Poster Production

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Poster Production

• A poster is a static,
• visual medium used to
• communicate information,
• ideas and messages

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• The poster has to attract the viewer -
• visually appealing eye catching and Impact
• How effective the poster is depends
• on these factors

• Distribution of the design elements
• Use of colour
• Liveliness of ideas - creativity
• Appropriate information for the target audience
  - eg a reading level that can be understood

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Designing the poster

• Design priorities
• Establish the information to be conveyed then -

• The order of importance of the design elements
  has to be decided which has priority of
  treatment

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Priority 1. Main heading
Priority 2. Illustration
Priority 3. Main text
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• Layout
• Size of poster - usually A1 (59.4cm x 84.1cm)
• - depends on your assignment guidelines
• Landscape or portrait
• Try drawing roughs - try different layouts
• - Draw a number of sketches arranging the design
  elements of the poster in a variety of ways.
  Choose the most effective solution.

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Four sketches of a poster
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Sketch out your ideas until you find the most
effective design solution
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• Alignment of text
• - Align centre
• - Left align
• - Right align
• - Justify

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• If a great deal of body text is to be used in the
  poster it needs to be broken up to provide both
  interest and access points for the viewer
• - subheadings
• - bullet points
• - arrows
• - white space

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• Words
• Readability is vital
• (how easy it is to read rather than understand)
• This is governed by these factors
• Size of print
• can be a difficult decision - reading distance
  and target audience has to be considered.
• - Use a hierarchy of sizes eg headings 100pt
• subheadings 40pt
• text 18pt
• references 14pt
• Upper or lower case
• - research has shown lower case is more readable

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• Typeface
• - use clear, easy to read typefaces -
  appropriate to the job
• - Serif and sans serif typefaces -
• What is a serif?
• A small line at the extremities of a main
  stroke in a type character
  Collins English dictionary
• What is sans serif?
• A style of printers typeface in which the
  characters have no serifs Collins English
  dictionary
• examples serif Times new roman
• Bookman
• Courier
• Garamond
• sans serif Arial
• Futura
• Geneva
• Helvetica

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• Typeface (continued)
• Research has shown that a serif is generally
  more readable - it makes large bodies of text
  easier to read - thats why its often used for
  body text. Sans serif typefaces are often used
  for headings.
• The combination of opposite typefaces is often
  effective, for example the use of a serif for
  body text and a sans serif for headings.
• - Dont use too many typefaces in a poster.
  Probably no more than three
• Line length
• - make sure lines of text dont have too may
  words - long line length is difficult to read.
  (Also short sentences may help)
• Use bold, underline or italics to make part of
  the text stand out, but use sparingly

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• Use of textured background can effect readability

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Same poster with white background
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• Images/graphics
• More effective poster if graphics used - photos,
  illustrations, graphs etc
• - but the graphics need to convey an appropriate
  message
• - appropriate scale
• - graphics that the audience can identify with
• Possibly show diversity within the target
  audience
• (if appropriate to your poster)
• - old/young/female/male/ethnic backgrounds etc
• More visually appealing poster

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• Colour
• Use of colour can make the poster more attractive
  
• - colour can change the mood of the poster
• Volume and vibrancy of colour
• Certain colours have dominance (how much the
  colours seem to jump out at you)
• - for example bright reds tend to appear
  aggressive, striking and vibrant, whereas light
  blues tend to recede into the background
• - loud, dominant colours aggressive
• - paler, recessive colours passive
• - colour dominance can vary depending on the
  colour it is set against - colour contrast

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Strong, primary colours are eye catching and have
impact
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• Colour temperature

Blue and green tend to give a cold feeling,
whereas red, yellow and orange tend to be
considered as warm colours Blue provides the
appropriate feel for this mountain climbing
expedition poster
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• Symbolic properties of colours
• (colour association with product)
• For example colours can suggest gentleness and
  caring. Pastel shades of light pink, blues
  and yellows, the softer shades, are often used.

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• For example fresh colours - bright
• blues, greens, yellows, can be used
• to reflect vitality and sparkle -
• sometimes used with health products
• to stress freshness and cleanliness.

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• Effect of colour combinations

using complementary colours can create vibrant,
exciting effects.
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This poster uses the combination of orange and
blue to create a vibrant effect
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• Use colour to clarify the
  structure of the text, emphasising certain
  points

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• Try using a colour scheme

This recruitment poster uses a purple colour
scheme
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• Beware, colour affects
• Readability

In this example, yellow type on a white
background causes problems with readability
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Is the black type readable?
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More readable version of the poster
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Production of the poster
Cut and paste
One approach is to assemble the poster using a
cut and paste approach, assembling the various
design elements (text boxes created in software
such as Microsoft Word, Publisher and Powerpoint
and graphics from various sources) cutting them
out to the appropriate size using a straight edge
and craft knife or guillotene and then laying
them out on an A1 sized piece of card (available
in many colours) before pasting down.
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An example of the cut and paste approach
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Very elaborate edges to the text boxes - is it
distracting?
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Another cut and paste poster. This poster uses
complementary colours for impact.
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Full size printing approach
Another approach is to design the poster to its
full size in a computer package such as Microsoft
Powerpoint Microsoft Publisher Adobe In design
Adobe Pagemaker. You can print it using a
tiling facility (if your computer and printer
software provide this facility) - the resulting
A4 tiles have to be carefully joined together
to form the complete poster. For a better result
the poster can be printed at its A1 size by
appointment with the design and Media Dept of
TLSS. Bring your finished file on a CD or memory
stick and have it printed at a cost of 7.50
(plus 2.50 for laminating)
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If you are working in Powerpoint change the page
set up to A1 size by changing the dimensions to
59.4 x 84.1cm in custom settings
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A poster designed full size in Powerpoint
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Poster designed and printed full sized
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A poster presentation
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References Beaumont, M (1987). Type and Colour.
Oxford, Phaidon