10 Tips for Perfect Poster Design

You have one glance to grab someone’s attention with a poster. High contrast between elements can help you do that. Forget a monotone color palette with pale gradients; go bold with color and type options.

The top priority of a poster is generally to expose someone to an event. Key information should be easy to read from a distance to held draw people to the poster and create a hierarchy in the text.

This is important: Where is your poster going to be located? This factors in several ways, including the size of the poster (and possibly aspect ratio), visual clutter around the poster and will the people who see it appreciate your call to action?

While poster design is primarily a print project, create mini versions that can be used in other places as well.

Whether you choose a photo, illustration or text, a dominant image is key. And just like the text, it needs to be readable from a distance.

When it comes to posters, use exaggerated spacing between elements. It may look a little funny to you at first, but the extra spacing will dramatically increase visual impact and readability at distances.

The goal of every poster is to expose people to something. Most of these “touches” involve inviting someone to something, such as a concert or movie or other event. For that reason a call to action is vital. Think of it in the same way you would if designing a call to action for a website or app – give it a high-level of prominence in the design.

Poster design is one of those places where you can really go crazy with beautiful typography. Some of the best posters are made with type and color, with no images or illustrations.

Depending on the location and audience for your poster a cool printing technique might be in order. There are a lot of things you can do on paper that just don’t work in digital projects. This might be the perfect opportunity to try out something like letterpress, screenprinting, foiling or use of a UV layer.

Poster design is a place where designers can have a lot of fun. While there are plenty of things to think about and consider, this is an area where you can break the rules and go a little crazy with design.