In our last two articles, we’ve seen the technical parameters (colours, fonts, sizes) to consider and the errors to avoid in order to get off on the right foot when it’s time to create content for your Nummax display.
In this last article, we’ll discover the secret to optimizing the composition of your messages with some practical examples. You’ll no longer see advertising posters in the same way!
And to save you time, Nummax offers you templates for different software that you can use to edit your first content.
Remember, these are messages in a bright dynamic display that will be seen by a moving audience, during a very short lapse of time.
So your message must be easy to read and easy to understand with an impactful hook.
It’s quite a challenge!
Create content composition for your digital display
The way you create your composition will play a role in how your message is perceived. We’ll look at a way to prepare your content that will help you save time. If you follow our recommendations, half your job will be done.
With the digital LED display, we work with very low amounts of pixels due to the pixel pitch. If you want to stream content on a Nummax LED Pro Poster 4mmHB ax, its measurements in pixels are 160 x 240.
In your editing software, we recommend that you work in these dimensions. You will quickly see if any text or image is unreadable.
The secret to a successful composition is:
- Prioritize the information
- Use a minimum amount of text
- Choose an illustration that is easily-identifiable by your audience
- Use effective contrast (see our 1st article)
- Select the right fonts, primarily sans serif (see our 2nd article)
Here are some examples in which you will find components from the above list:
Now, here’s the layout we recommend to build effective content for your Nummax LED display:
- Choose a background that will highlight your message. Use a solid colour, large colour areas, simple geometric shapes, and contrasting gradients.
(Avoid textures of small patterns that often display poorly due to pixel pitch). Don’t hesitate to read our first article for examples of backgrounds. - Your hook or title must be short and clearly legible. Very often, this will be the largest text in your image.
- Your image/illustration must be sufficiently contrasted, identifiable by all (cultural references) and correspond to your catchphrase or title.
- Additional information specifies the hook (price, discount, date, quantity, etc.) and can be contrasted in a geometric shape on a plain background.
- You can add a second piece of information or a call to action.
- At the bottom of your composition you can put a line of detail. This text will be the smallest of your composition and shouldn’t be an essential part of your message. We’re talking about things like disclaimers and legal notices.
4 additional tips for creating your content
- Limit yourself to 3 different fonts, maximum. Even if these fonts are from the same family, as soon as you use them in bold, italics or with a distortion, they become a unique font.
- Align, align, align. Align your texts in relation to each other. Align in the centre or justify the texts to the width of your composition, or align in relation to your illustration. Content with aligned elements will be more quickly deciphered by your audience’s brain.
- We all know it; human beings are narcissistic. In your advertisements, never hesitate to include expressive human images like in this illustration. In the case of a message for your LED display, a character can be your main illustration if you don’t have a product to show. Your audience will always be drawn to look at another person’s expressive ‘face’.
- In the West, the reading direction is from left to right and from top to bottom. The observer’s gaze always ends at the bottom right. It’s good to know this. Now you understand why prices are often displayed at the bottom right : )
File formats for your LED display
Nummax displays are controlled by the Nummax Manager software.
This is hosted on Nummax’s servers in Canada, and provides many possibilities to schedule your marketing to distribute your content.
However, it’s not computer graphics or video editing software. It’s therefore important to prepare your media files before loading them into the software.
Whether you prepare your messages in Photoshop, CorelDraw, PowerPoint, After Effect or any other software, you’ll need to export your composition in image or video format.
The only types of files allowed are images and videos.
Different formats are accepted by the Nummax Manager software. For images, use jpg, png, or bmp. For videos, use wmv, avi, or mp4.
If you’re using the cloud version of Nummax Manager AIO, you can also upload animated gifs and videos in mov. (Mac) format.
The Nummax Manager software doesn’t accept pdf., Word, PowerPoint, Excel or any other application-specific files.
To stream a particular file to your Nummax screen, we recommend viewing it on an unreferenced web page and posting the URL of that page to Nummax Manager.
Using the web to display content provides a range of possibilities that we will cover in a future article.
5 Templates to get you started quickly
Below are some links to files that you can open in your favourite programs to compose your content. Just click on the link to download the compressed file.
The templates we offer are built for a Pro Poster LED 4mmHB (160×240) but you can adapt the files for your other LED display formats.
Template POWERPOINT for LED Pro Poster (160×240)
Template CORELDRAW for LED Pro Poster (160×240)
Template PHOTOSHOP for LED Pro Poster (160×240)
Template ILLUSTRATOR for LED Pro Poster (160×240)
Template AFTER EFFECT for LED Pro Poster (160×240)
Nummax offers you its graphics service
Despite the various tips that we’ve been able to give you in our articles, it still takes a creative and critical eye.
Don’t panic, Nummax offers a content composition service for your displays and can also remotely manage the content on your displays.
You’ll always be in control of your content and will be able to manage your marketing at all times.
Find out more!
