Sasha
5th December 2010, 01:41
this is an tutorial on banner making colapunk made in dutch, i'll try to make an an usefull translation in english so everybody here can benefit.
if you have any questions, please ask them.
First: making banners is tremendous fun, and it can, if properly done, transfer a very clear message.
you can within 5 minutes make a good impro banner with a piece of fabric and some paint, you can also take 6 hours (or even longer) to make it a beautiful one.
fabric:
-It depends on where you want to use it. but for most purposes it is easiest to go to the market and to go to a merchant and ask how many meters of white fabric, or what ever color you want, you will get for a tenner (or whatever your budget is). he usually has some waste material somewhere lying arround, or if you buy bulk you get an big discount. Dont worry that you buy too much, once you get the hang of banner making you'll be doing it a lot.
Go for the cheapest non stretchy material preferably cotton.
-At construction sites you can often "find" beautiful pieces of plastic banners with advertising on the fences. they are printed on one side, but the back is very nice white. please note that you take the solid plastic ones, not the mesh, which is not really suitable.
these banners are for many things convenient, and very suitable for painting on nice and tight. They are a bit heavy to use as a walking banner, and you need the sturdy rope to hang them somewhere...
on the other hand, make some good handles on them and in an demonstration they can double as an impro baricade against (mounted) police charges and police dogs.
-At hardware stores they sell very large pieces of orange or blue plastic. these already have handy rings to atach them to something. very usefull for gigantic bannerdrops.
paint
everything is useful. I myself am a fan spraycans, because it goes really fast, can be pretty tight, and dry quickly. but any paint that stands out on your cloth is usable.
fuck, if you feel messing around with some waterproof markers, be my guest;)
Techniques
there are shit loads of techniques to get your message on a banner.
the ways that I can think of:
Duct-tape in the form of letters / paste your picture.
possible. it is quite fast, but personally I am not a fan of it.
http://peterstormschrijft.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/foto0031.jpg?w=450&h=337
ducttape banner.
~ Variation on the duct tape technology:
do the same, but you go over it afterwards with a spraycan or paint ..
then pull the tape away, and you have stains on your cloth with letters in it! : D
-freehand painting.
very quickly and it can be very nice if you can do it a bit. but even if it less tight or pretty: you do have in no time a clear message on your occupied building or for your (spontaneous) demonstration
http://www.indymedia.nl/img/2008/07/53464.jpg
freehand banner
-The use of a "banner set".
by having a font stencil set ready, you can if you need put quickly and tightly a message on an canvas.
~ Find a nice font. for example, choose Army (standard but simple) or stencil Four (difficult but beautiful, like me). please note that you are a 'clean' option, without gritty edges, and you choose one with 'stencil bridges ",
~ Download the font.
~ Make sure you get him on something you can cut out. Some people swear by vynyl or cardboard, but I find it easiest to laminate / plastification.
So: print it out on plain paper, so that a letter is almost an entire A4 sheet. If you have any photoshopskillz make sure you print only the edges and not the letter coloring. This saves a lot of ink. score an laminator and laminating covers (the device only has to cost a tenner if you search, the covers are often ten to one hundred million pieces. Check your network if anyone have such a thing, often people have one on his / her work.
and laminate all characters you want. I myself have done all 26 characters, plus 1 to 0 , plus . , ! ? . this allows you to type virtually anything you want.
~ Cut all the letters. Use a sharp craft knife, scalpel or Stanley knife. make sure you crop the right pieces, and not demolishing the bridges.
if you do do it, you can fix it with superglue and an extra piece of plastic that you paste over it.
and then it looks if its good as this:
http://i27.tinypic.com/v4v4lh.jpg
use: lay the canvas flat on the ground. put the letter on it. if you're confident and have experience with spray cans, go ahead. if your missing one of those two, then put pieces of old newspaper or something along the edges to make sure you do not spray outside the stencil.
spray anyway not too thick. the paint will pull into the fabric, and you get very strange blotchy shit.
if you spraycan is not completely full, you can have problems if you hold the canister horizontally. yet you have to do this to get your letters. my solution: If no paint comes out, hold the cansiter upright, and spray a short burst in the air. Now go again to the canvas.
an other solution is to hang your banner on the wall but then you get drips fast.
http://i25.tinypic.com/25frk11.jpg
- freehand lettering
there are some people who can freehand with an pencil very tight profesional looking lettering on fabric and then paint it in, i'm not one of them.
