During the spring break, I was charged with the daunting task of creating a poster for the school play, Dorothy Meets Alice. I was stumped. How do you create something that is both aesthetically pleasing, and will get your message across?
I spent a lot of time researching effective poster design and general art composition, and I learned a lot. Here are a few tips for spectacular poster creation, and  few examples for inspiration.
1. Get straight to the point.
If your poster is too busy, the viewer will have too much trouble finding a focus. The result? It’s unattractive and won’t create an impression on your viewer.
Additionally, leave space. Rests are to music as space is to composition. If you want something to stand out, leave some space around it and see how much more effective it is!
2. Let it flow.
The poster is like a work of art. The viewer’s eye should travel along the page in the order that you want them to. One way I test flow is to walk away from my composition for a while, then come back and remember how my eyes travel. Alternately, you can ask someone else to do this for you.
In the IDEAS example poster above, you are drawn to the IDEAS text, then the “onemanysmallbigany”, then to the bolded “Innovation Awards 2006”, then finally to the smaller headings and information. It is all as the designer intended.
3. Colour palette.
Contrast and bright colours are the biggest eye grabbers that you can use. Use them, because contrast makes your poster nice and bright colours makes people look at your poster.
Also, use a nice colour palette – not too many colours, which will give your poster a messy, muddy, “kaleidoscope” feel. Instead, stick to a few main colours which you will use throughout the poster.
The colours should also match your theme. I needed to create a poster for Dorothy Meets Alice, which is based off of two children’s stories. So I opted for a softer palette, with pink, light blue, light yellow, and gray.
As a side note, I love the pink/turquoise or pink/light blue combination, especially with yellow, gray, or brown. It’s so cute and soft, and it’s also extremely versatile.
I feel it’s a bit too cluttered, but I think it’s time to abandon ship on this project
4. Say what you want to say. No more, no less.
The text part of your poster is your message. Don’t say too much, or none of it will get across. Instead, ask yourself what the main point of your poster is. If it’s a non-smoking poster, your main text should be, “Don’t smoke.” or something of the sort.
5. keep it simple
Too many graphics just causes eyestrain. Stick to a few.
6. Take a step back.
Finally, when you think you are done, take a step back and look at the whole thing. If it hurts your eyes, make changes. Usually I squint a little, just to check the spacing, colours, and if it is too cluttered. This helps to see if your poster is too empty/cluttered or if it attracts focus to the wrong point.
I hope this helped!
Kathy(:
