7 Design Rules for Promotional Tote Bags

Did you know that 87% of people find promotional tote bags useful?

Tote bags are a creative and fun way to advertise your business to large groups of people. Your customers will love the free gift, and in return, increase your brand awareness by advertising your company or brand to thousands when they are out and about with it. 

If you have never designed a promotional tote bag before, you may have a few questions about how your bag should look. 

How do you design a bag that people are going to want to use? Are color schemes that important? And what about fonts?

If you’re asking yourself these kinds of questions, wonder no longer, because we’re here to help!

In this article, we’ll tell you seven design rules that you should follow when creating a promotional tote bag. We’ll help you design a bag that people will want to carry with them, and in return, get some new customers with walking advertisements!

Let’s get started!

1. Keep it Simple

When planning your canvas tote bags, it’s important to keep your design simple and easy-to-read.

Sure, you want something fun and creative that pops and catches the eye, but advertising your brand or business effectively is the main goal. You want any passersby to be able to read your bag and instantly understand who and what it represents. 

Simply put, don’t try to do too much. Less is always more, especially in the case of design. 

2. Design For Your Audience

It’s important to keep your audience in mind when creating a tote bag. For instance, if your tote bag is promoting a local video game store, your goal should be to create something that gamers are going to find aesthetically pleasing. 

You’ll want to pick fonts, colors, and other design elements that are going to appeal to gamers and make them want to use the bag. If you can achieve this goal, other gamers will also notice the bag and you’ll have a chance to gain a new customer or two out of it. 

3. Choose the Right Colors

Choosing the right colors for your promotional tote bag can be a bit overwhelming.

Between the color of the bag itself and the colors used in the design, there are an endless amount of options available to you. While creating a fun and eye-catching design is important, it’s even more important to use colors that go well together and are pleasing to the eye. 

You also want to pick colors that fit with your brand or company’s identity. 

For example, let’s go back to the video game store concept for a second. Something like a black tote bag with a neon green video game controller on the front would work and appeal to your audience. However, if you’re the owner of say, a floral design shop, those same colors and artwork wouldn’t make any sense. You would be much better off going with a pastel palette or similar light and bright design.

4. Avoid Color Discord

It’s important to avoid color discord in all aspects of graphic design, including when designing a promotional tote bag. So picking colors that compliment each other, and avoiding colors that clash, is an absolute must.

Remember, people are going to be seeing your tote bag at various distances. You want a design that’s appealing and legible up close, as well as far away, so that everyone can read the bag and understand what it’s promoting. 

5. Fonts Are Key

The only thing that may be more important than color choices is fonts. Again, you want to choose bold, legible fonts that people can read from a variety of distances. You may love spidery, dramatic fonts, but if no one can figure out what the design says, it isn’t going to do you much good.

It’s also important to pick fonts that convey what your brand or business is about. Again, a font that fits the identity of a video game store isn’t going to work as well for a florist. 

6. Use Both Sides

Don’t forget that a promotional tote bag has more than one side.

Now, this isn’t a requirement, and will most likely cost extra, but consider using both sides of the promotional tote bag to display two completely different designs. You could place an image on one side and text on the other, for instance.

This will give the person carrying the bag a choice of which design they prefer and increase the chances of them using your tote bag for everyday use.

7. Get People Talking

Creating an awesome looking, conversation-starting bag should be one of the main goals of anyone designing a promotional tote bag.

If someone finds your bag so interesting that they ask the person holding it what’s it’s about, you’ve opened up a chance for some word-of-mouth advertising.

The chances of that person becoming a customer have increased and you’ve reminded the person that owns the bag that you exist, which is an added bonus. 

Use These Design Rules to Create an Awesome Tote Bag!

Well, there you have it! These are the seven design rules you need to keep in mind when designing a promotional tote bag.

Remember, you want your tote bag to be legible from a variety of distances. That’s why it’s important to choose fonts and color schemes that make your design pop, but not to go too overboard.

Be sure to check out our blog, where you’ll find more graphic design tips and tricks you can use to create awesome advertisements for your brand or business!