Help building a collapsible banner.

[Darmalus]

I've gone to a few meet-ups recently, and I've noticed it can be difficult to find other attendees even with minimal amounts of unrelated traffic in the area. So I had the idea of making a banner I can stand up next to me while waiting, and collapse down to a manageable size to carry.

I haven't built anything more complicated than IKEA furniture in years, so I figured I would get some advice before I put my money where my mouth is.

The design I've scratched out is it should be 7 to 7.5 feet tall, fully extended, with a crossbar at the top to hang the banner, high enough to stick up past my head while resting on the ground. I would like it to compress to less than 3 feet in length, 2 feet would be preferable.

I did a quick scan online and the results were mostly telescoping tubes that were either far too long, too short or were still excessively long compressed.

Any advice, pointers or suggestions would be appreciated.

[madd0ct0r]

if you're doing a lot of things like that, something like this might be worth the effort: http://www.ddisigns.com/catalog/banner- ... tands-pdf/

[salm]

How about a photography tripod with extension? They tend to be very collapsable and exist for taking pictures form above or for lighting purposes.

[LaCroix]

Or... *shudder* a selfie-stick. It got a snap on or screw connector at the end and folds down to pocket size. You can Attach everything to the one end, and it can be held like an umbrella and extends a good meter or so.

Costs about 20 bucks, plus a visit to the DIY shop to get a matching screw to attach things.

I'd go all out and install one of these camping alam blinky light/torchlight combos - highly visible and is something useful in your pocket, as well. Better than a banner, imho.

[madd0ct0r]

good call that - selfie sticks came up in the last engineering team meeting - people wanted to use them to stick their phones down holes and behind things their head couldn't fit.
The boss decided a go-pro would be more fun at the weekends.

[salm]

If you don´t require it to stand on its own you don´t need a 20$ selfie stick. Just any old telescope broom stick will do. And if you don´t have one lying around you can get them for like 7 bucks on amazon.

[LaCroix]

If you don´t require it to stand on its own you don´t need a 20$ selfie stick. Just any old telescope broom stick will do. And if you don´t have one lying around you can get them for like 7 bucks on amazon.

The selfie stick does have the advantage that it collapses into pocket size. Collapse, pocket it, forget about it. The broomstick, he will have to carry.