Make a Poster That Stands Out

You see so many posters that they tend to blend together rather than stand out. Make your poster stand out from the rest by including good content, designing it well, and taking the time to finalize it. Make the most important information the easiest to see and use bullet points to break up lists of information. Avoid large chunks of text that take too long to read and don’t be afraid to leave some of the poster blank. It’s also important to proofread and fact check carefully before you finalize your poster.

Steps

Crafting the Poster’s Content

1. Write an eye-catching headline. If your poster will be among a sea of others, it should say something that will draw people in. Come up with a funny or interesting headline and make it a focal point of the poster. If your headline makes people laugh, they will want to look closer and see what the poster is all about.
   • The headline should be large and might be a different color than the rest of the text to make it distinct.
   • A catchy title might be something like “What part of the chicken does the nugget come from?” It’s not a completely original question, but it’s enough to interest people.
2. Make the most relevant information largest. List all of the information the poster needs to cover, and rank how important each piece of information is. Details about an event, the topic of a research paper, or the primary services that a business offers are vital pieces of information for a poster to include. Make these points large and easy to read.
   • Posters serve many functions, so there’s not an exact rule for what is most important. Decide on the reason for the poster and convey that reason as the largest part of the poster.
   • Don’t use too many sizes of text. Two to four sizes will convey the various ranks of the content. Headlines and titles should be largest, specific event details should be second largest, and extra info should be smallest.
3. Use bulleted lists to convey a series of information. Your poster needs to get across all of the important information in an organized manner. Information like a list of items to bring to an event, materials used for an experiment, or non-profit organizations that a business supports fit perfectly into a bulleted list.
   • Use the standard round or square bullet, or make the bullet a small icon that relates to the event. For music events, use notes or guitars. For a science fair poster, use beakers or microscopes.
   • Put the most important information at the top of the list and less important information further down the list.
   • Don’t go overboard with the number of bullets. Five or less is usually a good number, depending on the information. If more than five bullets are necessary, then don’t use the bullet format.
4. Include a call to action near the bottom of the poster. After people see all of the important information the poster needs to convey, direct them to an action they should take. This could be to come out to a concert, call a business, or donate to the charity described. Giving viewers a specific action to take tells them what to do after seeing the poster.
   • A poster presenting research could offer a few questions for further investigation or direct people to other similar research if they are interested in learning more about the topic.

Designing the Layout

1. Leave blank space around your main design. You may be tempted to fill the entire space of a poster from edge to edge, but this causes the poster to be cluttered. People are more likely to pass by a poster that looks cluttered than one that has a clean, eye-catching focus.
   • It’s okay to make your poster elaborate, but don’t fill the entire space of the poster.
2. Incorporate images seamlessly. If your poster is for a club, a store, a band, or anything else that has a recognizable logo, be sure to put it on your poster. Use images to enhance the poster but don’t let them overwhelm the poster.
   • This principle applies to slogans, characters, or symbols as well. Anything that people would recognize as being associated with the brand.
   • For example, Coca-Cola has used polar bears in their branding for a long time, so if you saw a red poster with a polar bear, your mind might think Coke even if it wasn’t written on the poster.
   • For posters that present research you’ve done, it’s good to include a picture of yourself so people can link your name and project to your face.
3. Avoid large blocks of text. The goal of your poster is to give information quickly and effectively. Don’t hide the important details of the poster in a large text block that takes someone 30 seconds to read. Separate content into smaller chunks, or reduce the total number of words.
   • Three separate blocks that each contain a few similar pieces of information are more effective than one large block. You can even use boxes or borders to separate these blocks of text.
   • It’s possible that a poster with the bare minimum of information will stand out even more because it will seem mysterious but direct.
4. Choose vivid colors. Use a few bright colors that go well together. Stick to just a few colors unless you have a specific purpose for using more. Too many colors will be overwhelming. Use a text color that is easy to read and make sure it contrasts well with whatever is behind it.
   • If you think most of the other posters around your will use black ink, make a bold choice and use a sharp blue. If the color seems hard to read, adjust the font and the font size to make it more readable.
   • Using a bunch of colors to depict a vivid scene is fine as long as it doesn’t take away from the message you need the poster to convey.
   • Borders or boxes that separate content can be a great way to use color and still keep the poster neat and ordered.

Finalizing Your Poster

1. Proofread your poster carefully before calling it finished. Once you feel that everything is designed the way you want, read through all of the text a few different times. Check for misspellings and confusing wording throughout the text. Sloppy and poorly-written content is one of the biggest ways to lose credibility with people.
   • Leave the poster alone for a day or a few hours after you finalize the design. Then come back to it and do your proofreading. If you proofread right after you type it all up, it can blur together and cause you to miss errors.
   • Have a friend, colleague, roommate, or family member look at the poster and check for mistakes or confusing aspects. Second or third opinions will help you catch things you missed.
   • Proofreading can also include paying attention to whether everything is displayed in a way that makes it easy to read. If any important information is obscured or designed badly, people will not see it.
2. Check all of your facts multiple times. Even more than proofreading, fact-checking is vital to the success of your poster. If you give the wrong date for an event, it could be detrimental. Before you finish the poster and disseminate it to the public, double or even triple check all of the factual information to ensure that it’s correct.
   • It’s possible that you’ll be designing a poster before some of the information is finalized. So if you use any stand-in information, be sure to change it to the real information.
   • If you are not in charge of the event or organization the poster is for, check with a supervisor to make sure you have accurate information.
   • When presenting research findings, look specifically at words like is/isn’t, was/wasn’t, and other negative words. A small mistake can completely reverse what you want your findings to say.
3. Print your final poster and look at it for a day or more. Once you have designed the poster the way you want it to be, print a copy and hang it somewhere you will see it multiple times throughout the day. Put yourself in the shoes of a stranger and ask yourself if the poster draws you in and makes you want to know more. If it doesn’t, then it needs more work.
   • Printing a hardcopy as opposed to looking at the poster on the screen is important because it mimics the way people will actually see the poster. If you are drawing the poster by hand, hang up your finished draft.
   • Look at the poster from long distances and up close to see how the look of it changes. See how far away you can get before the primary information is no longer visible. Ask yourself if that is an acceptable distance.
   • Looking at the poster for a day or more helps you decide if it accomplishes what you want it to.

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Sources and Citations

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