Guides / Sponsor tiers: how to show them without it looking odd
Sponsor tiers: how to show them without it looking odd
Tiers exist so that a sponsor who paid five times as much does not appear the same size as one who paid the minimum. The difficulty is showing that clearly without the page looking lopsided.
Two or three tiers, no more
Headline and everyone else is often enough. Headline, featured and supporting is the most anyone needs. Once you have five tiers the size differences between adjacent ones become too small to notice, and the hierarchy stops communicating.
Give the top tier a different position, not just a bigger size
Making a headline logo 20% larger than the rest reads as a mistake. Making it noticeably larger and putting it somewhere structurally different, beside the title or alone on its own row, reads as intentional.
A common arrangement: headline sponsors either side of your event logo at the top, a featured row beneath, then the main wall. The position does the work and the size reinforces it.
Keep the tier obvious without labelling it
You rarely need the words "Gold Sponsor" on the board. If the layout is doing its job, the hierarchy is already visible, and the labels just add clutter. Save them for the programme, where the detail belongs.
Across multiple pages
If your sponsors spread over more than one page or slide, repeat the headline sponsors on every one. They sit in the header rather than the main grid, so they cost you no space, and a lead sponsor should be on screen whichever page is showing.
Honouring what you sold
Check the sponsorship agreements before you lay anything out. "Logo at twice the size of standard sponsors" is a commitment, and it is easier to design around it than to redo the board after someone notices.
Do this automatically
Sponsor Wall does the sizing, background removal and tiering described above, and exports every format at once. Free to organise and preview.