What to know about branded shade umbrellas for your next event

From industry events to engaging expert advice for specifying a branded shade umbrella for your next project, Tradewinds’ Laurie Stewart shares everything you need to know about the different products on offer, the design process and choosing the right umbrella for different spaces and applications.

Laurie: If you have an area where you potentially have people sitting or gathering, then we have an umbrella that would suit that. Through discussion, we gather information to try and understand what the customer's needs are and help them make the right choice. The only real advice we give is around the size of the umbrella, depending on the area that you want to cover, whether or not the tables and chairs are involved, in what type of venue it is and the style of event.

For branding, as long as we have a good quality logo, we can brand the umbrella. We can also help with design. We have storyboards and mockups so customers can see what’s available, or what their ideas look like. For instance, a brand we worked with recently wanted something a little bit more than just a logo – we took some of the visuals that were associated with the brand and created a design.

Laurie: We have two main ranges of outdoor umbrellas. The Tradewinds range where the company name comes from. Each year, around 80% of Tradewinds umbrellas that we sell are branded umbrellas.

Any umbrellas that have a Stella Artois, Speights or Corona logo, as well as anything that is Asahi branded – such as Carlsberg or Peroni – we have supplied. We also work with a lot of wineries and we've started to recently get involved with businesses that are not in the hospitality trade. We've worked with some businesses that are linked to agriculture – JCB Construction, for instance.

The other range we do is called Shadowspec. Shadowspec umbrellas can be used commercially with branding, as well as for residential domestic uses. Most of what we do for Shadowspec are the large cantilever umbrellas – single canopy right up to four canopy, so we can do a six metre by six metre shade system.

Laurie: If you wanted an umbrella with your face on it, all we’d need is a photograph. Although the fabrics that we would use for this type of branding is a little bit different to the standard umbrella. It is more for events where the umbrellas might only be used once or twice, rather than be outside a hospitality venue for three, four or five years.

Laurie: We like to be part of that initial conversation during the planning stage. After that, we can work alongside anyone involved in the project.

The process itself is very straightforward. As soon as we determine where the umbrella is going and how it’s going to be fixed, we can place the order. So it's easy from that point of view. But things like matching colours, making sure colours fit nicely with different projects and making sure the umbrella is in the right position need to all be considered. Cantilever umbrellas can rotate, so one cantilever umbrella which is maybe three and a half metres in diameter can actually shade a much bigger area than its size because you can rotate that and manage the shadow.

We're here to help people make sure they're choosing the right shade for the circumstances, for the project, for their venue.

Get in touch with Tradewinds to learn more about branded shade umbrellas for your next project or event.