Want to get more out of your swim team? Consider upgrading your facilities with a custom swimming & diving record board. A swim record board can help address two main challenges swim coaches face. The first is the need to recognize the history and hard work of past athletes. The second is how to motivate current athletes to keep breaking records. King’s College coaching staff had these in mind when they asked us to help design a record board for their natatorium.
Our art department maintained three fundamental design objectives for the King’s College swim record board project. Find out how these objectives make natatorium record boards the perfect showcase for swimming and diving records.
START WITH A CLEAN DESIGN
A quality swim record board starts with a clean layout. By nature, record boards contain a lot of information. Once you apply all the events, names, years, and records to the design, you are not left with a large amount of space. A flashy, over-designed board can be distracting and make a record board difficult to read.
Following the principle of “less is more”, your design should be relatively simple with a focus on a clear organization of information. One of the ways the King’s College record board achieves this is through the use of colored columns. The center events column is displayed in a vibrant yellow that draws immediate attention.
Moving from the inside out, school records are displayed in white, followed by pool records in red. This variation breaks up the large amount of information into smaller chunks that are easier to digest.
Finally, a simple header with die-cut logos and title bar finishes the design. These custom-cut shapes create a unique look by breaking outside of the typical rectangular shape. This impactful detail, along with on-brand color and font selections keep look clean and focused primarily on the records themselves.
KEEP VIEWING DISTANCE IN MIND
Another big factor to consider when designing a swim record board is viewing distance. After all, what good is a record board that cannot be easily read? We typically recommend shooting for between 1.5” to 2.5” tall lettering. This range allows for approximately 48’ of viewing distance on the smaller end and up to 85’ at the larger size.
Every natatorium is different, so it is important to estimate approximately how far away the audience will be from the board early on to ensure a successful design. For King’s College, the 2” tall type worked perfectly.
MAKE SURE YOUR BOARD IS EASY TO MAINTAIN
Because the entire point of a record board is to motivate athletes to smash records, you want a board that is easy to update. The King’s College record board is designed with removeable record plaques that are attached with an industrial-grade Velcro system.
When a record is broken, they will simply reach out to us and we will ship out a new record panel. In moments, the old panel can be replaced with the new. Ghosted alignment markers printed on the surface of the board ensure proper alignment every time.
The end result is a board that is easy to read, easy to update, and adds a splash of color to the natatorium area. Alumni and fans can visit and see past accomplishments, while current athletes now have something to remind them of what they are trying to achieve. We look forward to seeing records broken at King’s College in the years to come.
Are you interested in making your swim accomplishments stand out? We would love to work with you on a board that recognizes past records and helps motivate your current roster to break them. Reach out today! Our reps can answer questions, highlight the options available, and send you a custom proof and quote.