages and banner areas
Mesh banners are most similar to shoes: there’s never one standard size. Where you hang your mesh banner, the stage size, the application of the banners; all these factors and more will affect the size of the mesh banner, and your budget.
The number one budget factor is the size the stage backdrop, stage scrim or whatever kind of banner. So when considering your budget, make sure you have nailed down the exact sizes you’ll need. A banner too large will unnecessarily inflate your budget, while a banner too small won’t be noticeable to the audience or visitors. Check the stage manager, festival manager or other event coordinators to determine the size you’ll be needing for purchasing your banners.