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Printed construction hoardings are no longer just blank barriers around building sites—in the UK, they have become canvases for bold advertising and creative placemaking. From high streets to redevelopment zones, imaginative hoarding designs are transforming eyesores into eye-catching displays that engage the public. This blog explores how creative hoarding design choices can capture attention and build buzz, with UK-focused insights on trends, examples, design tips, materials, and sustainability.

The Role of Hoardings in Advertising and Placemaking

Hoardings serve a practical purpose as temporary perimeter fences, protecting pedestrians from construction sites. But they also double as prime advertising space, offering a huge canvas to promote projects or brands long before doors open. In busy UK cities, a well-designed hoarding—particularly when using economy hoarding panels—can turn a disruptive construction site into a placemaking feature, adding character to the streetscape rather than detracting from it. For example, when Selfridges in Birmingham was under renovation, the exterior wrap featured a striking pink-and-black artwork by a local artist, transforming the site into a visible landmark for miles around.

Placemaking with hoardings means using them to contribute positively to the public realm. City councils and developers increasingly recognise that bland plywood boards just don’t cut it anymore for image-conscious projects. Instead, colourful graphics, community murals, or informational displays on hoardings can help beautify neighbourhoods, reflect local culture, and show consideration for the community. In short, creative hoardings serve both marketing goals and civic pride, turning necessary site barriers into opportunities to enhance the environment.

Bold and Imaginative Design: Why It Matters

Bold, imaginative hoarding designs are crucial because they attract attention in a crowded visual landscape. Outdoor advertising is highly effective—an estimated 98% of the UK population sees some form of out-of-home (OOH) advertising each week, so a striking hoarding has the potential to reach virtually everyone passing by. The more eye-catching the design, the more likely people will notice it (and even stop to take a closer look or a photo). This kind of attention is invaluable for building buzz around a new development or store launch.

Creative designs also make hoardings memorable and shareable. For instance, luxury retailer Harrods in London turned its construction hoarding into an enormous 3d “vault” door—a design so unique that it featured no text or logos at all, yet it enthralled passersby with its sheer novelty.

Customers walking into the store’s temporary entrance felt as if they were entering a life-sized bank vault, creating an immersive experience rather than an eyesore. These types of inventive concepts can spark word-of-mouth and social media shares, amplifying the reach far beyond the street.

Trends in UK Hoarding Use and Public Engagement

In the UK, the use of hoardings as marketing tools has surged in recent years, in parallel with the recovery of out-of-home advertising and a boom in construction activity. Following the post-pandemic decline in 2020, OOH advertising spend has made a robust recovery—reaching a record £1.4 billion in 2024.

Notably, even as digital screens grow, classic printed formats like billboards and hoardings saw revenues increase 5.3% in 2023, proving that physical posters retain their impact. This broader advertising trend signals that brands continue to invest in printed outdoor media alongside digital, and construction hoardings are prime real estate for such ads.

While UK OOH advertising revenue experienced a dip in 2020, it has rebounded strongly—reaching record levels by 2024. This resurgence underscores the renewed impact of out-of-home marketing, particularly through innovative uses of printed hoardings.

Key Design Tips for Effective Hoardings

When planning a hoarding design that will truly capture attention, keep in mind a few key design strategies. Here are some top tips for effective hoarding graphics:

1. Keep it Bold and Simple: Use large images, bold colours, and minimal text. A strong visual or catchy slogan will be more memorable than a cluttered design.
2. Ensure High Contrast & Legibility: Make text stand out with high contrast, ensuring readability from a distance, especially under different lighting conditions.
3. Be Creative and On-Brand: Reflect your brand’s personality in the design. Incorporate unique artwork or clever copy while staying true to the brand’s message.
4. Add Interactive or Experiential Elements: Consider adding QR codes, windows, or interactive sections to engage passersby. Even a simple hashtag can encourage social sharing.
5. Mind the Context and Regulations: Tailor your design to the surroundings and follow local guidelines, ensuring it’s appropriate for the location and not overly distracting.
6. Prioritise Quality and Durability: Use high-resolution prints and durable materials to maintain the hoarding’s appearance. Apply anti-graffiti laminates to protect it from vandalism and weathering.

