Poster Design Guide: How To Make An Eye-Catching Poster In 2023

Do you need to boost your product views so that many people may recognise your brand? Do you think that creating content posters may help you achieve your goals? As far as the sales and marketing industries are concerned, posters, whether online or physical, is one of the most effective and time-tested advertising strategy businesses are doing right now. That’s why we have the perfect poster design guide for you.

Poster Design Guide: How to Make an Eye-Catching Poster?

An effective poster attracts customers and makes them more interested in your products. Also, remember the saying first impression lasts? That’s the main objective of creating a poster. You want your materials to be as creative as possible to strike a good impression on every viewer who sees your content.

However, not all designs can make a person’s head turn, especially if they look crowded and messy. That’s why it is necessary to go back to the basics of poster-making and learn all that you need to know about graphic design from scratch. 

So, here are nine essential tips on how to design a poster: 

1. Design a Professional Poster with Adobe InDesign

Adobe InDesign is an application used to create online and digital flyers, brochures, posters, and other forms of visual communication, such as magazines and books. This app is well-known and acknowledged by most professional and intermediate content artists as it provides a wide range of tools necessary to create great designs. You may install the app through Adobe Creative Cloud or purchase it individually through Adobe Systems.

If you want to go beyond templates to create a really professional and bespoke-looking poster, then you should consider using Adobe InDesign. It’s not the easiest program to use, so consider going on a training course first, such as the one from Acuity Training, which provides hands-on training, private coaching, books, and tutorials. 

Furthermore, these classes make it easier for someone who has problems regarding their work as the live instructor may teach them the proper and correct way of executing tools and styles. All the training and learning you acquired may not be helpful if you don’t put them into practice. As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect. 

2. Define Your Goals

Do you want to inform your audiences about your products and services? Or do you want to entertain them with your content? These are the questions you need to answer to determine what goals you are trying to achieve. 

Before you start creating your content, the first and foremost thing you need to do is identify your goals. For example, if you want to inform your customer about your coming sales and promo, you need to ensure that your posters are strategically designed to attract potential customers. 

If you don’t have any idea what your goals are, then stop creating anything. It may only lead to confusion that your customers won’t probably like. So, make sure that your goals are clearly stated before anything else. 

3. Determine Your Target Audience

After you clearly state your goals, the next important thing you need to do is determine your target audiences. Are you trying to address professionals? If so, you may need to apply designs that look formal and knowledgeable, such as plain typography and basic colour palettes. 

If you want to address the younger generations, you may need to use designs with an excellent blend of colours and smart use typography in terms of size and font choice. So, make sure that you know your target audience to prevent hurting someone else’s feelings, especially if your posters are about sensitive issues. 

Furthermore, remember that you can design a single poster for people with different interests and personas. There’s no need for you to create one poster for every group of people. Although, it may depend on your content, make sure you don’t step the boundaries that separate them. 

4. Decide Where To Share Your Content

The platform where you share your poster is the final thing you need to consider and determine before content creation. Are you planning to share it using the traditional way, such as giving out posters and brochures? Or are you planning to attract customers by posting it on different social media platforms? 

Determining where you plan to share your content is important as different social media platforms have different content sizes. You may need to optimise the typography size since most people nowadays are using their smartphones to view your content.

5. Start With Pre-Created Templates

If you don’t have enough experience designing posters, it would be intimidating to design on a clean white page from scratch. You may want to try using poster templates to help you build your foundation in creating your designs. But you may need to make sure that the templates you’re using will help achieve your goals. 

Here are some tips you may use when choosing a poster template:

• Make sure that its theme is aligned with yours. 
• Make sure that its layout serves your goals well, such as using headers, icons, and more.
• Make sure that it has the right dimensions, especially if you’re planning to use the same content on different social media platforms. You may also need to consider size, poster bleed, font size, and more.
• Make sure that it has no restrictions and is fully customisable according to your needs, especially if there are unnecessary details.

Always remember that every poster may have a different purpose. As much as possible, never use a single template for all your needs. Make sure to find what best fits your goals, which may help you save time. 

6. Choose The Perfect Colour Scheme

If you’re planning to sell seasonal items, such as Christmas trees or holiday wreaths, would it be possible to use blue and yellow as your primary brand colours? Of course, not. If these colours are followed, many people may think that the product you’re trying to sell is not related to Christmas. 

When people slide down their news feeds, they don’t read everything word for word. They want to quickly understand the point of your content just by looking at it in a snap. That’s why choosing the right colour scheme is essential in creating good designs. The use of colour alone may help you voice your opinions, goals, and information. 

If you’re still struggling with which colour combinations you should use, you may follow these simple tips about colours:

• Use blue if you want to impart wisdom and loyalty.
• Use green if your poster is associated with the environment and other eco-friendly ideas.
• Use red to show strength and happiness.

Moreover, if your company is following its brand colour, you may use this as a foundation and add necessary details if needed. 

7. Include Attention-Calling Statements

After you have grabbed someone’s attention, make sure that you have included call-to-action statements to inform them of the following steps they might need to take. Otherwise, your poster and its content may seem pointless. 

Here are the most common call-to-action phrases you may use:

1. Register Online

2. Submit Now

3. Apply Now

4. Order Here

5. Sign-Up Now

You may also apply your creativity in using these phrases by twisting and replacing some words, but make sure that it’s still clear for your readers to understand. Make sure that your call-to-action statements stand out among the rest of the details. You may highlight them in contrasting colours or make button-like shapes.

Furthermore, not all call-to-actions require readers to visit a page. You may use phrases, such as the forthcoming event, but with emphasis by enlarging its font. For example, emphasising the words ‘Black Friday Sale’ without telling them to visit you or order your products. 

8. Create an Information Hierarchy With Fonts

The hierarchy of information is a structure in which details about your poster are placed in order. However, this order may depend on your goals and what you’re trying to say. Here’s a standard hierarchy of information used to promote an event:

• Event’s name but with emphasis by making its font the largest above all details
• Event’s location, date, and time, but make sure that they’re not as big as the event’s name or use contrasting colours to highlight these.
• Short descriptions about the event, which you may italicise to give context about the event
• Call-to-action statements, such as a contact number or social media page, can be highlighted using bold features.
• Your company’s name, which can be placed right after the call-to-action phrase

These are the common details you may include in your posters. You may edit some information, especially if your poster is not intended for promoting events.

9. Visualise Your Concepts With Icons

Icons are necessary to visualise what you’re trying to say, and they are the best to enhance the graphics of your posters. Even the use of one simple icon can change everything about your poster. 

Some creative ways to use icons include the following:

• Replacing texts with an icon for a variety of ideas
• Making them the centre of focus instead of the poster’s title
• Changing their colours to match your ideas

In addition, here are some ways to maximise the use of icons properly.

• Be consistent in using icons, especially of size, thickness, and colour.
• Restrict yourself in placing icons to allow your content to breathe appropriately.
• If you replace a text with an icon, make sure it’s obvious to the readers.

Final Words

In this day and age, having good designs are highly important, especially if you want to boost your views and customer interactions. An excellent and well-crafted poster will surely reward you with loyal and active customers. 

Furthermore, make sure that your poster’s elements are consistent and complement each other. You don’t want to create confusing ideas by using inconsistent designs. So, whether you’re selling or promoting an event, always make sure that your designs have striking impressions people won’t easily forget