Written By: Anabelle Portman
Photo by Yonghyun Lee on Unsplash
Posters have been used for years to catch the attention of every business’ niche market. Nowadays, they continue to still be used as one of the most effective and simplest forms of marketing. However, a professional poster design is still key to a successful marketing strategy.
Well-designed posters are an excellent way of grabbing your target audience’s attention but what makes a poster stand out from all the others? While standard features such as your business logo and poster size are of course important factors to consider, these alone will not necessarily be the eye-catching details you need.
While hiring a graphic designer may be one of the surest ways of creating an awesome poster, we’re sharing five secret tips to help you create a professional poster design. Let’s get you started on creating the spectacular poster your business needs to make an impact!
Take Advantage of Contrast and Color
Contrast is what makes a professional poster really stand out and make an impact on the viewer. Make use of different shades, colors and tints to create contrast. Black and white do contrast each other and are often used for marketing posters but adding a splash of color will make the poster stand out even more.
Image: Big Think
You can be creative with colors. Use bright colors to draw the attention of the person looking at the poster or incorporate a range of colors that are distinctly different from each other. Color intensity can be further enhanced by making use of a variety of geometric shapes that add to the contrast.
Tip: A skilled marketer understands the association of emotions in brand identity design. Many colors relate to a certain human emotion and if you can touch someone’s heart, you increase the chances of engagement. So, a branding color palette is what can make your company poster instantly have impact on your niche market.
Text: Layout, Typeface, and Typography
Being aware of text layout, typeface, and typography is essential to making your poster readable without the viewer having to squint. A typical poster design uses three layers of text.
- Top layer: This is the headline and is written in bold text that’s readable at a distance, using an eye-catching typeface.
- Middle layer: More information about the product or services advertised is placed here. This is essentially the message of the poster. The text is normally half the font size of the headline.
- Bottom layer: Further information can be placed here using smaller print.
Image: Postermywall
Tip: Creative use of typeface and typography will make your text stand out and easy to read.
Go Big On Visuals
Posters rely on visuals to convey the message to its viewers. This means you want to use exciting and eye-catching visuals. The visual is what makes the passer-by want to come up close and read the information. If your visuals are boring, then you can forget about attracting any attention to your product or services.
A visually impressive poster makes use of great lines, typeface, and color but also of space. This normally means leaving larger spaces between the poster’s elements. This is one of the easiest ways of making your poster readable even at a glance.
Image: Pinterest
Tip: Creative use of images is also essential. The secret here is to use one large image one can see from a distance while making the viewer curious about the message of the poster.
Include a Call-To-Action
Whether your poster is being used for online marketing or in your store, without a call-to-action (CTA) it’s pretty ineffective. After all, the reason you’re designing a poster is to ask your audience to take some form of action. Essentially, your poster is an advertisement and the CTA guides your audience in what they need to do next.