4 Effective Poster Design Tips You Should Know

Creating a great poster design is important for your marketing campaign. Learn the most effective poster design tips on this guide.

The average person sees 5,000 advertising messages every day. Even so, people are aware of less than 100 of those messages.

This makes gaining a person’s attention extremely competitive. Without an effective poster design, your poster will fail miserably among the competition.

Fortunately, creating the perfect poster isn’t as hard as some make it out to be.

Read on to learn the four-poster design tips you need to know to beat out the competition and get noticed.

1. Discover Your Poster’s Purpose

The first step in effective poster design is to define your poster’s purpose. There are several different types of posters, from movie posters to political posters to posters for events and more.

Each type of poster has different requirements. A movie poster, for example, can’t give away too much of the movie and has to include the movie title and director. An event poster, on the other hand, wants to inform as much as possible without getting crowded.

What your poster is promoting will help with all of your design decisions.

2. Check Out Poster Templates

Not tech-savvy or in a time crunch?

You can use poster templates to help you design a great poster in no time. Just pick out a poster template that works for your poster’s purpose and start replacing the images, colors, and text with your own.

Even if you decide to create your poster from scratch, it’s always a good idea to check out templates for excellent poster design inspiration.

3. Choose the Right Poster Design Elements

There are a lot of design elements to keep in mind when designing the perfect poster. Whether you use a template or design from scratch, you have to make decisions regarding color, typography, and imagery. Below are some important considerations to keep in mind.

Your poster’s color scheme plays an important role in effective design. Color can be used to add drama through contrast, tie into your brand, or even evoke certain emotions. Be sure to understand color psychology and what each color means in advance. Some color combinations have associations you might not want to be tied to your promotional materials.

Similarly to color, your typography or font choices can say a lot about what you’re promoting. Different types of fonts can feel warm and friendly, while others are better at establishing credibility.

Are you using more than one font in your poster? You’ll also want to make sure you’re using font combinations that go well together.

The other big design element to keep in mind is imagery. You’ll want to think about what types of images are most relevant and fit the poster’s message. You probably wouldn’t want to use artsy illustrations for a law firm.

4. Use Poster Design Tips For Hierarchy

Now that you know what colors, fonts, and images you intend to use, the next step is to make sure they’re formatted correctly. While design is creative in nature, and you should have fun with it, there are a few rules to follow.

First of all, the most important information on a poster should be the biggest. This is usually the name of the movie or event.

Having larger elements draws the eye and helps keep the poster readable from a distance – one of the most important aspects of effective design.

The less important an element is, the smaller it can be. If it’s not important or the information can easily be obtained elsewhere, sometimes the best option is to leave it out. This keeps your design clean and attractive.

Your design can be as complex or simple as you want, so long as you make that choice based on how well it ties in with the idea you’re selling, and the reader’s eye is drawn to the key points.

Putting It All Together

The most important of all poster design tips is to define your poster’s purpose. This is what’s going to make for an effective design in the long run.

While designing, be sure to try out some templates for your personal use or inspiration. As long as you switch them up with your color, typography, and image choices, they can make designing the perfect poster easier.

And always remember the rule of poster hierarchy. The more important it is, the bigger it should be.

Come back often for more tips and content!