Signage and graphics are classic marketing tools, and they’ve proven their effectiveness over the years. As you gear up for an election, you’ll want your signage to attract voters to your candidate. Whether your candidate is well-established or is still trying to get name recognition, political signage can boost their campaign.
SpeedPro can help you create many different kinds of custom campaign signage to suit your needs and make a big impact.
Benefits of Custom Campaign Signage
Custom election campaign signs offer some valuable advantages. Below are some of the best ways custom signage can assist your campaign:
- Raise awareness: A major objective of political marketing is getting a candidate’s name out there and raising awareness among voters so they won’t see a name on the ballot and wonder, “Who is that?” Many signs will contain only a candidate’s name and the office they are running for. These signs are designed to pique interest while other signage can provide more details about a candidate’s platform.
- Brand your space: Wherever your candidate is giving a speech or holding an event, you want the space to feel like an extension of your candidate’s primary message and personality. Custom signs and graphics direct voters’ attention to your candidate or cause. Custom graphics also help you brand your campaign headquarters office. This is an important way to encourage enthusiasm among staff and volunteers since the ambiance of a room relates directly to people’s satisfaction, productivity and overall mood.
- Inspire supporters: Part of any campaign is trying to get supporters inspired and ready to take action. An abundance of signage can help you get your supporters excited so they will show up on voting day. Handing out yard signs for supporters to place outside their homes is an effective way for these supporters’ neighbors, family and friends to take an interest in your campaign.
- Display your legitimacy: Like companies that want to show their professionalism to potential customers, your campaign will want to demonstrate your candidate’s integrity and legitimacy. Without quality signs, your campaign can lose credibility in voters’ eyes. Quality signage communicates legitimacy and professionalism on your candidate’s behalf and will instill confidence in voters.
Types of Signs to Use While Campaigning
When you look for signs, you’ll find a wide variety of options for promoting a political candidate. To assist with the process of choosing signage and graphics for an upcoming campaign, consider the following sign types.
1. Yard Signs
Yard signs are a must for any political campaign. Yard signs are a form of temporary signage made from outdoor-grade materials. All you have to do to install them is stick the two small stakes holding up the sign into the ground. These signs are relatively inexpensive and yet are tough enough to last throughout a campaign season.
You can place these signs in a variety of outdoor locations. One of the best places for yard signs is on your supporters’ front lawns. By buying political signs at wholesale and handing them out to your supporters for free, you can encourage them to pepper your community with ads for your candidate. You’ll also see yard signs in public spaces where people are likely to see them, like next to an intersection.
Typically, yard signs feature simple, direct messaging. These signs are a great place to print your candidate’s name and the position they are running for. Or, you might feature their campaign slogan. Whatever information you choose to include, be sure to use your campaign logo or other visuals that match your branding so viewers make a connection between these signs and the other marketing materials they see for your candidate. Consistency is key to raise brand awareness.
Raising awareness tends to be the primary goal of yard signs. These signs can also generate interest and excitement among people who already know about your candidate. When a person sees signs for your candidate all over their neighborhood and town, this can encourage them to consider supporting the candidate, as well.
While yard signs typically keep messaging simplistic, if you want to include more information on yard signs, consider printing some signs to accompany your more basic signs. These additional signs might highlight your candidate’s values or reasons to vote them into office. You can use yard signs in many different ways. As your campaign evolves, you can even print new signs if needed to highlight the most relevant aspects of your campaign.
2. Campaign Headquarters Signage
Your campaign headquarters should be full of informative and inspiring signage to make an impact on your staff, volunteers and anyone who steps foot through your doors. Making your headquarters as visually appealing as possible is doubly important if you ever host events or film promotional materials in the space. You can display many types of graphics throughout your campaign headquarters, both outside and inside. Here are some display types to consider:
- Outdoor corporate signage: A professional H-frame sign outside your building, near the entrance to the parking lot or by the road, is one of the best ways to identify your location, thereby helping people find you and raising awareness of your campaign.