appertly it involves putting out scale lines first.
you then get stuff like this:
http://peterstormschrijft.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/foto0041.jpg?w=450&h=337
- the beamer method:
a method of which I am a big fan because it is a relatively simple way to make a relatively complex picture on a canvas. it is very time consuming, but the responses I've had always made the effort well spent. this is for if you go for the 'did you ordered on the Internet? " reaction :)
how to make a banner using a beamer
~ steal or make a picture. if you can gimp (open source photoshop), do that, but for those with less 1337 skillz: it is fine to do in OpenOffice (or word, of course) a nice text and a picture next to it or together.
http://i32.tinypic.com/29g1h6a.jpg
the picture I use for this example.
~ Hang your fabric nice and tight against a wall, and beam your picture on it. You can also project using a slide- or an overhead projector, but beaming it is easier.
http://i26.tinypic.com/wlf66f.jpg
~trace all the lines using an magic marker
http://i26.tinypic.com/4vnz1c.jpg
~ switch of the beamer and take a break.
then put your fabric horizontal, and paint it in (paint by numbers style). any not to thin paint will do. just make sure its rainproof paint if you ever might want to use your banner outside.
http://i25.tinypic.com/2cz8pxs.jpg
~et voila!
http://i28.tinypic.com/6hqhyx.jpg
Psycho's super secret tip:
Why use boring white fabric? any lightly collored fabric is suitable for all mentioned techniques and for a few euros more you get an super dope effect:
http://www.indymedia.nl/img/2008/12/56180.jpg
http://www.indymedia.nl/img/2008/12/56181.jpg
(some banners i made using the beamer technique)
and for the blackblock festishists, yes, you can use black fabric too!, set your beamer on the most bright function, trace the lines with clothingmakers crayon and then paint (or stencil) with wite (latex) paint.
-not really a banner, but also cool:
with an program like posterazor (http://posterazor.sourceforge.net/)you can chop up any picture in pieces, after wich you can blow up each piece to a4 size and print it. after this you can stick it to an window or sommething like that.
http://indymedia.nl/img/2008/11/56093.jpg
if you dont have time or the patience to make an banner this is also an option! also very good to make gigantic stencils.
thanx to colapunk for the bulk of the tutorial!
if you have any questions, please ask them.
First: making banners is tremendous fun, and it can, if properly done, transfer a very clear message.
you can within 5 minutes make a good impro banner with a piece of fabric and some paint, you can also take 6 hours (or even longer) to make it a beautiful one.
fabric:
-It depends on where you want to use it. but for most purposes it is easiest to go to the market and to go to a merchant and ask how many meters of white fabric, or what ever color you want, you will get for a tenner (or whatever your budget is). he usually has some waste material somewhere lying arround, or if you buy bulk you get an big discount. Dont worry that you buy too much, once you get the hang of banner making you'll be doing it a lot.
Go for the cheapest non stretchy material preferably cotton.
-At construction sites you can often "find" beautiful pieces of plastic banners with advertising on the fences. they are printed on one side, but the back is very nice white. please note that you take the solid plastic ones, not the mesh, which is not really suitable.
these banners are for many things convenient, and very suitable for painting on nice and tight. They are a bit heavy to use as a walking banner, and you need the sturdy rope to hang them somewhere...
on the other hand, make some good handles on them and in an demonstration they can double as an impro baricade against (mounted) police charges and police dogs.
-At hardware stores they sell very large pieces of orange or blue plastic. these already have handy rings to atach them to something. very usefull for gigantic bannerdrops.
paint
everything is useful. I myself am a fan spraycans, because it goes really fast, can be pretty tight, and dry quickly. but any paint that stands out on your cloth is usable.
fuck, if you feel messing around with some waterproof markers, be my guest;)
Techniques
there are shit loads of techniques to get your message on a banner.
the ways that I can think of:
Duct-tape in the form of letters / paste your picture.
possible. it is quite fast, but personally I am not a fan of it.
http://peterstormschrijft.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/foto0031.jpg?w=450&h=337
ducttape banner.
~ Variation on the duct tape technology:
do the same, but you go over it afterwards with a spraycan or paint ..
then pull the tape away, and you have stains on your cloth with letters in it! : D
-freehand painting.
very quickly and it can be very nice if you can do it a bit. but even if it less tight or pretty: you do have in no time a clear message on your occupied building or for your (spontaneous) demonstration
http://www.indymedia.nl/img/2008/07/53464.jpg
freehand banner
-The use of a "banner set".
by having a font stencil set ready, you can if you need put quickly and tightly a message on an canvas.
