6 Elements to consider when designing Event posters
Event posters are usually the first piece of media created for an event. Posters can be powerful in creating excitement & interest for your event if done correctly. At Priorbooking we see many event posters that all incorporate different elements, some focus on text whilst others focus on imagery. What should you focus on when designing your poster?
We'll be focusing solely on digital, posters can come in a variety of formats if your end goal is print and distribution. Here are 6 elements you should consider when designing your poster for the web.
Goal
What am I trying to achieve? This should be the first thing you ask yourself before you get to the design stage. More often than not, your overall goal directly determines the outcome of any piece of media you create. Are you looking to generate excitement or promote a sale? The message you're trying to convey should be clear and should remain at the front of your mind during the entire design process. Similarly to any business endeavour, having goals also allows you to track the success of your poster. Are you getting more customer engagement? Have you had an increase in ticket sales directly after the poster was made public? Depending on the size of your event will determine if this is necessary or not. If your poster is part of your content strategy, then analysing the results will prove invaluable. If your business/event is smaller, then this may not be as important. However, it is useful to know how your audience responded in case you create more posters in the future.
Audience
Staying on the same topic, it's imperative that you understand your audience. With why out of the way, you need to think about the who. Who are you designing this for? If you're hosting/planning the event then you should already have a good idea of the audience that will be attending. If you're hiring or seeking external help for the creation of the poster, you must ensure that they know exactly who they're designing it for. Different audiences effect decisions dramatically from imagery to colour choices. Each audience will react to media differently making it important to identify your audience accurately. If your event is the first of its kind than this may be more difficult as you don't have previous attendees to analyse. In this case, we recommend you take the time to plan your goals and consider what audience would appreciate your event the most. Place yourself in your customer shoes.
Imagery
Imagery can be a great way to stand out and make an impact. Whether used as a background image or as a subtle addition in the foreground; images attract attention. If you're including an image onto your poster, you need to make sure that it is of high quality. The last thing you want is to have a well-thought-out design with a blurred, pixelated logo at the bottom. It's important that you match colours that are on the page. A colourful bright page will look unsightly if there is a white image with a dense black border in the middle. Whilst this seems like a no-brainer, it would surprise you how many brands still do this. Also, ensure that it's relevant. You may have a really amazing image of a forest but if your event is space-themed it will look out of place. It's usually clear what your theme is by the event. The Film Orchestra's poster above is a great example of how you can tell a theme quickly through the use of imagery. There is a lot of individual images yet they all work together to convey space, despite this, all the information is clearly visible.
Colour
Colour is arguably one of the most important elements when it comes to visual design. A good pallet will grab the audience's attention without overloading them with conflicting colours. Creating a coloured poster also enables the use of branding (think Cokacola & Red). Your choice of colour can also have an impact on user emotion.
Josh Beadon from Zoucan Design explains the emotion behind colours, Read it here
It's important to plan your colours carefully and account for any images you may want to include.
Format and structure
Format and structure can often be overlooked with emphasis on making everything look pretty and neglecting the positioning of important elements. Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra' poster highlights how the positioning of images, logos and text can create an easy to read, visually pleasing poster. They have segmented the text into sections: left being important dates, centre explaining ticketing information and acts on the right. This allows you to quickly glance and see each relevant piece of information clearly and with ease.
Sometimes less is more. It's important for your audience to know as much as they can, but they need to know the important details first. Your audience won't be care that Steve is doing a 20-minute talk at his cake stand, they will care about the event location & date. Trivial or miscellaneous information can be better left to social updates.
Text
Text plays an important role in displaying both information & getting your message across to your audience. Print text is different to digital. If you think of billboards, for example, you must ensure that the text is gripping, engaging and stands out from a long distance. Digital is slightly different, the image isn't blown up and enlarged. This means you're able to add more text as there's less need to catch everyone's attention. You must, however, ensure that your font and size is easily readable. you also need to ensure that your text stands out in the foreground.
Nottingham Jazz Orchestra's poster is a great example of how text can greatly impact the final design. Using bold and engaging titles you are immediately able to see who it's by, what the event is called and more importantly the date. The theme of the text also follows the suit of Christmas with an overlaying snowflake texture. The important details are showcased at the bottom, are clearly visible and can be read easily due to the font choice and white colour scheme.
A well-designed and thought through event poster can be a great asset in encouraging excitement and engagement. Make sure to take these elements into consideration when creating your posters.
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