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Lanyards are a great way to promote your brand or organisation. Whether you’re using them for employee and visitor ID badges, event passes or promotional giveaways, personalised lanyards are a great way to get your message out and offer a cost-effective opportunity for brand exposure, especially when compared to other advertising methods. But what’s the best way to design them?
Here are our top design tips to help you create the perfect custom lanyard.
1. Choose the right material. Lanyards come in a wide range of materials, including nylon, polyester, satin and more. Choose the material that best fits your needs. For example, if you’re looking for a durable lanyard for employee badges, nylon may be the best option. You should also consider comfort, if someone is going to be wearing the lanyard around the neck on a regular basis, a woven lanyard probably isn’t the best choice.
2. Consider the size. Lanyards come in a variety of widths and lengths. Consider the size of your lanyard based on the items that will be attached to it. For example, if you’re using it for employee badges, you may want to go with a wider lanyard to accommodate the size of the badge and any company logo, text, or graphics you may need to add. Here at Only Lanyards, we ensure your design is sized and spaced correctly, all at no extra cost!
3. Colour. Colour is often the most important and useful aspect of a lanyard design. Not only is it a great way to make your lanyards stand out and attract attention but it is also a good way for easily visible permissions to access to areas, especially in a workplace. Choose a colour or colours that complements your brand or organisation and will help you get your business or message across. You should always make sure your colour choice does not diminish or clash with your logo, text or graphic but bold colours will always work best. Here at Only Lanyards we offer Pantone, RGB and hex colour schemes, so you are sure to get the correct colour for your lanyards!
4. Consider adding text. Adding text to your lanyard can help promote your brand or organisation and is particularly useful for charities and festivals. Make sure that the text is easily visible and legible with a contrasting colour to the base lanyard colour to make it stand out. Simple text that can be scaled down will always work best.
5. Type of lanyard. When thinking about a plan for your lanyard, you must consider the different types of lanyard printing available to you as this can shape your design.
There are three most popular types of lanyards:
- Screen Printed: The cheapest and most popular type of lanyard, with screen print the ink sits on top of the fabric, giving a sharp and defined reproduction of colour. All colours, including the lanyard itself can be Pantone® colour matched, ideal for branding purposes, although this method only uses printed solid colours.
- Dye Sublimation (Heat Transfer): The most popular use for custom lanyards tends to be for branding and promotional purposes. Because of this, dye sublimation is often the best choice of printed lanyard. This method means you can print on both sides and gives you the option of your art work running off the edges of the fabric and onto the back, allowing a greater room for design experimentation and flexibility with your personalisation. Because dye sublimation is diffused into the material, not only will it never fade or rub off, but this allows for a higher quality and intricacy of detail than screen printed lanyards. So, if you have a more complicated design with images or a logo or brand with fine detail, and you are looking for photo quality replications, then dye sublimation lanyards are an excellent choice. You have a huge choice of colour palette with dye sublimation, allowing for accurate personalisation and reproduction of your design. This also allows for your branding or design to stand out from the crowd and make your lanyard an effective marketing tool. If buying lanyards in bulk for marketing or event purposes, they can prove extremely cost effective.
- Woven: If you are looking for a lanyard that is either bespoke or hard wearing then this is a good option. The jacquard fabric designs are stitched or woven into the lanyard, guaranteeing the design longevity. However, because of the more complex manufacturing method, you are limited to a smaller amount of colours than with screen printing and dye sublimation. Although colours can still be pantone matched. Woven lanyards are a professional and stylish option that lends itself well to simple but effective branding.
6. Attachments. Be sure to include attachments that can hold items like keys, ID cards or other products that you may want to attach to the lanyard. This will all depend on the purpose of your lanyard and will affect your design when it comes to choosing the correct type of lanyard so it’s best to keep any attachments in mind.
Custom lanyards can be a great way to promote your brand or organisation. With the right lanyard design, they can make a big impression on your customers or employees. Follow our tips above to get the most out of your personalised lanyards and if you want to get creative with your lanyard design then feel free!
If you would prefer to take advantage of our personalised lanyard service and use our experience to do the work, it is super easy. Go on our website and upload or email your graphics and logos over to us for your bespoke design and we will do the rest. Our team is more than happy to provide you with an electronic visual prior to you placing your order.
If you are interested in finding out more about personalised lanyards or our design process and the options you have available, please contact our team today on 0333 272 5180 or email hello@onlylanyards.com