Media, Branding & Outreach·Lesson 9 of 29

Graphic Design for Print & Digital

Produce professional buttons, sponsor packets, banners, slide decks, and social graphics using templates and a consistent system.

The graphic designer's job on an FRC team

You will produce a steady stream of assets: buttons, sponsor packets, pit banners, award presentation slides, social graphics, and merch. The secret to doing this fast and well is templates plus your brand system.

Tools

Canva - the most popular choice for FRC teams (FRCZero notes some teams do nearly all their graphics in Canva); great free templates, easy collaboration, and Canva for Education is free for schools.
Adobe Illustrator - vector work (logos, anything that scales or prints large).
Adobe Photoshop / GIMP - photo editing and raster composites.
Figma - free, collaborative, great for designing templates and web mockups.

Print vs. digital basics

Resolution: print needs 300 DPI; screen needs 72 PPI. A logo that looks crisp on a website may print fuzzy if it's a low-res raster - use vectors for print.
Color mode: CMYK for print, RGB for screen. Colors shift between them, so proof a test print.
Bleed: for anything printed to the edge (banners, packets), extend artwork ~0.125" past the trim line so there are no white slivers after cutting.

Designing buttons

Buttons (badges/pins) are FRC currency - teams trade and collect them. The most common size is the 2.25-inch round button. You can outsource them or buy a 2.25" button maker (e.g., American Button Machines) and press your own.

Design at the press's required template size, which is larger than 2.25" to wrap around the edge - follow the maker's template exactly.
Keep key art and text inside the safe zone so nothing important wraps around the curved edge.
Make several designs: your logo, a fun seasonal pin, and a "trade" pin people will want.

Sponsor packets

A sponsor packet is often the most important document your team produces. Design it to look like a real company brochure: cover with logo, a short team story, your impact numbers, sponsorship tiers with clear benefits, and a contact/call to action. FIRST publishes a Sponsor Packet template and a "How To: Sponsor Relations" guide on its FRC Team Management Resources page. Many teams (e.g., FRC Team 5417) post their own public packets that show tiered benefits and clean layout - study a few before designing yours.

Slides, banners, and social graphics

Award/pit presentation slides: clean, few words, big visuals, consistent fonts - the Impact Award guidelines reward presentations that are "compelling" and consistent with your essay.
Pit banner: large, readable from across the venue, featuring number, logo, and sponsor logos.
Social templates: make reusable templates for "match win," "meet a member," "thank you sponsor," and "event countdown" so posting is fast and on-brand.

Workflow tips

Build a shared Canva or Figma team so everyone uses the same brand kit (colors and fonts pre-loaded).
Keep editable source files, not just exports, so others can update them.
Always export both a print (PDF/CMYK) and a web (PNG/RGB) version.

Key takeaways

Use templates plus your brand kit in Canva/Figma to produce on-brand assets quickly
Respect print rules: 300 DPI, CMYK, and bleed; use vectors for anything that scales or prints large
Buttons (commonly 2.25-inch round) are trade currency, and a polished sponsor packet is often your most important document

Go deeper

Lesson quiz

Required

Answer all 3 questions correctly to complete this lesson.

1.Your team is sending a sponsor flyer to a professional print shop. Which color mode should the file be in for accurate printed colors?

2.What is the standard minimum resolution for raster images intended for high-quality printing, versus what is typical for web/screen use?

3.You need your team logo to stay perfectly sharp on both a tiny sticker and a large competition banner. Which file type is best?

Answer every question to submit.