Effective Design Tips for Large Format Projects
Large format printing refers to printing on a much larger scale than standard, used to make a bold, eye-catching statement with long lasting impact. Done correctly, large format projects can enhance your brand’s space and the image portrayed to your customers. In this blog, we’ll help you understand what’s important when it comes to designing your large print, to ensure the finished product is top-quality and right first time!
By Daniel Deakin, June 2025.
5-minute read.
The first step in ensuring that your large format print is striking is checking that the colours you have used will be just as vivid once printed than on your computer screen. We recommend designing your print in CMYK mode rather than RGB because, while RBG looks bright on screens, it won’t translate to accurate print colours, meaning you could spend valuable time recreating the project if it doesn’t look right when printed for the first time. To ensure your print comes out how you envisioned, use CMYK to determine which colours are best to use for your space.
*TOP TIP* – Print a sample of your CMYK colour ways, before you place your order, to double check how the colours will look once printed for the full-size project.
Is your text legible? It is vital that your audience can read any text on your prints very easily, to ensure you capture their eye and keep their attention. If people can’t read something quickly, then they won’t stick around to make out what is says, meaning they’ll move on, and your print won’t have made a long-lasting impression.
This is essential for text-heavy prints such as educational pieces in museums or informational prints in retail spaces, to ensure the audience can engage with the exhibition. Make sure the font size is large enough, and the chosen font style is clear and well formatted. Also, ensuring that your font colour contrasts to the background of the print will help your text to be legible and grab your audience’s attention.
To reflect the high-quality of your brand, your print should be just as good! To make sure your print design looks the way you envisioned, double check that all the images used are in high resolution. If low resolution images are used, once printed on a large scale, the images will be pixelated and look highly unprofessional, which diminishes the overall quality and impact of your print.
Investing time into suitability and analysing the quality and resolution of the images is crucial to making your print seem perfect upon scrutiny – this is especially important in large format projects any imperfections will be magnified.
Finally… include your bleed! Bleed is the extra space around your design to prevent unwanted white edges after trimming. Be mindful of the layout of your design, ensuring that elements like text and logos are away from the edges so they aren’t cut off when printed and sized for your project, but ensure your background extends to the bleed area.
Make sure for curved projects, that key information isn’t lost and is visible from all angles. This will enhance the effectiveness of your print and improve its long-lasting impact on your audience, ensuring consistent brand recognition and repeat visits.
Always make sure you are working to a clear specification and that your design and artwork passes through quality control checking and proofing prior to printing, to avoid any cost of expensive reprinting.
Speak to our team about how Leach can support you for your next large format project, ensuring the highest standard print every time.
