Designing a poster : What to know

Posters are designed to communicate a message to cause great impact on the viewer.To make the posters more communicating, it should have a precise message Remember! your goal is to convey a clear message

and support it with a compelling combination of images. 

  List things you want your audience to learn?

What is your message! 

• Combine them to create one sentence.
• Derive your main message - be bold & be explicit.
• Symbollise what you need to say
• Focus on your message throughout the poster.
• the message conveyed should hit the target audience well
• and stay in their minds for a longer period of time to make an impact.

Graphics

• Graphics in poster matter a lot,
• it is necessary to find the most appropriate graphics
• The graphics can lead to message distortion.

Colors

• Colors play a vital role in attracting the audience and retaining their interest
• balance amount of colors that will be used in the design, taking into consideration the message
• The number of colors being used is far important than the way it is used.
• Sometimes using four colors is effective; however, in some cases one or two colors may also have a great impact on the viewer.

Information

• Information overload can spoil the message and confuse the reader
• A posters should have different reading levels in the space available

Emotional Element

• to attract the audience, emotional appeal has a greater impact.
• your poster design should have at least some emotional element in it.

Poster comopistion

• A proper composition creates a combined impact.
• These elements are text, image, layout, color and miscellany.
• The combined influence comes from elements in the poster.

Location of Display

• The location where you want to display the poster is important
• Notice Boards
• Bus Halt
• Store
• Public Wall
• Hoardings
• Computer

Audience

The targeted audience to whom the message is being conveyed

An effective poster is ...

• Focused : Focused on a single message.
• Graphic : Lets graphics tell the story; uses text lightly.
• Ordered : Keeps the sequence well-ordered and obvious.

  

An effective poster operates on multiple levels

• source of information
• conversation starter
• advertisement of your work
• summary of your work
• An effective poster uses a visual grammar.
• An effective poster shows, not tells.
• An effective poster attracts enthusiastic audiences

A poster uses Visual Grammar

• An effective poster uses a different, visual grammar.
• It shows, not tells. It expresses your points in graphical terms.
• It avoids visual chaos,
• It guides the viewer by using a visual logic
• It emphasizes the main points.
• All elements are visible from 4 feet away
• It displays the essential content - the messages - in the title, main headings and graphics.
• It indicates the relative importance of elements graphically:
• each main point is stated in large type-face headings;
• details are subordinated visually, using smaller type-face.
• The main headings explain the points

Many posters suffer from

• main point is hard to find
• text too small
• poor graphics
• poor organization

Define your audience

- Who will learn something from your poster

- Who will you want to see the poster

27 Poster Design Inspirations

http://webdesignfan.com/27-vibrant-poster-design-inspirations/