Poster Design Tips (and experiences)
Published on Sunday, December 9, 2007 – 5:45 pm
I want to share with you some of my poster design work and the tips that I came across during the process.
Over the past few months I have been working for a Nightclub in Newcastle, Australia designing their in-house posters (you can see a few below) advertising different events held at the club.
Update January 2010:
Due to my hosts doing a runner on me, I’ve unfortunately lost all images on this page. I apologise for the inconvenience.
The problem with designing these in-house posters was that I had to design them to be printed at A3 and A5 while also being able to be viewed correctly in a square format at 150 x 150 pixels on the web. This was quite a design problem, but I did learn a lot throughout this process.
The 3 posters above were the first ones that I had designed without any knowledge of poster design.
After reviewing these posters on forums and with other designers I learnt that the first 3 posters I had designed were too busy, and their wasn’t a clear hierarchy.
This lead me to do a bit of research on poster design (which I should have done in the first place).
In a nutshell, I found that an an effective poster should be …
- Aesthetic – It should get attention so the message is delivered.
- Focused – It should focus on a single message.
- Ordered – The sequence should be well-ordered and obvious.
If you then compare the first 3 posters to the poster I designed after the research (below), you can clearly see the difference. The poster now has a clear hierarchy with DRU HILL being the main focus and the date as the 2nd focus. It is aesthetic, focused and ordered thus making it a successful poster.
On a similar note, I have just designed an invite for my 20th birthday. This year, I have a fluoro (it’s spelt fluoro not fluro if you didn’t know) theme for my party as fluoro is in fashion this summer in Australia. Below is the invite that I designed for it. I was influenced heavily by the electric style of the clubs here in Sydney, along with their random combination of images and vector graphics.
What are your opinions? I take constructive criticism well so fire away 
It’s how you learn.
For further tips on poster design check out Effective Poster Design.
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- May 15, 2008: How To Design A Movie Poster
- Sep 26, 2008: Poster guide | Web-to-print Help
Alireza Rezaei on Oct 18, 2008 said:
Dear Jacob
Thanks for your tips in graphic design. They are very useful. But about the posters of the club I like your first designs(2nd & 3rd) more than the one you know the best. I accept that the last one is focused on one thing and it is not too busy, but I think it is very serious for a night club and the colors will not attract young people.
Jacob Cass on Oct 18, 2008 said:
Thanks for your feedback Alireza however the poster was to be placed inside a club where clubbers already are, so the bold name I believe, works more effectively in this case.
Damantoro on Dec 30, 2008 said:
Hi Jacob,
thanks for the tips. its simple and very usefull.
assisted by profssional animator, I am developing educational poster for Jakarta BRT system to change people behavior in using our public transport system.
it quite challenging but again thanks for the tips. I will share to you the result ya…
thanks
Antony Ferreira on Jan 5, 2009 said:
Hi Jacob. Im from Portugal, and i have recently discover your website. No doubt you know how to motivate and give usefull information. Those tips about poster desing will be usefull. Learnig whith mistakes right?lol. About the invite that you designed for your 20th birthday, honestely i didn’t like it. there is too much noise, and althoug you wantend a electric style it should be softer ore in a way that wouldn’t corrupt the mesage. that’s my opinio, only a student, amateur designer starting the first steps. Sorry if my english have too much mistakes. Hug, keep the good work
Mohammed ali on Mar 27, 2009 said:
Hi jacobs iam from dubai, an self started designer.Poster design is really diffrent i love your style. only one thing i fthe face of the men is grey or 75 percentage of the black is much better. just a sugesstion only. i hope u will reply to me. i love to learn a lot of things from u.
keep in touch
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