A most welcome sign: outdoor vertical banners can increase parks' attendance and funding.

The Welcome" is the visual image and impression of your physical environment that a visitor or passerby receives and retains. Do people notice your location enough to ask themselves, "What is that place? What's going on here? Can I go there?" Sometimes organizations take for granted that the public already knows for what uses certain parks and recreation areas are targeted. Even parks and recreation agencies that don't make that assumption often don't spend the time or money to create the excitement outside that makes people want to come inside, and have that image reinforced when they enter the grounds or facilities.

The Welcome for any park or recreation facility should be simple, effective, functional, attractive, flexible and a little innovative. Plus, it should offer the most bang for the buck, because, as park and recreation professionals well know, these days, available resources need to be stretched further and further. That welcome or look, which I firmly believe all organizations should strive for, influences both in-house pride and external marketing. To me, these are one and the same. If you don't have that inner glow about your offerings, you'll never be able to sell it to the public. Let me offer some helpful hints about how achieving The Welcome through a system of vertical-banner displays will meet the criteria for success I've listed.

An architect by training, I stumbled into the design side of vertical banners 20 years ago. The first banner project, in 1985, involved a colorful fabric banner display on light poles that proclaimed the coming of the Kalamazoo Institute of Art's Annual Art Fair in Bronson Park, in the heart of downtown Kalamazoo. We installed The Welcome look around and within the park, and displayed coordinated Art Fair banners in strategic locations on light poles around the downtown area. The result? A highly festive atmosphere and larger-than-normal attendance. People felt welcomed, informed and confident that the Art Fair was a place for them to be and enjoy. Twenty years later, banners continue to be an integral part of the Kalamazoo's extremely successful Art Fair.

This project and similar events in Michigan resulted in my leaving architecture to establish Kalamazoo Banner Works (now Consort Display Group), a company focused on the "architecture of banners" and interior and exterior display systems. As part of our work, we've developed hardware for the exterior and interior mounting of banners that, when outside, survive wind, rain, heat and cold and, when inside, is portable, versatile and easy to use. The interior system is known as the accessory to help communicate specific graphic messages. A portable, exterior banner stand, known as the Messenger PT, expands the options for temporary outside events.

Sign On for Success

How is all that related to The Welcome that I mentioned at the beginning? Well, of all the untold numbers of marketing methods in the world, I believe that communicating the excitement, vitality and value of your property through the use of nicely designed on-site and off-site vertical and environmental graphics is an easy and proven method. A marketing campaign geared toward presenting The Welcome should have the following objectives:

* Informing the public that something special is located on the property.

* Delivering worthy information (i.e., the coming of a seasonal event or new facility or attraction).

* Presenting the worthiness of the site (i.e., that the facilities are vital, vibrant, perhaps beautiful and are an essential community asset).

There are many ways to achieve these goals, but the impact, cost-effectiveness, simplicity and quality of vertical-banner systems are hard to beat. The most cost-efficient method we've found is to gain permission from the owner of the light poles outside your facility (unless, of course, you already control them) to mount banners on the poles at a height that doesn't interfere with traffic. Have the power company, light pole manufacturer or another engineer determine the size of banners that would be allowed on the poles, and you're on your way to instant recognition from the passing public.

Next, place the same graphic images on the grounds of your facility on special poles--which can be made of wood, metal, concrete or fiberglass--to reinforce the welcoming image. The graphics for these inner-property banners can be coordinated and also used as directional signage, building signage and other parts of an environmental graphics program. Again, for temporary outdoor events, there are ground-set banner stands that will put the graphic communication at a pedestrian level. These are often tent-staked or sandbagged to allow portability.

In addition, consider using the park identity or event logos and images on more banners to place in other areas of your community such as on downtown light poles, inside and outside shopping malls, hotels and convention centers to further promote your park and recreational facilities.

Interior Decorations 

An interior vertical banner system allows an organization to bring that look inside. Thanks to technologies such as Velcro[TM]-compatible banners or panels, digital color output and inexpensive screen printing, simplicity reigns when implementing a marketing strategy. It's also highly feasible to make money from fabric banners promoting The Welcome. For example, if Avon or Apple or AT&T is underwriting a 5K run beginning and ending in your park, it's simple, flexible and economical to indicate their sponsorship in a sophisticated manner using one or more of those cost-effective methods. As another example, county parks promoters can carry their banner system when they travel from venue to venue.

Today's citizen is bombarded daily by thousands of bits and information. It's like being in a fishing boat in Canada when the black flies are at their peak. Guess what, folks? The black flies are still coming. The minutiae of bits of data and stimulation will only grow. That's why your message should be boiled down to its simplest terms and be functional and exciting. That's one of the advantages of using banners as external and internal tools of marketing and communications. Achieving The Welcome is the first step toward a well-developed communication program.

Fly the Flag

Banners are just one aspect of an age-old desire on the part of communities and organizations to enhance their surrounding to convey pride, vitality and general information. The entire study of how people are affected by design, whether environmental graphics or architecture (or both), has recently become known as environmental graphic design. These banners, when used with forethought on design and structural integrity, will immediately impart positive environmental design to an area while communicating specific, brief information about an organization, area, event or season.

Whichever Way the Wind Blows

Outdoor banner installations can put significant wind pressure onto the mounting pole, depending on the banner size and shape and the mounting method. For smaller banners, such as 24" wide by 48" tall, which are mounted relatively close to the ground, the wind pressures are quite small. Further, if the banners are protected by buildings or trees, the wind pressures are even less. Small poles, such as 4'x 4' or 4'x 6' wood posts, will generally work well as uprights. However, for larger banners-such as 30" wide and 5' to 8' high-the wind pressures are significant, and stronger poles and special banner brackets are required.

Whether they're for large or small banners, poles should be sized properly if new, or inspected by an engineer or utility company if existing, before you install outdoor banners. The most common terminology used by pole manufactures to determine banner suitability is known as effective projected area. This is the number that a pole manufacturer assigns to a pole assembly for the amount of wind resistance, in square foot area at various wind velocities, for which a pole is rated.

Roger Lepley is an architect and product designer and president of Consort Display Group, in Kalamazoo, Mich. For more information, see www.consort.com.