13 Tips To Follow For Effective Poster Designing

There are quite a few marketing techniques that graphic designers have at their disposal as per the nature of the company and the industry they working in. These techniques include brochures, postcards, flyers, etc. But, for many a creative people poster designing is the most liked marketing technique. Posters are not huge like billboards which attract attention by their sheer hugeness. Posters are designed to be attached on the walls. Posters are mostly designed to communicate a message. Posters need to be attractive, eye-catching and informative. Posters could be used for a lot of purposes. They could be used by advertisers to promote an event or a film. They could also be used by non-profit organizations to create social awareness.

Posters need to be visually striking. They need to get the attention of the passer-bys on the street, enticing us to look at what the poster has to say. For creating such posters you need to be an astute in creativity and designing. There are various types of posters like vintage posters, propaganda and political posters, travel posters, movie posters, event posters, sports posters, pin-up posters, etc.

Below I have jotted down some of the most important tips to designing Posters.

1. Know the purpose

Knowing why the poster is being designed is really important. Before starting on a poster campaign, first you need understand the message yourself. Is the poster designed for an event? Is the poster designed to promote a film? These would easily affect the way the poster is to be designed.

2. Know the target audience

Knowing your audience is very important. If the target audience is the 10-15 age group, the poster needs to be designed for the kids, which some characters or kiddish fonts. If the target audience is youth you can go for some artistic elements and creative typefaces.

3. Location of the poster

This is really important. If the poster is going to be displayed in a hall, then it can be very specific, with all the utmost information in it. If the poster is going in a school, then you would need to put more explanation in it.

4. Size of the poster

Always know the size of the poster that you have to work on. This would help you to size your graphic elements and photographs accordingly. The size of the poster could be small or big. Online printing services could provide with various different sizes that could prove beneficial for your purpose

5. Visual

Posters are visual medium for communicating your message. Try to keep as less writing in it as possible. You could include one large image with graphic elements or you could use may smaller images. You could also use graphs and tables.

6. Posters should not just show but tell

Yes, poster should be designed with all the great images, graphic elements, art, etc. but it also has to be informative. For example, if you are promoting an event, you need to emphasize on the event description and the date and place of the event. For movie posters, the photograph should depict what the movie is all about.

7. Poster should be aesthetic

If the event that you are designing the poster for is meant for music and you use a image of travel then your poster has no meaning at all. The poster has to be aesthetic. If the poster is for youth you could include funky images in it but not kindergarten images.

8. Readability and Fonts

Never use different many different fonts on one poster. It makes the poster loud. Do not spread the text to different places on the poster, try to keep the text at one place. The font needs to be simple and clear. The headings are especially important as they need to be readable from some distance. You could go for sans-serif or Arial which are the basic but the best ones.

9. Information flow

Information in a poster should flow in a consistent manner be it by column or row. To make the flow consistent you could use tables for proper sections and also use numbering and point system.

10. Color

Colors are important in any designing work, let alone poster designing. Depending on the audience and the target audience the number of colors that needs to be used varies. The colors need to be used properly. You could always pre-decide on the color pallete that you are going to use. Try to keep a bit of consistency between the images you use and the colors you put.

11. White space

Whitespace or negative spaces always matter. It is the most unused element in designing. Whitespace can also be a powerful way of drawing the users attention to a particular screen element.

12. Go out of the box

Never stay in limits. Try out different things. Always remember, creativity knows no bounds. Trying something new could easily help you to get the best out of the design.

13. Feedback

Never fear feedback. Always ask people around you about your designs. Always be open for criticism, that would help to become a better designer  overall.