By following these tips, UK developers and designers can create engaging hoardings that capture attention while maintaining brand consistency and adhering to safety regulations.

Popular Materials and Printing Options for Hoardings

The choice of material for a printed hoarding impacts both the visual result and the practicality. Here’s an overview of common materials and print options used for hoardings in the UK, reflecting what companies like The Hoarding Print Company offer:

• Aluminium Composite Panels (ACP/Dibond): These are a go-to choice for premium hoardings. Dibond panels feature a durable polyethene core enclosed between two aluminium sheets, offering strength, stability, and a sleek finish. Aluminium composite boards are weatherproof, rigid, and smooth, which makes them ideal for high-quality direct printing. Graphics on ACP come out vibrant and sharp, and the panels won’t warp or rust in UK weather.
• Plywood Hoardings: Traditional timber hoardings use plywood boards, often painted or covered with printed posters/foamex. Plywood is sturdy and affordable, and it’s easy to cut to fit any site. However, wood needs proper sealing/painting to withstand rain and can look rougher. Many sites still use plywood for the base structure, then add printed vinyl graphics on top.
• Printed Vinyl Wraps: Vinyl is extremely versatile for hoarding graphics. High-quality vinyl prints can be produced on large-format printers and then applied (as adhesive decals or sheets) onto hoarding surfaces, whether those are ACP panels, plywood, or existing walls. Vinyl yields vivid colours and can be laminated for extra durability.
• Mesh Banners and Building Wraps: For very large façades (such as scaffolding around entire buildings), PVC or mesh banners are used. Mesh banner material has tiny perforations that allow wind through, which is crucial on scaffolding or open fencing to reduce wind load. These building hoardings can cover huge areas with printed advertising or imagery (sometimes called building wraps).
• Speciality Materials: In some cases, other materials are employed for unique effects. Polycarbonate sheets (a type of virtually unbreakable clear plastic) are occasionally used for sections of hoardings—for example, to create windows or to display illuminated graphics behind them. Backlit hoarding panels with LED lighting can make graphics visible at night using translucent film prints.

Selecting the right material often comes down to the project’s duration, budget, and desired quality. For a high-profile, long-term site in a city centre, durable aluminium composite with top-notch printing is likely best. For a short-term pop-up event, a cheaper printed banner might do the job. In all cases, balancing durability, print quality, and cost is key—as is considering what will happen to the materials after use (which brings us to sustainability).

Conclusion

Creative hoarding design is a win-win for everyone. For businesses and developers, a striking hoarding builds early buzz and reinforces branding to countless onlookers. For the public, it transforms the urban landscape, making construction sites more interesting, informative, or beautiful instead of an annoyance. And when done with sustainable practices, it even supports environmental goals. In the UK’s vibrant development scene, the humble hoarding has evolved from a mere safety requirement to a versatile marketing and placemaking tool. By harnessing bold design, engaging content, the right materials, and green thinking, companies can ensure their hoardings truly capture attention—and leave a positive impression long after the project is finished.

If you’ve walked past a building site in London or Manchester, you’ve seen the eye-catching boards plastered with project visuals and adverts. Those large panels (called hoardings) are more than just site barriers—they’re big, bold marketing opportunities printed in vibrant colour. But what gives these huge prints their punch? It all comes down to CMYK. In this guide, we’ll explain what CMYK is, what does CMYK mean for your construction hoarding graphics. Let’s dive in!

What is CMYK? Meaning Explained

The acronym CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (Black)—the four ink colours used in the standard four-colour printing process. In other words, that’s what does CMYK stands for in printing. So, what does CMYK mean in practice? CMYK operates as a subtractive colour model designed to accurately reproduce full-colour images on tangible surfaces such as paper, vinyl, or board. Each ink absorbs (subtracts) certain wavelengths of light and reflects others, combining to create the colours we see in print​. For example, cyan ink absorbs red light and reflects blue and green light; layering cyan, magenta, and yellow inks (with black for depth and contrast) can yield a wide spectrum of colours on a white page.

