What Makes An Exceptional Shop Banner Design?

3 weeks ago I started a discussion and asked other shop owners to share a link to their Creative Market shop if they had an especially exceptional shop banner, and optionally they could review other shop banners. It received about 40+ replies and I was ecstatic to see some familiar, well-known faces and also some hidden wonders. But it made me think, what makes a shop banner design exceptional, and why attempt it anyway?

My second question is rhetorical. As artists we tend to fill blank spaces with beautiful things; but it’s more than a space, it’s your space, and it says a lot about you and your shop.

So lets take a look at the ways that we can create stunning shop banners, convey our brand, and ultimately make more sales.

First Impressions Are Everything

A shop banner is the most obvious and foremost thing a customer will see when they find your Creative Market shop. Personality and branding is important; we all have one, and it’s your job to make sure that your shop banner conveys it in the best light. It’s also an opportunity to explain what your niche topic is.

Don’t worry if you have many different types of items, in fact I’d encourage it, but having a niche and clearly depicting it in your shop banner will help customers understand more about you.

Ian Barnard uses a lot of vintage themes in his work and his shop is aptly named Vintage Design Co. He uses unsaturated, brown colours in his shop banner, and also his very own InkPad Rubber Stamp effects on the text. Pick a niche that resonates with you and design your shop banner based on that.

Demonstrate Your Best Product

What better way to impress the customer than showing off your best creation? It doesn’t have to be a full-blown sales monologue; you might want to simply use one of your Photoshop brushes or actions (if that’s what you make) in the background. Place.to for example creates splendid custom scene mockups and samples one of them in their shop banner. It took me about half a second to understand exactly what their shop was about, and I bought the mockup!

Don’t Forget Text

By default, your name appears underneath the shop banner in a sans-serif font at 26px. While it’s quite readable, it’s likely that the typeface doesn’t represent your brand. It might sound like a no-brainer, but every shop banner needs to display your shop name, and it’s deadly important not to confuse this with your logo (the avatar space is for that). Many Creative Market shops that have a font in their repertoire often stylise their shop name with one of their fonts.

Nicky Laatz does this exceptionally well. She also explains her design focus in the subtext, showcases her watercolour textures in the background, and uses another of her fonts to tell fans to find her on Instagram and Twitter for updates and freebies. Nicky is consistently featured in the “Popular” section because she knows how to sell herself by designing with her own resources and crafting her shopfront with care.

Getting Feedback

When in doubt, ask. And that’s exactly what discussions are for. Creative Market is a tight-knit community, and the discussions area of the site has sections for both shop owners and feedback requests. Customers, other shop owners, and even Creative Market staff are always there to help lend a hand and offer advice.

Make It Your Best Work

You should incorporate the same amount of effort into designing your shop banner as you do for crafting your design resources; every section of your shopfront is an opportunity to show the customer your creativity, your brand and niché, and your level of commitment as a maker. By neglecting this area of your shopfront, a customer can easily assume that you’ll apply the same lack of effort into your customer service, and this will ultimately hinder your sales. And nobody wants that.

Do you have any useful advice that I may have missed? Share it in the comments below, I’d love to hear your thoughts!