A year-long cultural programme is not one event. It is dozens of them, run by different organisers, in different venues, under one identity — and the wristband has to hold that identity together while still telling a volunteer at a door which event a guest actually paid for.
For the Tartu 2024 programme the answer was one printed design in two colourways.
One artwork, two colours
Printing a separate wristband design per event is the obvious approach and the wrong one. It multiplies the artwork rounds, it fragments the visual identity that the whole programme exists to build, and it means ordering small quantities repeatedly at the worst price break on the sheet.
One artwork in two colours does the opposite: a single print setup, one large run, and a distinction that a door volunteer reads instantly from two metres away. Colour is the fastest signal a human processes — faster than a printed date, much faster than a number.
Why full-colour printed rather than woven
Woven bands are more durable and feel more premium, but the weave limits how fine the artwork can be, and a city-programme identity is usually a designed mark with gradients or a photographic element. Dye-sublimated print on polyester reproduces it exactly, edge to edge, on both sides if wanted — and for a band worn for one evening, durability past the evening is not what the money should go on.
Clôture
These use a one-time plastic lock. For a public programme with free and paid events in the same week, a non-transferable band is the point: a slider band can be passed on at the exit, and at that price per piece it will be.
What to plan for in a programme this size
- Order the year, not the event. One run at the start beats twelve small runs, both on price and on consistency.
- Leave a blank panel. A small unprinted area lets an organiser write or stamp a date, which buys a third distinction for free.
- Choose colours that survive photography. Two colours that read as different indoors and in flash photos, not two shades of the same hue.
Produits utilisés
Bracelets en tissu imprimé · Bracelets en tissu tissé · Bracelets en tissu fluorescent for night programmes. Category: Bracelets en tissu.