CMYK is the “colour recipe” that printers use to mix inks and get all the hues in your brochures, banners, or construction hoardings. If you’ve ever printed a poster and noticed terms like “full-colour process” or “four-colour print,” that’s referring to CMYK. The CMYK meaning boils down to this: it’s the universal language of colour printing. From small business cards to gigantic site hoardings—even those printed on aluminium composite board—most materials are created using the CMYK process. It’s the industry standard for bringing digital designs to life on paper, vinyl, or board.

CMYK Screen Printing—Is It Used for Hoardings?

In the past, CMYK screen printing was widely used for hoardings due to its ability to deliver bold, durable prints on large surfaces. Each of the four colours—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black—required a separate screen, making the process effective for basic designs and consistent layouts. However, the method demanded meticulous setup and alignment, especially for full-colour images. Given the rising need for faster turnarounds, custom designs per site, and integration with modern features like hoarding lighting, this approach gradually became less viable. Today, the printing landscape has evolved. CMYK digital printing now dominates hoarding production, offering speed, flexibility, and high-resolution output without the need for extensive setup.

• Screen printing used to be popular for large, outdoor hoardings due to its vivid colour reproduction and long-lasting finish.
• Each ink colour required a separate stencil, making it impractical for complex or photographic designs.
• The labour-intensive setup made screen printing inefficient for one-off or project-specific hoarding designs.
• Modern CMYK digital printing allows direct application of inks onto hoarding materials without manual screens.
• Digital methods excel in detail and gradient, ideal for architectural renders, branding, and imagery on construction site panels.
• Short runs and frequent design changes are now cost-effective with digital CMYK, making it the industry standard for hoardings.

Bringing Designs to Life with CMYK Printing on Hoardings

• High Impact for Large Prints: CMYK printing excels in producing vibrant, detailed images at large scales—ideal for construction hoardings visible to both pedestrians and motorists.
• Material Flexibility: Compatible with a range of substrates including corrugated plastic, self-adhesive vinyl, and aluminium composite panels, offering broad application flexibility.
• UV-Resistant Inks: Inks used are often UV-resistant, ensuring durability and colour retention in outdoor conditions.
• Even Colour Coverage: CMYK delivers solid blocks of colour (e.g., corporate blue or bold red) without banding or patchiness, ensuring a clean, professional finish.
• Photographic Quality Output: Enables lifelike printing of photographs—ideal for marketing visuals such as property renderings with accurate skin tones and gradients.
• Protective Finishes: Modern printers can apply protective coatings over CMYK prints, enhancing weather resistance and longevity.
• Vibrant Brand Representation: The consistent brilliance of CMYK ensures your brand identity stands out clearly and uniformly across the entire hoarding.
• Effective Visual Communication: A well-printed hoarding becomes an impactful tool for brand promotion and public engagement at construction sites.

Conclusion

CMYK printing is essential for creating high-impact hoardings that reflect your brand with clarity and vibrancy. While screen printing once played a role, today’s digital CMYK methods offer superior speed, flexibility, and precision—perfect for construction site graphics. For UK businesses, this means reliable colour consistency, quick turnarounds, and standout visuals that support both compliance and marketing goals. Partnering with a specialist like The Hoarding Printing Company ensures your hoardings are not only durable and professional but also visually compelling, helping your project gain the attention it deserves.

Retailers often use creative hoardings, like this one from a UK burger chain, to announce an upcoming store with bold graphics and a clear “Coming Soon” message. Such eye-catching displays hide the construction work while building anticipation among passersby. By turning a blank facade into an advertisement, brands can generate buzz on the high street before the doors even open. In the UK, where footfall is precious and competition for attention is fierce, a well-designed advertising board can give any new shop, from a boutique to a café, a head start in attracting customers.

Why Hoardings Matter Before a Store Opens

A hoarding (the temporary boarding or graphics in front of a soon-to-open store) serves multiple purposes. Firstly, it conceals unsightly construction and keeps the site secure. More importantly, it transforms that otherwise blank wall into a huge billboard for your brand. Far from just hiding renovations, a well-designed advertising board raises the profile of your business, markets to potential customers, and creates a sense of anticipation in the community​. Passersby who see the “coming soon” signage and branding will start talking, wondering what’s in store.