- Flags: Another way to ensure your campaign headquarters can’t be missed is with flags. You can install large, colorful flags with your candidate’s name and other essential information outside of your building to catch the attention of anyone walking or driving by.
- Wayfinding signs: Inside your building, you want to ensure volunteers and staff can navigate the space easily and locate different offices and stations where they can complete tasks like making phone calls or stuffing envelopes to mail out. Use wayfinding signs in the form of floor decals, hanging signs or wall-mounted signs to point people in the right direction to each part of your office.
- Wall murals: To make a bold statement and liven up your space, you can use murals. These displays let you cover a lot of blank wall space in a creative way. Unlike painted murals, you can create printed murals quickly and apply them right away. You can also peel them off easily when you move out of the office after campaign season.
- Digital signs: Digital signage is a useful option in many contexts, including in your campaign headquarters. Because you can update digital signs whenever needed, you can use these displays to share timely messages with your team or a fresh dose of inspiration.
3. Custom Decals
When you’re campaigning, you want your candidate’s backers to spread the word about you. Anytime a presidential election rolls out, look around a coffee shop at the backs of laptops. You’re bound to see them sporting a few decals declaring support for one of the candidates. In traffic, you’ll often see decals on trucks and cars, functioning as mobile advertisements.
Custom decals are popular because they give supporters the chance to share a piece of their political identity with others and do their part in generating awareness about their chosen candidate. Campaigns love decals because they’re an inexpensive way to spread the word about a candidate virtually anywhere. Due to their grassroots marketing appeal, staff members will often give small stickers away or send them to supporters after they make a donation.
On top of the smaller decals that can adorn your supporters’ vehicles or other personal possessions, you’ll also be able to place larger decals on walls, floors and store windows. These decals are incredibly versatile. Use them temporarily, such as at an event where you’re renting a space, or make them a more permanent fixture at a campaign headquarters.
If you have a headquarters or office space in a well-trafficked area, you can place vinyl decals in your windows to draw attention to your candidate. Decals can also take up wall or floor space with custom graphics like a slogan or campaign logo. These decals can cover an entire wall if needed, making it easy to make your mark on a space. Since they are easy to apply to a variety of surfaces and remove, campaigns often use them.
One of the highest-impact decal options is a vehicle wrap. These enormous decals cover your staff’s vehicles partially or entirely so they can advertise on the road, in a parking lot or wherever they go. These decals are durable enough to hold up to the elements and continue to look great throughout your campaign season.
4. Event Graphics
If you’re hosting an event to raise money for your candidate or draw attention to an important issue, event graphics are an excellent way to enhance the event’s environment. Event graphics are a broad category that can range anywhere from tabletop displays to backlit graphics and stage backdrops.
Some of the most popular event graphics include tabletop displays and directional signage. Tabletoppers are popular at events that feature a meal, such as at a fundraiser. To make tables more visually appealing to customers, you can place a table cover over them that includes your signature campaign colors and other powerful images, further branding the space.
If you need to help people find parking or make their way around your event, directional signage is for you. While sign makers can design this signage to reflect your campaign’s signature colors or logos, it primarily serves a functional purpose by helping people get where they need to be. You want people engaging with your event and not wandering around lost, making this sort of signage a must-have for larger events.
Your campaign can use event graphics in a variety of situations to accent the environment and create a more inviting ambiance. Consider the following ideas for where you can use signs and graphics to your advantage.
- Campaign launch: Wherever your candidate wants to launch their campaign, you’ll want those watching to feel inspired by the surroundings. You can accomplish this goal by using graphics and signs that reflect your candidate’s brand.
- Conferences: If your candidate is going to any political conventions, event graphics can be an excellent way to stand out from the competition and bring people to your booth, along with raising awareness of your candidate.