~ Find a nice font. for example, choose Army (standard but simple) or stencil Four (difficult but beautiful, like me). please note that you are a 'clean' option, without gritty edges, and you choose one with 'stencil bridges ",
~ Download the font.
~ Make sure you get him on something you can cut out. Some people swear by vynyl or cardboard, but I find it easiest to laminate / plastification.
So: print it out on plain paper, so that a letter is almost an entire A4 sheet. If you have any photoshopskillz make sure you print only the edges and not the letter coloring. This saves a lot of ink. score an laminator and laminating covers (the device only has to cost a tenner if you search, the covers are often ten to one hundred million pieces. Check your network if anyone have such a thing, often people have one on his / her work.
and laminate all characters you want. I myself have done all 26 characters, plus 1 to 0 , plus . , ! ? . this allows you to type virtually anything you want.
~ Cut all the letters. Use a sharp craft knife, scalpel or Stanley knife. make sure you crop the right pieces, and not demolishing the bridges.
if you do do it, you can fix it with superglue and an extra piece of plastic that you paste over it.
and then it looks if its good as this:
http://i27.tinypic.com/v4v4lh.jpg
use: lay the canvas flat on the ground. put the letter on it. if you're confident and have experience with spray cans, go ahead. if your missing one of those two, then put pieces of old newspaper or something along the edges to make sure you do not spray outside the stencil.
spray anyway not too thick. the paint will pull into the fabric, and you get very strange blotchy shit.
if you spraycan is not completely full, you can have problems if you hold the canister horizontally. yet you have to do this to get your letters. my solution: If no paint comes out, hold the cansiter upright, and spray a short burst in the air. Now go again to the canvas.
an other solution is to hang your banner on the wall but then you get drips fast.
http://i25.tinypic.com/25frk11.jpg
- freehand lettering
there are some people who can freehand with an pencil very tight profesional looking lettering on fabric and then paint it in, i'm not one of them.
appertly it involves putting out scale lines first.
you then get stuff like this:
http://peterstormschrijft.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/foto0041.jpg?w=450&h=337
- the beamer method:
a method of which I am a big fan because it is a relatively simple way to make a relatively complex picture on a canvas. it is very time consuming, but the responses I've had always made the effort well spent. this is for if you go for the 'did you ordered on the Internet? " reaction :)
how to make a banner using a beamer
~ steal or make a picture. if you can gimp (open source photoshop), do that, but for those with less 1337 skillz: it is fine to do in OpenOffice (or word, of course) a nice text and a picture next to it or together.
http://i32.tinypic.com/29g1h6a.jpg
the picture I use for this example.
~ Hang your fabric nice and tight against a wall, and beam your picture on it. You can also project using a slide- or an overhead projector, but beaming it is easier.
http://i26.tinypic.com/wlf66f.jpg
~trace all the lines using an magic marker
http://i26.tinypic.com/4vnz1c.jpg
~ switch of the beamer and take a break.
then put your fabric horizontal, and paint it in (paint by numbers style). any not to thin paint will do. just make sure its rainproof paint if you ever might want to use your banner outside.
http://i25.tinypic.com/2cz8pxs.jpg
~et voila!
http://i28.tinypic.com/6hqhyx.jpg
Psycho's super secret tip:
Why use boring white fabric? any lightly collored fabric is suitable for all mentioned techniques and for a few euros more you get an super dope effect:
http://www.indymedia.nl/img/2008/12/56180.jpg
http://www.indymedia.nl/img/2008/12/56181.jpg
(some banners i made using the beamer technique)
and for the blackblock festishists, yes, you can use black fabric too!, set your beamer on the most bright function, trace the lines with clothingmakers crayon and then paint (or stencil) with wite (latex) paint.
-not really a banner, but also cool:
with an program like posterazor (http://posterazor.sourceforge.net/)you can chop up any picture in pieces, after wich you can blow up each piece to a4 size and print it. after this you can stick it to an window or sommething like that.
http://indymedia.nl/img/2008/11/56093.jpg
if you dont have time or the patience to make an banner this is also an option! also very good to make gigantic stencils.
thanx to colapunk for the bulk of the tutorial!