This early buzz can directly drive foot traffic. Eye-catching signage matters—around 8 in 10 shoppers have entered a store purely because of its signs. In other words, your marketing facade isn’t just decoration; it’s an invitation. Whether you’re launching a fashion outlet, a new restaurant, or an electronics shop; an appealing promotional panels can pique curiosity and turn onlookers into opening-day customers. And since about two-thirds of people believe a store’s signage reflects the quality of its products and services, a professionally printed, high-quality building site hoarding helps set a positive expectation about your business from the outset.

Turning Hoardings into Branding and Advertising Assets

A visually striking, professionally printed hoarding isn’t just about aesthetics—it’s a smart branding and advertising tool. Think of it as free outdoor advertising space that you already own. Rather than a blank wall, you have a canvas to tell your brand’s story to everyone who walks by.

• Branding benefits: The promotional panels set the tone for your store. It can convey your brand personality—whether it’s luxury, fun, family-friendly, or techy—through design and messaging. This helps build brand recognition in the neighbourhood even before you open. By the time you launch, locals will already be familiar with your name and logo, giving you a head start.

For established brands opening a new location, it reassures fans that “yes, it’s our favourite brand coming here!” For new brands, it’s an opportunity to introduce yourself and make a great first impression on the community.

• Footfall and buzz: Great display cladding can actually increase footfall once you open because they’ve generated so much interest. People might detour on their daily walk just to check if your shop is open yet. They might snap photos of an especially creative display cladding and share them on social media, spreading the word. All this can translate into more visitors through your doors.
• Local advertising: Using the retail graphics as an advertising board is also cost-effective. You’re essentially getting thousands of impressions from pedestrians and drivers every week without paying for a billboard or poster site. It targets exactly the people in your vicinity—your future customers.

  For example, if you’re opening a new electronics store in a busy shopping centre, your retail graphics can let tech enthusiasts know that a new spot for gadgets will soon be in their neighbourhood. The same goes for a new café on the high street: a tempting image of coffee and pastries on the hoarding boards advertises to every passerby that a fresh coffee spot is coming soon. In this way, your boards work 24/7 to build local awareness.

Maximising Impact with Professional Design & Print

•  Professional Design Makes a Difference: While it might be tempting to throw up a quick banner, investing in professional design and print for your marketing boards pays off.
•  Expert Layout and Branding: Experienced design teams know how to create layouts that grab attention and communicate clearly. They’ll ensure your branding is on-point and that the graphics are high resolution and correctly scaled to the large format.
• Quality Materials for Long-Term Impact: Professionally printed boards are made with durable, weather-resistant materials and vibrant inks, ensuring they remain sharp and eye-catching throughout the build, especially important in the UK’s unpredictable weather.
•  Support with Permissions and Regulations: Another advantage of consulting professionals is navigating any permissions or regulations. For example, in many UK city centres and shopping centres, there may be guidelines on billboard appearance or safety.
•  Safe and Tidy Installation: A specialist design-and-print company will be familiar with these rules and can handle installation safely and neatly, giving you one less thing to worry about as you prepare for opening day.
• A Powerful First Impression: Ultimately, a quality marketing board is an investment in your store’s successful launch. It frequently serves as the initial impression your brand makes on prospective customers.
• Perception Matters: As we mentioned earlier, consumers do judge a book by its cover—if your marketing facade looks polished and exciting, your brand will be perceived the same way. By contrast, a flimsy or poorly designed board could dampen enthusiasm.

Conclusion

 Plan your hoarding strategy as a key part of your launch marketing. And if you want to really knock it out of the park, consider consulting with professionals who offer integrated design and print services for hoardings. Their expertise can help turn your shopfront displays into a show-stopping statement that builds buzz, reinforces your brand, and draws in the crowds. With the right retail board in place, you’ll be well on your way to a memorable grand opening and a successful new store. Good luck, and happy launching!