- Fundraising: At any fundraising event, you’ll want people to feel as stress-free as possible. Well-placed and expertly designed graphics will craft an environment that inspires confidence and excitement about your candidate, making it easy for supporters to feel ready to chip in.
- Rallies: Campaign rallies are all about getting your message out there and generating excitement among your supporters. If you are holding a rally for your candidate, be sure to deck out the facility, whether indoor or outdoor, in colorful, custom signage.
5. Event Tents
If you’re attending or hosting an outdoor event, consider getting an event tent customized with your campaign branding. It offers shelter, and it comes printed with identifying information on it to help you draw in potential voters or donors. Tents are crucial for any outdoor event, as they will attract attention to your candidate’s campaign. Along with being eye-catching, these tents can serve a functional purpose by protecting your staff members from the sun or rain.
You can choose from several styles of event tents. They range from pop-up canopies to frame event tents, but all will give your message more authority. Below are some of the most common event tents:
- Pop-up canopies: These tents feature a four-legged frame that keeps the fabric top in place. For a hot or rainy day, the fabric top provides some protection from the weather. Generally, these tents are a cinch to assemble, as you can easily fold and unfold the frames. Along with being quick to assemble, the tents are durable, with steel or aluminum frames. Depending on your needs, you can choose a square or tubular shape for your tent.
- Pop-up canopies with sidewalls: Similar to the canopies described above, these tents differentiate themselves by coming with sidewalls that enclose at least part of the space.
- Pole tent: These tents have the same basic design as pop-up canopies, as they have four legs and a fabric top. The primary difference between the two types of tents is that pole tents are larger. If you want to invite event-goers to come and interact inside your event tent, the size of a pole tent is perfect for those larger-scale interactions.
- Frame event tents: These tents feature tubular poles for the frame. That means — unlike a pole tent — there is no need for a pole in the center to hold up the canopy, and the tubular frame gives the tent a unique appearance.
6. Vinyl Custom Banners
If you want to go beyond conventional signs, consider custom banners to grab the attention of passersby. If you need to decorate your campaign headquarters, throw a rally or host a fundraiser, placing large campaign signs on the exterior of buildings and along the sidewalk is an engaging way to display your message.
Hang vinyl custom banners from poles or a building. Vinyl is a synthetic, durable material that can support complex printing jobs to bring your message to life. Banners will typically display information, images or logos, which make them an excellent choice for spreading the word about a candidate.
Choose between different kinds of political banners to suit your needs.
- Hung vinyl banners: These banners are the best way to make a statement on the front or side of a building. If you’re hosting a rally, hanging a large banner over the entrance to the meeting place will get your supporters excited from the moment they enter and act as an advertisement to any undecided voters walking by.
- Banner stands: These freestanding banners are typically best to use indoors at trade shows or conferences to accent the space and provide information to those passing by. If your candidate is going to a political conference or event, banner stands can be an excellent way to put the campaign’s stamp on a booth and differentiate yourself from the competition.
- Boulevard banners: If there are sidewalks outside a venue where you’re hosting an event, you can line them with banners that hang from streetlights or other street posts. These kinds of banners are excellent accents to an area, fitting in well with the environment.
- Step-and-repeat banner: To create a lasting impression after an event, you can use step-and-repeat banners as a backdrop where people can have their photos taken. When supporters take a picture with this kind of banner, they take some of your signage with them. If they upload snapshots of themselves at your event, you can get extra mileage out of the banner as they show it off to their social media followers.
Custom Campaign Signs and Graphics for Your Next Political Campaign
If you’re looking for a place to get political signs and banners near you, SpeedPro can help. SpeedPro is the nation’s leader in large-format graphics, meaning we can handle custom political sign printing, along with other, more standard print jobs. Because we have a nationwide network of print studios, we are prepared to meet your needs.
To get started creating custom campaign signs near you, find one of our studios in your area. Once you find your local studio, one of our representatives will be happy to assist you in creating your custom campaign signs that will draw in voters.
