Learn from the Best: Poster Design Tips from Leading Illustrators

Source: behance.net (screenshot)

With the emergence of social media, using posters or any sort of traditional printed promotional material might seem a bit out of date. For instance, as much as 81 percent of event organizers use Facebook to promote their events. However, the fact that creating an event on social networks is currently the most effective method of advertising doesn’t mean that posters have lost their significance.

Firstly, printed posters can be used in combination with online promotion, simply targeting different people and improving exposure. Secondly, posters have stopped being an exclusively printed media a long time ago, with digital posters being widely used as an integral part of online promotion. Thirdly, posters don’t have to have promotional value nor they have to be promotional at all – their function can be purely artistic without having to be of any practical use. In other words, posters are still very much alive.

There’s no definite formula for a good poster – it depends on what you want them to achieve and the people you’re targeting. Nevertheless, there are a lot of tricks that are useful to have in mind anyway. Especially if they’re coming from the best in business. Let’s go through a few of the most important ones.

Create a hierarchy

First things first. You want your poster to be clear, informative and to convey a message, either about an event or a more general one. This is done through creating a visual and typographical hierarchy of elements. Those elements that you find most important or you feel like they should stand out should be physically bigger, different in style or simply put in focus in some other way. Take this New York Fashion Week poster for example – there’s a lot of info written on it, but it doesn’t seem cluttered and the most important pieces of info are clearly emphasized. Movie posters usually follow a similar formula.

Use colors to evoke emotions

The task of most promotional posters is to simply draw attention. Red, yellow and orange are known to be best attention-grabbers, but be careful not to overdo it and make your poster too flamboyant, nor use them in the context where they simply don’t fit. Think about which emotion or mood you want to inspire – blue can induce trust and comfort, orange is perceived as a playful and energetic color, while green symbolizes growth and success. Using contrasted colors the proper way is also a decent strategy. Take a look at how it’s done with using literally just a splash of red and black.

Less can be more

Sometimes, trying too hard to grab people’s attention can have an undesired effect. People tend to be overwhelmed with flashy and bombastic ads, banners and billboards and have become insensitive to them. That’s why keeping it simple is a growing trend, not just among poster creators but also among top website development and design agencies. A clean and minimal approach helps you put the spotlight on what’s most important. These brilliant movie poster redesigns use very few elements to capture the essence of a movie and some of them definitely did it better than the original ones.

The power of photos

Using photos can be a good starting point for your poster and give you some extra options. A photo shouldn’t clash with the textual elements and fight with them for attention, but should instead complement them and help you transmit the message. Photos can make your poster feel real and relatable. If you choose a photo of a human face, it’s best to make it so that they look straight into the viewer’s eyes. This is a great way to grab their attention, just like if the human from the photo was real. Amnesty international did exactly this in their attempt to convey an important political message.

Play with typographical elements

When it comes to typography, the most important thing is obviously that it’s clear and legible. It’s also very useful when you want to create a hierarchy, and selecting multiple fonts can further help you do this and make your poster a bit more dynamic at the same time. Also, typography doesn’t have to just convey the message, you can make it the focus of your whole design. Here’s an amazing exhibition promo poster that’s able to both tell and show the story about the artist by giving the letters an additional function.

Use the symbolism of shapes

In poster design, shapes can be used to guide the viewer’s vision in the direction you choose. Triangles can be particularly useful in this respect. Shapes are another visual element that can help you establish the hierarchy and the dynamics of your poster. Moreover, you can use their symbolism to transmit messages and ideas in a very subtle and delicate way. If you want to evoke the feeling of completeness, harmony and perfection, use circles; if you’d like the viewer to be left with the sense of firm order and reliability, use squares; and spirals can be very useful to hint at some esoteric and mystical concepts. A very famous example of putting shapes into focus comes from the history of art: Bauhaus was a movement that used geometrical patterns to ingeniously express the most abstract and profound of ideas.

Spend a day with it

Source: unsplash.com

The last piece of advice goes beyond the world of design and seems to be applicable to any sort of creative work. When you’re finished, let the hype and excitement cool off a bit. As an artist, while working on something you’re absorbed by it and it’s impossible to take an objective stance to judge how good it really is. Once you’re happy with your work, get away from it for a bit and once you get back you might get a new perspective and notice some details you couldn’t have seen at first, or you might even decide it’s not any good and start all over again. So don’t rush things.

Meaghan is a web designer who is also quite passionate about digital marketing. These days she is all about researching various IT related topics and collaborating with other bloggers. When she is not working she enjoys dancing classical ballet.