Colour has an important part to play in communication of any kind, involved with emotions, stimulus to the mind, perception, and recognition of brands. Complimentry colours are one of the most used colour theory principles which contribute to balance, contrast and harmony when you’re using them in your design. A thorough understanding of how to apply them ensures that every printed marketing material, interior design, and branding element stands out effectively.

What are Complementary Colours: Why do They Matter?

Complementary colours are a pair of hues on the colour compliment wheel that sit opposite each other. Secondly, these combinations generate a notable contrast, for example, blue and orange or red and green, which improve the appearance. They are strategically used by designers and marketers to draw attention, create emotions in branding, advertisements and even construction hoarding.

What Makes them Stand Out?

Colours that are complementary originate from the traditional colour complement wheel. That is, these are pairs of colours directly opposite of each other, for which the visual contrast is the strongest. Some well-known complementary pairs include:

• Appropriate for festive decoration and branding: Red and Green.
• Sports team logos and advertising use Blue and Orange.
• Yellow and Purple are seen in luxury and entertainment branding.

Complementary colours are perfect to use for marketing, designing the product package, and digital designs.

Colour Compliment Wheel: A Designer’s Best Friend

A colour-compliment wheel is a must-have tool in the design world. It will help the professionals to find out the appropriate colour combination and evoke different emotions with it. The wheel consists of:

• Primary Colours – Red, Blue, and Yellow
• Green, Orange, Purple – (created by mixing of the primary colours) Secondary Colours
• Shades – Three colours that are created by mixing two primaries.

The colour complement wheel allows brands and designers to create visual contrast, which will attract and help brand identity.

For instance, branding panels on the storefront and marketing pieces will feature a complementary colour scheme to make them visible and brand-aware. Since the market can often be overcrowded, businesses can achieve value by contrasting the colours they are using to make a statement in that marketplace.

What are the Contrasting Colours: Are they different from Complementary Colours?

Complimentary colours restrict themselves only to direct opposites, but the contrast colours deal with it further. Readability and readability require contrast in design; focus, and aesthetic appeal require contrast, too.

The contrasting colour schemes are of three general types.

• Light vs Dark: High contrast for readability (e.g., black text on a white background).
• Warm vs Cool: This creates depth and mood (e.g., red against blue).
• Saturated vs Desaturated:  Choose the way of making certain elements stand out by saturating or not.

Using the contrasting colours principle in digital design will help to make clarity, eliminate visual fatigue, and promote engagement.

How to Use Complementary Colours Effectively

Knowing how to use complementary colours can have a huge effect on the perception of your customer. Some effective strategies include:

1. Branding and Logo Design

Colours that complement one another are used by major brands to create contrast and to ensure that the logos of the brands are immediately recognisable.

For example:

• FedEx uses orange and purple for a vibrant, trustworthy appeal.
• Blue and orange give Fanta an energetic freshness.

To learn more, visit this guide on, how effectively you can use complementary colours for hoarding panels to make them visually appealing.

2. Marketing and Advertising

Complimentary colours are also used for advertisements, posters, or digital banners to have an impact on potential customers. In hoarding construction, there are the right colour combinations which can make advertisements more visible on construction site hoardings such that the displayed information comes into the engagement of passersby.

3. Interior and Web Design

Complementary colour schemes are commonly applied in website design and interior design to make the environment aesthetically good. A well-balanced colour palette allows the user to have a positive experience and for the brand to be represented.

Research showed that up to 85% of brands are recognised more easily when there is use of colour  (Hubspot). For this reason, businesses carefully select colours from the colour compliment wheel to use for their logos, packaging, and marketing materials but with contrasting shades.

Conclusion

Whether it’s branding, advertising or web design, which one is the best is a major decision taken by designers and others: mastering the use of complimentary colours can elevate the design project to new levels. The colour compliment wheel helps in arranging visually pleasing colour combinations with a structured approach and the basic principles of what colours should contrast with each other to ensure that designs are neat and clear.

