You ask “How can I effectively create interest in my event using poster design?.”
Promoting your events with great poster design can boost interest, brand awareness, and attendance. This article will cover the basics of creating attractive posters for any occasion. You will learn how to get started, decide whom you are trying to reach, good design practices, design software tools and the printing process.
“Thinking about design is hard, but not thinking about it can be disastrous.” Ralph Caplan
Getting Started With Poster Design
Before you even “put pen to paper”, you’ll need to determine a few things. These include:
Poster Placements
There are several places where posters can be hung to draw attention. Knowing what the typical location looks like can help you with effective design. Store windows in public places can be ideal. However, you should consider things like reflections, lighting, time of day and more.
You should assess the walking patterns of passers-by, the lighting and the typical distance expected between the poster and the viewer. If the poster are 20-30 feet from the viewer, then you should ensure that the poster title can be effectively seen from that distance. If not, then the title should be made larger. The International Sign Association states that text should be one inch tall for every twenty five feet of distance.
We used the trout as the main display component in order to attract the most attention from a distance.
Print Specifications
Printing Quantity
You may ask why knowing your printing quantity before designing the poster matters. If you need less than 2500 copies of anything printed, then an RGB color palette (in the art) can be used. Once your print job exceeds 2500 copies or so, it then becomes less expensive to use the offset printing process. Offset printing uses a CMYK color palette instead, where each of the four colors are printed one after another. Be mindful because an RGB palette does not always transfer precisely to a CMYK palette. The colors can vary if changing from one to another mid-way through a project.
Lastly, if you have a deadline for your poster, you need to ensure that your chosen print company can print the project on time.
A dynamic background was used to emphasize the event style and tone.
The artist’s name is prevalent in the design due to his notoriety.
Whom Are The Posters Targeting?
The poster design needs to appeal to the group that you are seeking the attention of. You should consider their age bracket, culture, gender and more. Then, you can begin your poster design with some direction. For example, if your event is a gardening exhibition, then you likely don’t want to use geometric shapes with blue and gray colors. The design should likely feel organic and use pleasing warm shapes and colors.
Further, if the gardening exhibition is to be held at a senior center, you want the design to appeal to an older demographic. Perhaps the use of more traditional design components as opposed to jarring bright colors (which youth may appreciate, instead). Designing for the audience that you are trying to reach smart first step.
Let’s Get To The Poster Design!
There are several factors involved with designing effective posters for marketing events.
Poster Titles
The title of your poster is a critical component. It will one of the main thing that draws attention from folks walking past. As mentioned above, the title needs to be large enough to be seen from a distance. Also, you may want to summarize the topic of the event with a catchy slogan. If you are drawing attention to a concert featuring several bands, you may want to use something like “Live Music” or “Battle of the Bands” as opposed to listing the band names or the event name which may not draw interest. Doing so provides a summarized and simple message to poster viewers.
Colors, Palettes and Contrast
The colors used in your poster should reflect the style of the event.
Style and Tone
The style and tone of your poster design should be representative of the event itself. A poster promoting a live music event should be upbeat, colorful and attention getting. While a poster commemorating a historic event may need to be more serious oriented. The chosen color palette should also represent the event properly. Bright colors can exude excitement where less saturated and cooler colors may apply more effectively to a historic commemorative event.
Font Use
Font choice can also be an important factor in designing posters for events. In general, you don’t want to use more than two or three font styles. Doing so can make the message hard to consume. We here at Wicked Design will often use a font style for the poster headings and another font for body text. This is not a hard and fast rule, but do avoid overuse of font styles in one marketing piece. Also, try to choose fonts that are representative of the event itself.
The Five W’s
As with most marketing pieces, the standard rule of the five W’s should always be considered. These include Who, What, Where, Why, and When. Leaving out critical event information can lead to folks walking away from the poster, even if they were attracted to it in the first place. Make it as easy as possible for the viewing public to know exactly when and where the event will take place. The five W’s are: Who, What, Where, When and Why. These should never be left off a poster design.
QR Codes In Posters
The use of QR codes allows poster viewer to quickly access the website URL associated with the event, rather than hand-typing it into a browser. QR codes can often be generated within some deign tools, or there are website that will create them for you without a fee. One such website is: www.qr-code-generator.com. They will create a basic QR for you with just a URL. To make money, the company offers fancy codes with frames, colors, and patterns.
QR codes can be used to track viewers who use the QR code to bring up the associated website. This valuable information reveals some of the poster effectiveness. If you are familiar with using Google Analytics, then a special code can be placed within the URL behind the QR Code.
You can learn more about this process here: https://www.qrcodechimp.com/how-to-set-up-utm-tracking.
Use Of White Space
An important aspect to poster design being effective is the proper use of white space in the design. You don’t want to fill your design with clutter, the brain needs space for the eye to glance without being overwhelmed. In general, it is said that 30-40% of the design space should not contain content. Here is a lengthy article that discussed the types and uses of white space: https://www.dochipo.com/white-space-in-graphic-design. The article mentions component such as positive and negative white space, using it to visually group similar topics, increasing legibility and harmony, and creating more contrast.
Get Your Great Poster Design Printed
Wicked Design produces marketing pieces throughout the year, mostly for our Loudoun County, Virginia clients. For printing services, we usually offer local and online options for printing. Until recently, ordering printing services from online companies was less expensive. In general, this is no longer true.
Because many of our clients want to support local businesses, we end up referring them to local print shops. The advantage of using local services, aside from price, is the personal interaction with your printer. if something is out of place with the art, they will simple call you and ask for clarification. It create a useful partnership for future needs.
Promoting two events in a poster can be busy but unavoidable.
Get Your Great Poster Design Printed
Wicked Design produces marketing pieces throughout the year, mostly for our Loudoun County, Virginia clients. For printing services, we usually offer local and online options for printing. Until recently, ordering printing services from online companies was less expensive. In general, this is no longer true.
Because many of our clients want to support local businesses, we end up referring them to local print shops. The advantage of using local services, aside from price, is the personal interaction with your printer. if something is out of place with the art, they will simple call you and ask for clarification. It create a useful partnership for future needs.
Poster Design Summary
Designing posters for event can be fun and exciting. However, failing to take the appropriate steps when you begin can be costly. Design mistakes can lead to you poster being ignored altogether. If the design is too small or cluttered, no one may pay attention. Abiding to simple rules and steps will go a long way in create event buzz and awareness.
We used a lot of red space here to leave room for the design elements to stand out.
Wicked Design would love to you design your event posters. Please contact us to learn how.
