Designing a poster might be the most daunting task, especially when you don’t know where to start. However, if you look at the basic element, a poster design can be broken down into two elements, text and image. By adjusting the text and image according to your poster need, you will be able to create a truly impactful poster.
To make sure that you can make a beautiful and impactful poster design, we will show you how to fonts poster design and how to make a poster look great. Let’s dive into the 7 tips to create the best poster designs below.
1. Grab more attention with less
A good and impactful letter using fewer elements to grab attention instantly. With fewer design elements and minimal color, you can avoid visual clutter and make sure that your poster is effective.
A poster can take many forms, such as a billboard that is stuck at a building to grab the attention of people in cars. A designer should be able to capture attention in three seconds to deliver a clear and memorable message. That is because people who drive a car generally only take a few second glances at a billboard. Therefore, using fewer design and typography elements could help with clear and memorable visuals.
To do more with less, the best way to start is to choose a suitable font. Don’t forget to set the poster size and dimensions according to your need. It’s always a good idea to make sure that your poster fits the dimension you intended.
2. Choosing the best font for your poster
Now, we start our typography with this guide on how to fonts poster design. To start picking the best font for your poster, I recommend you choose between a serif font or a sans-serif font. Small decorative elements are added to the ends of letters in serif typefaces. Serif typefaces provide a more conventional and official appearance. Sans-serif typefaces lack decorative elements, are more geometric and minimal, and have a more contemporary, minimal appearance. Sans-serif fonts are best for conveying straightforward and bold messages such as Headlines.
After choosing between the two fonts type above, you can choose specific fonts that work best for your poster. It depends on the aesthetic and message of your poster.
3. Space exploration – leading and kerning
Leading and kerning, or the space between individual letters, is a crucial component of typography. Using proper space on your poster design will allow you to emphasize the flow of visuals and deliver a message clearly.
a. Leading-line spacing
Leading refers to the space between lines of text (pronounced led-ing). Your headline and subhead may look detached if you use too much leading, which will make your poster crowded and more difficult to read.
However, if your leading is too tight, your subhead can merge with the headline and make it much more difficult to read. When changing your leading, take readability into account.
b. Kerning-letter spacing
Kerning is the term for the gap between individual letters. It has a tremendous impact on your typography and, like leading, can greatly affect how readable your poster is.
Your text will be difficult to read if there is excessive kerning, though it is usually easier to read with excessive kerning. For an example of excessive kerning, you can see death metal band logos and posters. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it’s too crowded to watch and hinders the message from transmitting to your audience.
Less is more, so make small changes and keep your reading ability in mind. More kerning for headlines can help with readability, but less is better.
4. Composition Typography on poster design
After choosing the right font for your poster, now is the time to think about the composition of your text in the poster. The goal of your poster text is to be easy to read and convey a clear message. Therefore, make sure that your text is not too small or too big, it’s not too distracting or too busy. Your text should be just right, easy to read, and memorable, so your poster will be effective and impactful.
Choosing the right background image for your poster is important to set readability for your poster. You need to make sure that there is clear space to place your text in your poster. Otherwise, your background image will make your text unreadable.
A good composition is when images and texts complement each other. To achieve that, you can align your text to fit the shape or contour in the image. Another way is by composing images and text by treating each of them as a design element and combining them to form a whole design. There is an unlimited variation of design, so let your creativity loose.
5. Choosing the right focal point
The essential element of design is a focal point, a starting point for the user to navigate visual elements and text in the poster. The focal point is where the most important message or headline of your poster should be. Therefore, make sure to pick the most important part of your design and message, then emphasize them using a focal point.
Depending on your design and the message you want to convey, you can pick the focal point. For example, if you want to design a poster for a travel destination, the image of the location is the best way to focus on. You can reduce the text and make it smaller to make sure your audience keeps their eyes on the travel destination image.
However, for a business poster, you might want to focus on the specific text as the focal point. Make your most important text as a Headline with oversized, uppercase font so it will stand out. Otherwise, you can use a transparent mask over the image to subdue the background image and focus on the text. You can rearrange every design element to emphasize your focal point and ensure your background doesn’t disappear. This way, you will be able to create a truly eye-catching poster.
6. Perfectly Balance your design, as all things should be
After you decide on the focal point and play with composition, then you will need to think about another critical aspect of poster design, balance. Balance is about the distribution of your design element and composing them so they won’t be cluttered and stable.
Each design element, from text, image, space, and another shape, have its own “weight.” All you need to do is make sure that your whole poster design is balanced and has proper flow. Without balance, your poster design will feel incomplete and uncomfortable.
Balance is not necessarily symmetrical; many designs feel equally balanced even though it is not symmetrical (asymmetrical design). Asymmetrical design can be a useful tool to make poster design looks more dynamic and interesting.
Choosing the right background image should start fixing unbalanced design. You might need to try some different background images or crop your background image. Rearrange your text and try different compositions to make sure your poster design is easy for the eyes.
7. Improving the readability of your Poster Design using color and contrast
a. Choose the right color
Choosing the right color and contrast can make each part of the image on the poster design look vibrant and make your text can be read easily. You can combine colors using complementary colors with high contrast and monochromatic colors to give a calm feeling. Another combination is analog colors that will make your poster design feels like a whole design.
While there are a lot of color combinations and different ways to use color, you don’t need to worry. We provide you with two useful ways to use your color.
i. Use your Image Color Palette
The easiest and the best way to make your text readable without making it too busy is by pulling colors directly from your images. Make sure to identify the color palette of your image then you can apply it to your text. With these methods, you will be able to minimize color usage and make your poster design balanced.
ii. Use Complementary colors
Another method that uses an image color palette is using complementary color combinations. You can use colors from opposite sides of the color wheel and apply them to your text. This way, your text leaps off your poster and looks dramatic.
b. Clever contrast
Using contrast in poster design with color, size, shape, position, and any other design trick will effectively boost your poster design. Using contrast color, you can make your text pops up, and using different font can emphasize you’re important message. Using different styles and shapes of typography will allow your poster unique and give a specific vibe.
You may also combine balance and contrast to achieve the most impactful design that still conveys your message. Using clever contrast properly, your poster will be more effective.
Using the 7 best tips about how to font poster design will allow you to create an impactful, vibrant and powerful design poster. With good typography, great composition, meaningful focal point balance design element, vibrant color, and clever way of using contrast, your poster design will stand out above others!