Colour elements within the printing  design format affect people’s emotional states alongside brand associations and participant interaction levels. Visual appeal and consistency across various printed materials, such as brochures, banners, and signage, benefit from a carefully selected colour palette. When creating printed marketing materials, advertisements, or signage, the right colour combinations enhance brand identity and audience perception.

This guide will outline the fundamental principles of colour palettes, methods for designing an effective colour scheme, and the significance of colour in branding and marketing within the printing industry.

Colorful Color Palette: Why is It Important?

Selecting appropriate colour schemes in printing  goes beyond visual appeal because the selected hues directly influence brand or design perception by the public.

The strategic application of colours in printed materials offers several benefits, including:

• Brand perception and emotional influence shaped by the right colour choices.
• Enhanced readability and user experience in printed formats.
• Clear differentiation from competitors through distinct colour schemes.
• Strengthened brand identity and recall through consistent printing.

The proper selection of a colour palette enhances both customer interaction and brand impression in printed marketing materials.

Understanding Colour Theory for Better Palettes

You must understand fundamental colour concept elements before you build colour palette for printing.

Types of Colour Palettes:

• Monochromatic: Uses different shades of a single colour (e.g., various shades of blue)  for a cohesive print design.
• Analogous: Colours next to each other on the wheel (e.g., yellow, orange, and red) for smooth transitions in print.
• Complementary: The colours blue and orange represent complementary pairs because they produce visual contrast in printed materials.
• Triadic: The triadic scheme uses red, yellow and blue as three colours arranged evenly across the colour wheel to maintain vibrancy and balance in print.

Knowledge of harmonies lets users produce balanced colour schemes that also appear aesthetically pleasing and well-structured printed designs.

Palette: How to Choose Colours from It?

Your foundation colour tone determines how the colour palette will be built. Some common choices include:

• Blue: The hue blue expresses both trust and professional qualities, making it ideal for printed materials in technology and financial sectors.
• Red: In retail marketing, the colour red stimulates feelings of urgency while generating excitement making it a strong choice for promotional print designs.
• Green:  Eco-friendly companies often adopt green in their printed branding materials as it represents sustainability and a connection to nature.

  Selecting the right colours ensures that printed designs align with brand messaging and visual impact.

Colour Palette Generator: Uses and Applications

A design colour palette generator serves to develop a colour assortment for design foe printing applications. Users face difficulties when manually picking palettes, but tools like Coloor make it easy to select them.

Useful Colour Palette Generators

• Coloor: The Master tool, with Coloor  users can receive immediate colour palette options that can serve designers and branding professionals.
• Adobe: Adobe Colour enables users to assess possible colour schemes for branding purposes.
• Colour Hunt: The platform Colour Hunt presents a selection of already-made colour combinations for users to explore.

Initially, you can create a colour palette design by using these tools. You can also reach out to a service provider as they truly hold the expertise of generating the colour palettes especially based on the product requirements such as for designing branding panels and graphics with visual appeal.

Testing Your Colour Palettes in Different Media

The same colour will display differently according to its position on a spectrum. That’s why testing is essential:

• Digital Screens demand you to verify that your colour palettes show bright and vibrant characteristics across multiple devices.
• Printed materials show varying colour appearance, which demands specific modifications for proper print results.
• Designs of hoarding advertising, including dibond hoarding, require clear contrasting colours to achieve visibility.

During branding panel creation, one needs to check how colours display under varying lighting conditions and material surfaces. To understand how colour impacts hoarding designs, check out this detailed guide.

Best Practices for Choosing a Colour Palette

• Choose 3 to 5 colours for your artwork to create balanced art.
• Create your colour scheme from the brand identity basis.
• Validate your colour scheme to ensure that it presents consistently on digital displays and printed materials.
• Use high contrast for accessibility; helps with readability, especially in web and signage design.

When placing big dibond hoarding ads, keep using powerful colour schemes for better public visibility. Choosing the correct colour for branding panels helps create brand unity on all market channels. A professional dibond hoarding designer would be able to blend the colours accordingly for higher visibility.

The UK paint and coatings sector generates £4 billion each year and connects with industries which are worth more than £297 billion (  British Coatings Federation ). Our selection of colours serves double duty both to build brand image and to support major brand promotion across product boxes, merchandise displays and online ads.

