Street Pole Banner Material Selection
18 oz vinyl? 13 oz? blockout? Sunbrella? Mesh?! Choosing the right material for your street pole banner application can be challenging. Fear not! We’re here to help and provide un-biased information that will help you choose the right product for you.
Why is it important to pay attention to the street pole banner material substrate?
- The substrate has a major effect on the end looks of your lamp post banner
- The material you choose will determine the lifespan of your street pole banner
- The material dictates what type of printing and therefore the type of artwork you can print
Sunbrella/ Canvas Street Pole Banners
Sunbrella and Canvas street pole banners are very common throughout the United States. These lamp post banners are made of the same material as retail store awnings, patios umbrellas and other outdoor fabrics. Below is a list of pros and cons of using sunbrella as a street pole banner materials
Sunbrella street pole banners are great because
- They are the longest lasting type of street banners
- As long as the banner is screen printed using UV rated inks. Sunbrella screen printed street pole banners are the longest lasting product on the market. We see them lasting 5-10 years.
- They hold up to adverse weather conditions
- Again, as long as the sunbrella street pole banner is screen printed using UV rated inks; these are the strongest banners to resist fading and wind degradation.
Sunbrella street pole banners fall short on
- Design flexibility. Due to the fact that sunbrella street pole banners need to be screen printed, the number of colors used in a design is limited (generally less than 5) as well as the complexity of the design. Designs must employ flat colors and cannot have gradients or gradual color transition. What does this all translate to? Generally, sunbrella lamp post banners look dated and simple because the designs can only be a few colors and relatively simple.
- Cost effectiveness. Since sunbrella street pole banners must be screen printed, there must be a larger quantity of banners being produced to achieve economy of scale. If you’re looking for less than 20 banners of each design, sunbrella pole banners will not be a cost-effective solution. Generally, a production run of 30+ of each banner design needs to occur in order to realize the benefits from sunbrella street pole banner screen printing.
- No ability to change, alter or preview a production run. The nature of screen printing is that once the screens are set up and the ink is applied, a full production run needs to occur. What does this mean? There is no such thing a production sample that would be available to client to double check colors and design. With sunbrella screen printed street pole banners, you get what you get and there is no ability to alter a design once it’s been printed.
- The Double-sided Dilemma. Canvas and sunbrella street pole banner can either be printed as a single or double ply of material. If you are using a darker background color of sunbrella for your street pole banner, a single ply of material will generally be enough to prevent shadowing form one side to another, but it still may be better to do two plys. If you’re using a lighter color of sunbrella as the background of your street pole banner, you will need to use two plys of material and even so, there still may be visible shadowing of your graphic from once side to another.
Note: At the Street Pole Banner Co. we do not offer sunbrella street pole banner printing. Though it is something we have offered in the past, we have removed it from our process due to our progression toward more modern techniques and equipment.
Vinyl Street Pole Banners
You may hear terms like 13 oz vinyl banner, or 18 oz oz lamp post banners or blockout, mesh and scrim. What do all these mean and how do I ensure I’m getting what I need out of street pole banner material?
Let’s answer these questions (and more) one by one!
Generally speaking when looking for a street pole banner material; you should use a minimum 16 oz weighted vinyl. The “oz” refers to the weight per square yard. Generally speaking, the heavier the material, the stronger it will be against ripping.
Below you will see the general use for typical vinyl weights:
8 oz and 10 oz Vinyl Banner
Used in indoor applications, usually for retractable banners, X- frame banners and hanging from indoor walls or point of purchase displays
13 oz Vinyl Banner
This is the industry standard for outdoor application banner that is single sided. This type of banner is commonly used for anything from fence banners to banners against buildings or billboards. The one this to note about this material is that it is generally only used for single sided application and applications that are static (not moving). Be careful of companies wanted to use 13 oz vinyl for their street pole banner applications as they will often state that they “double ply” their banners (ie rather than printing on the same side of one 2’x5’ banner, they will print a length that is 2’x10’ and fold it over itself and sew the edges together to achieve the final 2’x5’ size). Though this sounds great (13 oz x 2 = 26 oz of material, right?), the end product generally looks sloppy and worst of all, the banner will show shadowing of the image from one side to the other. Avoid this at all costs!
16 oz, 18 oz and 21 oz Blockout Vinyl Banners
-These materials are made for the street pole banner application. They are heavy enough to withstand the winds and the pressures that are put onto the welded or sewn seams. Check to make sure the material is “blockout” and also has “scrim” properties.
Scrim is, for lack of better words, filaments (like threads) running horizontally and vertically inside of the vinyl. This mesh pattern on filaments provides strength to the structure of the vinyl banner ideal for street pole banner application as it resists vertical and horizontal ripping.
Be sure to ask your street pole banner supplier for a temperature range for which your vinyl street pole banners are guaranteed to perform and not degrade. If a vinyl banner is made for indoor applications, you will see it rip (no scrim) and crack (in cold weather) very quickly. There’s no shame in asking to see the technical data sheet for the vinyl that your street pole banners will be printed on. See the technical data sheet for our 18 oz vinyl blockout street pole banners below
Note: At the Street Pole Banner Company, we use 18 oz blockout vinyl pole banner as our “Standard” product. After thousands of street pole banners produced, we have found the right combination between cost effectiveness, strength, longevity and design flexibility. See the spec sheet below and the highlighted items that have been mentioned above
12.5oz and 14oz Mesh Blockout Vinyl Banners
This material is commonly used for street pole banners that require an element of “blow through”. The mesh properties of the banner allow for air to pass through the lamp post banner and thus reducing stress on the banner, bracket and lamp post. Naturally, this material is used when a street pole banner is going in a very windy location or if the banner is particularly large.
There is one main drawback from using the blockout mesh vinyl for your street pole banner project: vibrancy. Since the very nature of the mesh property is that there are void spaces in the material (in the material we use there is a 35% void space); the amount of surface area for ink to adhere to is less than non-mesh banners. This translates into a less vibrant looking banner especially when view against a bright sky or the sun behind it.
Note: At the Street Pole Banner Company, we produce street pole banners on a 12.5 oz mesh blockout vinyl as well. We normally only suggest this material when the pole banner is going in a notoriously windy place or if the lamp post banner is very large (over 6’ tall). See the spec sheet below and the highlighted items that have bene mentioned above.
