“Because designing a skyscraper banner can be very frustrating!”

For the most part, banner design is easy. It’s just when you have to create all the different sizes… that’s where you run into problems! I like designing the 300×250 size first. I find it’s the easiest to start with. It’s like you’re designing a mini-email because the shape is similar. However, I run into problems when I try to re-size the 300×250 into a skyscraper (120×600 or 160×600). Once you take all the elements and cram them into the astonishingly small horizontal space, you can barely read your text and you may have too much vertical space than you need!

I was surfing around on the Internet today and stumbled upon this banner. Check out the skyscraper design for the USF campaign below. I think this is the perfect solution for skyscraper design.

Why do I like this banner?

1. Text is large enough to read
2. Elements are spaced out evenly
3. Tall photo of the gentleman fills extra space and grabs your attention
4. The button is green, tangible looking, and has a great call to action that isn’t intimidating
5. Marketing copy is simple and “to the point”
6. Clean / uncluttered design
7. They remembered to include a border around the banner, in case it’s placed on a website with a white background (most websites have a white background!)

I hope this post helps you design awesome skyscrapers and also save you some time!