Conclusion

A strong colour palette results from innovative approaches alongside proper planning and available applications. Your brand should stand out through the selection of ideal colour palettes regardless of design platforms, which range from digital to print and physical branding panels.

Designs that enhance brand recognition and grab attention emerge through the combination of Coloor colour palette generators and different palette tests together with colour psychological approaches. Your brand needs the correct combination of colours to become more attractive and continue looking consistent regardless of the marketing channel.

Design thinking, an innovative concept that emerged as a revolutionary means of problem-solving and product development in business, is one of the most effective ways to connect with customers today. Irrespective of the industry you operate in, the concept finds its relevance in the way you communicate and conduct business.

In the realm of graphic design and printing as well, design thinking plays a pivotal role in developing impactful advertising assets like branding panels and hoardings. For instance, retail stores often use branding panels at their entrances to highlight promotional offers, while corporate offices utilise them for wayfinding signage and brand storytelling. Similarly, event organisers incorporate branding panels to create immersive photo backdrops and sponsorship displays, ensuring a cohesive and visually striking presence. Here we explore the concept in depth and learn more about the pillars of design & thinking in print media.

What is Design Thinking?

Experts define design thinking as a user-centric philosophy that focuses on understanding the end-user’s needs, emotions, and experiences above everything else when designing a product, or solution.

In simpler terms, it is a concept that drives creative development of any kind with a strong focus on fulfilling the user’s needs and acknowledging their emotions above all else.

As opposed to traditional solutions and products which were essentially outcome-oriented and unresponsive to the dynamic and nuanced needs of the people they were made for, design thinking projects induce and encourage developers to think and empathise with the user to create solutions that are much more efficient.

This approach applies to all industries and projects intending to serve consumers. Print media in particular demands a thoughtful design thinking approach, as it seeks to attract consumer attention and encourage some form of action, which ultimately serves them.

Design Thinking Process

The design thinking process involves a focused journey starting from empathy to execution, where developers are required to exercise constant and consistent reflective iterations based on the dynamic emotions of the consumer, to achieve a refined and efficient outcome.

In essence, this means that the process does not always progress in a linear path, instead, it requires circle-backs and a flexible mindset to adapt to the changing demands and incorporate the changes into the solution.

Design Thinking Examples

In graphic design and printing, design thinking involves creating advertisements and supplementary print assets like branding panels that focus on the consumer’s emotions. This means graphic designers need to exercise empathy when designing ads so that they resonate with the target audience and induce the desired impact.

For example, real estate agencies use branding panels to display high-quality property images and contact details, making their listings more appealing. Similarly, hospitality businesses utilise branding panels in lobbies to create a welcoming atmosphere and reinforce their brand identity. Additionally, retail stores place branding panels near checkout areas to promote special offers and enhance customer engagement.

Here are some examples.

• Construction hoardings that serve as more than safety barriers to mark-off sites. An innovatively designed empathy-driven construction hoarding can inform, educate, as well as entertain with the right colours and copy – a combination that can potentially evoke emotions and distract commuters from the inconvenience caused by the construction.
• Branding panels that use appropriate colours based on colour analysis. For example, a beauty salon and spa that uses cool-toned shades of green or blue will exude a sense of calm and peace – two emotions that can resonate with customers looking for spa services.
• A fall campaign for a clothing brand with print assets that use autumn colours will catch customers’ attention and evoke feelings of warmth and comfort, both of which can potentially resonate with customers looking to purchase fall clothes.

There are many ways to design a hoarding or a banner using the design thinking approach to reap maximum benefits. Investing in executing the philosophy will indeed be a worthwhile effort.

Wrapping Up

Design thinking is the latest and most revolutionary development in the field of creative development. Whether it is for product development or graphic design and banner printing, the design thinking approach allows brands to create solutions that perfectly resonate with and serve the end-user, ultimately allowing them to improve their bottom line. Incorporate this philosophy in your creative projects and partner with a thoughtful graphic design and print service provider to maximise your investment.