We all love entertainment. Posters are visually entertaining. I've always loved the way posters could capture my attention and quickly share information. They are an amazing way to spread a message for everyone. Posters are often meant to be seen by the public eye, so it brings a sense of community. They are made to inform, persuade, or promote. There is a wide variety of posters. They are often made to promote causes, events, people, brands, films, services, or organizations.
It is a process to make a poster. It must grab people's attention. Designers must consider the purpose of the poster and what they want to promote. Figuring out a target audience is necessary. They also must figure out how they can call people to action, how their poster will stand out from others, and what kind of emotional response they want provoked in their audience.
Next, designers must figure out how they want to create a relationship between the type and images. It is important to consider them both because it won't look well if the type looks like an afterthought. This is why sketches and roughs are important to create, and they allow more idea generation. When creating these sketches, it is very important to keep the principles of design in mind. Start with the content that you need to include. It's important to think about how a designer can make the type and image come together as one.
Posters can come as single units or in a series. Series are often used to create a barricade effect. When designing a series, it is important that they all flow well together and act as if in a series. If the posters don't look connected, it would not create a successful series. The color scheme, font, and concepts should be related to one another. A person may go about designing a series with a template so that the elements are positioned similarly among the posters while still creating enough individuality so that the posters differ.
Social commentaries are often found on posters to voice dissent, incite, or inform. Posters influence many people, so social commentaries have the ability to effect change. It quickly gets the important message across for those who wouldn't take the time to read or listen to a lecture about the issue. Posters can be very powerful because they can visually show you something you may not have ever seen or realized and invoke a certain emotion inside of you.
I love how easily posters send messages. I would much rather look at a poster designed to capture my attention than read a paper or listen to a lecture about it. They are often visually appealing and show powerful messages in a shorter period of time. Ads are also more entertaining on posters than they would be if someone gave a short speech about how great a brand was or if I had to read a few paragraphs about it.