How to Design a Simple Poster

A bold image helps make an effective poster.

Posters announce ideas, events and products when printed and posted in public view. They should be eye-catching, easy to read and convey a clear message. Keeping this in mind will help you to design an effective poster. The subject of the poster should help determine colors, graphics and lettering styles you will want to use. The design of the poster is a guide used to produce the finished art, which will then be printed and distributed for display.

Things You'll Need

• Pencil
• Art gum eraser
• 8 1/2-inch by 11-inch unlined white paper
• 22-inch by 28-inch white poster board

Instructions

Assemble Poster Contents

1. Write a main title for your poster at the top of a sheet of 8 1/2-inch by 11-inch unlined white paper.

2. Sketch or draw a shape to represent an image you wish to use on the poster below the main title.

3. Write information such as event dates or times, locations, names or how to get further information under the sketch or shape. Include enough information to help a viewer to act on it, but keep it short.

Make a Rough Draft

1. Print the main title of your poster in pencil at the top of a blank piece of 22-inch by 28-inch poster board. Center it and make it all caps. This should be the largest text on the poster and take up about one third of the page.

2. Draw your image or shape large enough to take up about a third of the space below the main title on the poster board.

3. Print out the information you wrote on the 8 1/2-inch by 11-inch paper on the bottom third of the poster board. The text should be large enough to be seen from some distance, but not as large as the main title. Center the lines of printed text.

Refine Your Rough Draft

1. Experiment with the layout of your rough draft on another piece of poster board. Try making the main title larger or smaller.

2. Try aligning the main title, the image and other information on the left or right side of the board.

3. If the image you want to use is very bold or bright, or includes text, try putting it at the top of the poster with the main title and other information underneath.

4. Repeat steps 1-3 in this section until you are satisfied with the look of your poster design. Use your favorite version as a guide to produce the finished art for printing.

5. Let the subject of the poster inspire your choice of fonts, colors and images, then write notes about your choices on your pencil design. A printer or production artist can use these to more easily prepare final art and give you the results you want.

Tips & Warnings

• If you know how to use a page layout application on a computer, you can use the pencil draft of your simple poster design to create finished art yourself. These programs often have many fonts and images to help you to be creative.

• Bright colors and large, bold face fonts work best to attract attention to your poster and communicate its message quickly and effectively.

• Observe copyright laws for use of images or copy elements.