You’re ready to make a poster. The creative juices are flowing and you have a deadline to meet, but wait! Don’t start without reviewing these 4 important poster design tips.
The User Comes First
This is probably the most important tip for creating an effective poster design. Scratch that, it’s probably the most important tip for creating any kind of design. That is, the user comes first.
Before you even begin designing, ask yourself – what is the purpose of this poster and for whom am I designing it? Am I selling something? Am I educating people? Am I promoting something? Who is my audience and what do I want them to get out of this? It may seem trivial, but taking the time to write a simple sentence defining why you’re printing a poster and who you’re making it for can give your design direction and purpose.
Reduce Clutter
Ideally, you want your poster design to have one single feature item, that’s one thing that stands out and grabs the viewer’s attention. If your design is dragged down by congestion, too many colors, too many textures or just too much “stuff,” that’s not going to happen. Instead, look at your design and ask yourself, what is the focus here? Is it clear? Does it stand out?
Use Text Sparingly
A poster is all about grabbing someone’s attention. Don’t get bogged down trying to tell a story with text. Instead, rely on graphics. It’s pretty obvious the poster above is for Batman, even without the text. If you need to use text, do so sparingly and be sure to integrate it into the graphic itself. Separating your text forces your viewer to split their attention, meaning you’re less likely to hold it.
Think Big
It’s a poster, it’s big. That means your design has to be big and so does your resolution. Taking a 20 x 20 pixel .gif of your logo and blowing it up to 200 x 200 inches just doesn’t work. It’s going to be blurry. Instead, start with large images, work on your design and always review your proofs to make sure everything looks poster-perfect before you send to print.
This has been a guest post from Samuel Nam and Jessica Whyte from blog.uprinting.com.
Yes, yes, yes and yes! All good points, all well put.
Tracey Grady´s last blog post: Busting the myths: what Graphic Design ISN’T
Good points, but also think of where the poster will be. Will it be glued onto a wall inside a building or will it be out on the streets where people rush by? Because font size has an important role then and if a title is too small, people wont notice it.
Tracey,
Yup! I thought CC readers would enjoy it.
Ilse,
Great point! Thanks for bring it up.
Less text – more graphics is a basic tip.
really grab attention !
Your top image with ?-mark and batman poster is the evidence
Romarto,
Indeed! Thanks for your comment
Reduce clutter, well, I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking: “if only my clients thought that!” And, one single feature item is a fantastic and a golden rule. That Batman Begins poster is beautiful!
Rob Cubbon´s last blog …How to market yourself #9: How to get people to contact you from your website
The Batman poster is stunning isn’t it, I love the way they had the idea to view a scene from such an interesting angle.
One thing I don’t tend to do is integrate the text with the imagery that much when compared to this poster when I think about it.
I’ll think about that next time I’m designing an advertising layout.
Amanda Vlahakis´s last blog …Work Experience In Graphic Design
Wonderful post…Thanks for sharing.
That batman poster is awesome and got a lot of attention when the movie was coming out. Prime example of how to get your audiences attention.
The Dark Knight´s last blog …The Riddler
Thanks for the tips… Im in a graphic design class and have been trying to find tips for a while. The thing is I am not very artistically talented so I need all the help I can get. You have any more tips? Well I guess you don’t have to answer Ill keep browsing the site. Thanks again.
excellent tips…so effective poster design
Planning the purpose is important as you say. This process is followed in all aspects of project management and yet we forget the simple rules of establishing the planning and framework for why we are creating a project in the fist place. Thanks for the tips and reminder.
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