Usage of blank space in trade banner and text-positioning

Question

and thanks for your continued feedback on my trade banner that I am creating for my friend pro-bono. I've consolidated all the feedback from to create the below:

• Stucturing information on this trade show banner

• Drawing attention to this banner by using color

My issues at the moment:

• Still a bit clueless about what to put in the empty space and its been bothering for the best part of a few days. Any ideas? The company in respect is building a no-code development platform.

• Text all around the middle looks a bit claustrophobic, maybe my mind doesn't like the centering of the first two blocks and the left alignment of the bullet points. There's too much space to the right of the left justified stuff. I've mooted centering the text and dropping the icons but then I lose some colour as a result.

Note that the empty space below the opsonion.com logo is intentionally left blank (that's where the roll up holders will sit).

Image with borders:

Answer 1

This is merely my opinion... take it all with a grain of salt.

Realize that I know nothing about your company, it's audience, the target market, the nature of the trade show. What you sell, what you profit from, who your owners are.. etc.... all of this helps target a design.

I have merely focused on visual elements in your given image. This is a visual rework, not a marketing rework, which may or may not be needed.

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I think overall... it's a boring design. It's not a bad design, by any means. It's just not very enticing or interesting. Everything is centered, flat, straight on. Nothing to promote motion or interest.

I actually, thought your original banner was far more engaging due to angles and minimalism. This one..... looks like 80% of the trade show banners I've ever seen.... nothing to make me walk across the room.

I think you should stick closer to your instincts as shown in your first design.

• Use angles to promote "action" and "movement".
• Use color to pull the eye around
• Don't be afraid of being "bold" with large, prominent type.

Merely suggestions....

Answer 2

Claustrophobic text:

I think your current issue is that this text is too similar to the text below. It's a tad bigger but otherwise same color, same weight. I would try to increase the differences so the eye doesn't get confused with those two levels.

"Empty" space

I would try to add some depth and create unity by reusing small elements in the illustrations lower in the banner. Those rounded strokes and maybe small cubes. If you make them bigger, it'll add depth, but do make sure the color isn't too contrasting so that the elements don't steal the main focus.

You should also minimize this space by lowering the design in the banner to add a bit more space at the top. It's hard to control what people see around your banner so giving some breathing room to that logo can't hurt it, and it addresses the empty space concerns at the same time.

Edit re: OP's comment: I do think there's too much space on the right of the three points. I would not align them to center, but I would push the group, towards the center and have its left edge sit aligned with something else on the banner, likely the left side of the left-hand character in your visual.

Answer 3

I would

• center-align all text content
• make the logo, main headline and website address 15% smaller, which would leave just about the right amount of whitespace around the edges
• move the website address up and make it look like a blue rounded corners button on a white background
• remove yellow and red borders, remove blue background
• possibly add some more decoration around the text objects