How to Design Eye-catching Posters?

By Abhinav Girdhar | Last Updated on October 18th, 2022 10:24 am | 5-min read

Posters are one of the most cost-effective or graphic design marketing tools for any business niche. You can use them to announce new product launches, attractive discounts, contests, or any other promotion you are running. However, for a poster to be effective, it has to be eye-catching.

Apart from the size requirements and the orientation of the poster design, you also need to look at the composition of different elements in your poster design. Including too many elements, such as multiple colors, too many images and too much of text can confuse the viewer. Hence, it is best to keep the number of elements minimal so that the message does not get lost in the chaos.

How to design an eye-catching poster?

Appy Pie Design is one of the best ways to design attractive posters in a jiffy. Here is how you can design your own posters the way you want –

Choose poster maker

Select poster maker from the available options shown on the dashboard and finalize the template of your choice.

Customize the poster

Change the look and feel of your poster the way you want and add your desired images, videos, text, etc.

Download the poster

Download or share the poster with your audience through social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Create your own poster

Top Tips to design eye-catching posters

It might seem overwhelming, but you do not have to be a professional designer to create an eye-catching poster. To help you out, we have listed down a few tips:

Sketch your ideas

Before you design a poster, you need to visualize how to present the information to your target audience. For example, if you end up putting too much text, people may not feel inclined to read so much. Instead, try and communicate with images and have very little text to convey the details.

Hence, it is a good practice to start by sketching your ideas on paper or digitally, if you prefer. This will help you mentally structure how the information will be presented in the poster. If you are not artistically inclined and need some inspiration to get started, then you can use Appy Pie’s free poster maker. It has a huge library of exciting templates and offers unlimited editing options to make your work easier.



Draft an attention-grabbing headline

Your headline is the title of your poster. Only if the headline is engaging, a viewer will go through the rest of the information in the poster.

Be creative when it comes to the headline, but remember to avoid confusing or misleading the viewer.



Choose your color palette wisely

Your color palette will determine the overall look and tonality of your poster. It will also have a deep influence on the perception your viewers develop about you. Hence, choosing the right color palette is crucial for a poster.

For example, if it is a poster for a R&B music band, a monochrome palette could be an ideal fit. Whereas, if your product is a healthy multi-grain biscuit, earthier tones are a better choice.

Keep experimenting with multiple color combinations until you find something eye-catching. You can choose a color palette that matches your brand colors and create a poster that adds to your brand identity and value.



Use contrast to your advantage

Most people today have short attention spans. This means you need to have a compelling poster design. This is where contrast becomes important.

If you use an element of contrast in your poster, it will catch the viewer’s eye should they happen to glance at it. Combining dark colors with light colors creates a good contrast. For example, you can use a dark text against a lighter background.

Contrast can also be achieved with shapes – using organic shapes with geometric ones. Similarly, varying the color intensity can also create interesting contrasts.



Ditch irrelevant details

You don’t want your poster to be cluttered with too much information. So, carefully select the details you want to include. Retain only essential information. A clean poster is an effective one.

Maintain visual hierarchy

Visual hierarchy acts as a guiding point for a viewer to comprehend the flow of information in a poster. Basically, information is displayed according to how important its role is in the design.

To create visual hierarchy, start by ranking the information you want to present on the basis of their importance. If there is a lot of textual information in your poster, then you will have to segregate them in the following manner – headline, sub-heading and body text.

The headline will be the largest, sub-headings will take the medium size and the body text will have the smallest font size.



Pay attention to typography

Choosing the right typography can help you create a design that will leave a lasting impression on a viewer. In this context, keep these things in mind:

• Can you read the poster from a distance? You want your poster to be readable and legible.
• Use unusual or decorative fonts for your headline to attract attention.
• Use complementary fonts for maximum visual impact.
• Select a font keeping in mind the purpose of your design.
• Do not use more than two fonts to avoid confusing the viewer.

Additionally, you must also pay attention to the spacing between letters, the height of lines, space between lines, and the font case (upper, lower, etc.).

Include attractive and suitable images

When you make your own poster, the most important part of the design is the image. A good image – be it an illustration, photograph or anything else – will infuse energy into your poster.

Use a high-quality, big image. An imposing picture at the top or the middle of your poster will instantly catch people’s eyes. Moreover, viewers will retain good quality images in their memory for longer.

You can choose from one of the multiple images in our library to start creating a poster that truly stands out.



Use space wisely

Even if you are using a poster creator, you still have to pay attention to how you are using your space. Allow breathing space between various design elements as it improves the overall visual impact. Moreover, it makes the poster more readable.

Include a compelling CTA

Ultimately, it is the call to action (CTA) that matters the most. This is the entire reason why you want people to take a look at your poster. It could be anything – going to an event, buying a product/service, or getting a discount.

So, when you make your own poster, ensure that your CTA has high visibility. The flow of information in your poster should follow a sequence that concludes with your CTA. It can be either in the middle or at the end of the poster. The idea is to make it prominent.



Enjoy the design process

If you are a poster creator, then you want every element of your design to enhance the visibility of your poster. So, experiment and see what ideas fit well into the design. Your goal is to create a poster that is memorable and unique.

Incorporate these tips when you make your own poster. Use free poster maker tools like the one by Appy Pie Design to create unique and clean designs.

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