An All New Product, Just For You!

At long last, we are proud to announce the newest addition to the Esigns family. Introducing all the way from Brighton, Michigan (drum roll please)... Indoor Banners!


These are the best of the best, the cream of the crop. These rectangles of awesome are printed using a 6 color process at 1000 dpi. We use our UV resistant inks to ensure the bright vivid colors you know and love.

That is not even the best part.

The 12oz Vinyl they are printed on? Amazing! For starters, it is smooth. very smooth. When you run your hand over it, the material feels like a piece of high quality paper only thicker and made of vinyl. The indoor banners will last for several years. It is also a blockout material. These banners are perfect for POP displays or other indoor signage and window graphics. Light won't pass through the material so the colors won't show through on the other side. And, while we dont recommend testing this, these banners are fire resistant. They don't get much cooler than that.

As with all Esigns vinyl banners the indoor banners will have hemmed edges and grommets. They are made with the same love and care you expect from an Esigns product. Check them out, I'm sure you will be thrilled with them.

Stay tuned for more exciting news from Esigns.com.

Till next time...

Colors and Their Meanings

Colors have power. It may not seem like it but colors invoke emotion and thought. They can get you fired up or calm you down. When used together, colors can project ideas and messages. The right color combinations can invoke a sense of professionalism, environmentalism or creativity. Without careful consideration, the wrong colors can make or break a design. A vinyl banner for an environmental group would have a different color scheme than a corporate business card.

Below are some of the most common colors and their meanings. For the sake of clarity, we will be discussing the meanings from western culture (U.S. and Europe). If you are working on a design for a different region of the world be sure to look into the differences of that culture. Colors mean different things across the globe.

Energy, power, love

Red is the color of fire and passion. It can also represent energy, love, power, aggression and war. When one "sees red" they are angry and fired up. It gets the blood pumping and gets people excited. In design, red is used to draw attention. It can be great for advertising a hot new product or drawing diners into a new restaurant.

Warmth, balance, creativity

Orange is another color that demands attention. Similar to red it stands for energy and warmth. But it can represent balance, enthusiasm and creativity and is used to represent a new outlook on life or a new dawn. Used with red this color is perfect for gyms, aerobics classes and studios. As with red, this is better used as an accent color rather then the focal point of the design. It will draw attention so a little can go a long way.

Joy, optimism, hope

Yellow is a joyful color. It can represent joy, happiness, optimism, idealism and hope. Lighter yellows are great for summer camps and day cares that want to invoke a carefree attitude in their campers. When combined with other "warm" colors, it can create high energy designs that will get people pumped up and ready for action.

Nature, luck, youth

Green is the color of nature and luck. Its can also be used to represent youth, generosity and money. Companies that are environmentally friendly are said to be "going green". Green is the perfect color for sporting good stores and camp sites and vegetable stands. It can be used to calm people and help them feel closer to nature.

Peace, trust, loyalty

Blue is the color of peace and tranquility. It can inspire unity, trust and loyalty. Blue also can present a corporate identity and loyalty. Blue is great for any design that wants to calm people and make them feel welcome. Lighter shades can be used to represent sky and water. When combined with green blue can reinforce a nature theme. When combined with black and gray, blue can inspire loyalty and stability.

Royalty, mystery, creativity

Purple is the color of royalty. Back in the day, purple was a very difficult and expensive dye to make and was reserved for the monarchs. It can be used to represent mystery and enlightenment while a reddish tint to purple can represent creativity. it is great for photographers and artists. It is also great for places that want to promote a feeling of elegance such as high end restaurants and country clubs. They can also be used by the supernatural community to promote and air of mystery.

These tips aren't just for graphic designers either. Anyone who purchases a banner or has something printed wants to spread a message or project a certain image of themselves. Colors are a great way to reinforce any message and you want to make sure you pick the right ones. A company that specializes in making businesses environmentally friendly would not want to use the same colors that a manufacturing company would use. A trendy and new restaurant may want to use red and oranges for their color scheme to help draw in a certain crowd and get them excited and pumped up for a game while a coffee shop in a bookstore may use blues and greens to promote a calmer atmosphere. Colors should be chosen to enhance your message, not just because they look pretty and with proper thought can do more for your message than just words. Combine that with a high contrast design and large text and your design will have the maximum impact.

Black and white are discussed on our facebook page, or if you can't wait to start designing your banner, hop on over to our custom banners page and have some fun.

Till next time...

A Pigment of my Imagination

Here at Esigns we print a lot of vinyl banners and we get and get asked a lot of questions here about color. The most common one is "Should I set my file to CMYK or RGB colors?" Many others ask "Why does that matter?" and "What are you talking about?" Well, I'd like to answer those questions.

Before we go into that, lets talk about how colors are produced naturally. Colors are produced by the light that is reflected off of an object. Objects that are a certain color will absorb all other light except for that one. I see the colors I see because its what they bounce off of themselves and into my eyeballs. I can't see a can of coke as green because it absorbs that particular color, so it doesn't reflect off the can into my eyes. It can be kind of confusing but it's an important concept to keep in mind when discussing colors.

RGB vs CMYK
The two most widely used color modes are CMYK and RGB. CMYK is usually designated for print media (vinyl banners, books, flyers etc.) while RGB is used for digital media (websites, television, digital graphics). The color mode is determined by how the color is produced or how the colors get from white to black and back again.

