Information, Education and Communication: Posters


What?

Poster is a visual combination of bold design, color and message which is intended to catch and hold the attention of the passer by just long enough to implant a significant idea in his mind. Good posters must have a dynamic, impelling quality. They must be essentially simple for there is not time to involve the viewer in detailed study. They must be striking enough to attract attention. Dramatic simplicity, appropriateness, limited tes, attractiveness, design and color are the good characteristics of the posters.

Advantages:

  1. It can quickly put over one simple idea.
  2. It can represent a general concept in seeing terms.
  3. It can emotionalise an idea bringing surprise and shock.
  4. It is portable, can be used as often as needed.
  5. It needs no help to do its best work. It can stand alone.
  6. It can serve as reminders.


Limitations:

  1. The poster which is seen too often tends to become simply a part of environment. When it looses its freshness poster loses its principal value the power to attract the eye and to impress the observer with an idea. Hence there is a need for frequent.
  2. The value of a poster is lost where not displayed in strategic places.


Characteristics of a good poster:

It is very important that only a SINGLE idea or subject be presented in one poster. As the poster is generally seen from a distance and the person glancing at the poster seldom has time or inclination to stop and read the job of the poster is not at all simple.

  1. It has to STOP the hurriedly passing PERSON.
  2. It has to THRUST the MESSAGE upon him QUICKLY.
  3. It has to LEAD him to ACTION, immediately or eventually.


To incorporate successfully all these functions, there are 5 main principles of poster making:

  1. BREVITY Not more than 5 words is best.
  2. SIMPLICITY A good Poster is compact, has a minimum of individual units and bold illustration containing only essential details.
  3. IDEA The visualization of the idea must be clever and original so as to attract and impress the lesson of the Poster on the mind of the viewer.
  4. LAYOUT The arrangement of the elements of a Poster can make or break its effectiveness.


A Poster must be brief, so that:

  1. It can be read in the shortest possible time.
  2. The letters can be larger and bolder in the same amount of space and so can be read from a greater distance.

  1. A person glancing at a Poster, while passing, seldom has time to read long lines of wording, however interesting they may be. COPY SHOULD BE REDUCED TO ITS SHORTEST AND CLEAREST FORM. There are no hard and fast rules as to the exact number of words a poster should contain. Usually there should be not more than 8 words; but 4 or 5 are better.
  2. What do we mean by SIMPLICITY? The fewer the units into which the given space is divided the more pleasing and legible it is to the eye. There should be no over crowding and confusion.
  3. It is better to have one bold illustration than a group of smaller ones competing with each for attention.
  4. The visualization of the IDEA to be depicted in a Poster is very important. Ideas count in all walks of life. The more original and clever the visualization the greater the appeal. Good symbolism helps in attracting attention, stimulating interest and has a lasting effect upon the memory. Try to show something UNUSUAL, DRAMATIC in presentation.
  5. The layout is the blue print for your Poster design. It decides the final appearance of the Poster. A good layout creates the right atmosphere for the Posters message. A bad layout can make the Poster unattractive.
  6. Make several small scale, rough sketch layouts, arranging the material in various ways. You will be surprised at the number of arrangements you can make of the caption, illustration and subheading, if there is on.
  7. The use of COLOUR needs no recommendation. It has irresistable charm and universal appeal. Its proper use definitely helps in attracting attention and is the best method of emphasizing a particular point.
  8. Here again, the same trial method can be followed as in the case of layouts. Try different colour combination in small size and make a final selection.
  9. You can see the different effects when we change the colour of the background on this Poster.
  10. And the different effect with an all white background. Remember that WHITE IS ALSO AN IMPORTANT COLOUR, but is should be used as part of the design and within the design normally.
  11. In every poster some part is always lettering. A poster can be of Lettering only but it is seldom of illustration exclusively. Hence, due importance should be given to Lettering.
  12. BOLD, SIMPLE LETTERS of easily readable style can be read from a distance and are easy to draw. These styles can be made medium oblong or bold according to your need. They can also be made slanting.
  13. Avoid fancy styles and letters of unequal thickness. They are not readable from a distance and are difficult to draw not at all suitable for poster work.
  14. Space between letters is as important as the actual finishing of individual letters. Many beginners who can make fair alphabets have trouble with letter spacing. Using a foot rule to measure distance between letters seldom produces pleasing results and is generally detrimental to legibility.
  15. You must ADJUST SPACE BETWEEN LETTERS OPTICALLY.
  16. Expressive letters are letters which instantly express from their very appearance what they mean. For example, VEGETABLES is written with letters in shapes of different vegetables.
  17. Drawing of detailed illustrations is very difficult. Start with easily recognized silhouettes, simple shapes and details.
  18. Symbolic, silhouette type figures are easy to draw. Stick drawing is also very easy with a little practice.
  19. Photographs are easy to obtain and can be enlarged to the desired size at nominal cost. They can be used most affectively on posters.
  20. The simplest way to use a photograph is in square or rectangular shape. But you can add more interest by making it oval or round or by enclosing it in a silhouette out-out.
  21. You can silhouette the figure itself with coloured or plain background. You can often find good pictures in magazines to cut out and paste into posters. When you have a picture you want to copy in a smaller or larger size, it is most easily done by marking off grid or graph lines on the original and making another graph the size you want your final picture to be.