What does RGB and CMYK stand for?

RGB and CMYK represent the colors that are used in each color profile. RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue. CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. Why use K for black? When color printers were being designed they originally used Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow but those alone were not producing satisfactory results. The makers of the printers discovered that black was the "key" to producing the colors they wanted and thus the "K" for black.

CMYK colors are known as subtractive colors. When you print, you usually start with white paper or some other media. Yes, there are colored papers out there but for the sake of clarity, we will pretend they don't exist. To produce the colors, you add ink to the media which then makes it darker. You are subtracting the light that is reflected off of the material and it produces the color. When all of the colors are added to their fullest degree you get black. CMYK is percentage based and the K is just extra, leaving us with about 1,000,000 million colors that we can print.

RGB colors are known as additive colors and essentially works in the exact opposite way of CMYK. When your computer or TV screen is not displaying anything, it is black and is not producing any light. To get color on your screen the pixels add light in varying degrees to produce a wide gamut of color. When all of the colors are added to their fullest degree you get white. RGB, being light based, uses 256 levels of brightness for their three colors, meaning 16,777,216 color possibilities. That number again, so you know it wasn't a typo, is sixteen million, seven hundred seventy-seven thousand, two hundred sixteen.

Way more than Crayola can make

What should I use?

When we print your banners and signs we actually set the files to RGB. Even though our printers use CMYK keep them calibrated to "fake" RGB colors and make sure that the colors that are seen on the screen are the colors that you receive. So, long answer short, either works fine but know its CMYK printing as closely as possible as RGB.

If you would like to learn about the difference between Pantone and CMYK check us out on facebook.

Fall Into Color

Halloween is almost upon us and with it comes all of the ghouls, goblins and ghosts you can possibly imagine tromping up to your door begging for candy. Not to mention all of the parties and haunted houses you can dream of. There is no better way to welcome trick or treaters than a custom vinyl banners.

Also, for the month of October, while helping your family dentist, you can also help research a cure for breast cancer. Use the discount code "pink-ribbon" and we'll donate 10% of your order total to the Karmanos Cancer Institute.

There is one thing that makes a Halloween design stand out from all of the other holiday designs. That is color. Halloween banners almost always have the colors black and orange. That makes sense. Those are the holiday colors. But I have always wondered who picked them out and why? Why do those colors work so well together?

After much thought, I have a theory. I imagine that the color orange comes from the jack-o-lanterns that are a staple of any serious halloween decorator and black obviously represents night, when all of the monsters come out to roam the earth.

But, why do they work so well together?

In this case the answer is the high contrast the colors produce, not to mention all of the symbolism that is associated with the colors. But you get the idea of where we are going with this.

What are contrasting colors?


On a color wheel, contrasting colors are colors that are directly opposite each other. They can also be commonly referred to as complementary colors. When they are used in design, they produce highly visible results, however you should be careful. Some combinations when used on top of each other can some times produce visual vibration. When this happens, the colors will look as though they are vibrating and moving. This is a cool effect when you are creating an optical illusion, however when working with banners and signs, it is something you want to avoid.



Take a look at the two designs above. Both use colors with high contrast, however because there is no separation between the colors, clash and fight for dominance in the design and are hard to look at for an extended amount of time.

We have mentioned before that one of the keys to a highly visible design is high contrast so how can you do that with out hurting your eyes? The key is to find colors that have decent contrast but are not directly opposite each other on the color wheel. That way they will help each other stand out without competing. They will enhance your message and help your design have the most impact. There are as many color combinations as there are colors out there and simple experimentation will allow you to find the best ones for your design.

Next time, we'll talk about the difference between RGB and CMYK. We may also discuss the meanings and symbolism behind some colors.

Till Next time...

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

This month, instead of talking about signage, but about something else that we're passionate about; people. One of our greatest thrills is hearing the stories of how our signs have helped others. Some celebrate loved ones coming home or birthdays or anniversaries. Some help adventurous business owners strike out on their own and compete. Still others help groups of like minded people affect change in their communities.

We are serious about helping others, which is why we've decided to join the fight against cancer, by helping the Karmanos Cancer Institute.

I personally remember walking the halls of Karmanos (in our nearby Detroit) to visit a loved one. I walked into their building with fear and trepidation, but I left with confidence. Confidence that they were doing everything possible to treat her.

Cancer does something to a person that's hard to define. It can consume your identity. Rather than being "John" or "Linda" you suddenly become "John, with cancer" or "Linda, with cancer" and that becomes your identifying characteristic.

The people at Karmanos don't believe that. They care for their patients in a way that is both professional and personal. They treat cancer like a temporary obstacle, rather than a definitive end. They give grace and dignity to the people under their care.

-Christopher Culver
Esigns CSR and son of a Cancer Survivor

So we figure that with your assistance, we can help. We at Esigns.com are doing our part to help. Whenever you enter the discount code pink-ribbon, Esigns.com will donate 10% of your order total to the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, Michigan. Each order will bring us one step closer to saving lives and beating this disease. Show your support with a vinyl banner or yard sign, and know that every little bit helps the ones you love.

Spread the word, help a friend and together we can find a cure.

'Till next time...