What is a poster? How do you make a simple poster too?

 Past are the days when communication was difficult and in some cases not even were there written words to aid in communication. This was actually a tough time then if I could imagine but fortunately, that is not the case now. The main reason why awareness about how one can send information quickly using a form such as this one is very crucial. Today, is the age where there are a lot of communication devices at our disposal of which we are required to harness for information transmission among the general populace. However this is achieved, it has to be properly done for effective results to be attained at the end of it all. In case you have any misunderstanding of what a poster is, then this article is going to address that issue and even pave the way for you to learn the basics of POSTER DESIGN.

WHAT IS A POSTER?

It is a piece of paper that contains printed or written texts and sometimes images which is posted on walls, cars, trees etc. to send information to a target group of people(audience). Posters are always specific to the kind of people the information is sent to because every poster has a purpose or a mission to accomplish within a given time frame. There is another one similar to the poster which is called a FLYER but the two have a bit of a difference. 

Difference between a poster and a flyer

As mentioned earlier, the poster has to be posted, that is it is mostly a hardcopy but in the case where it is in a digital format or also known as a softcopy, it is referred to as a flyer. In this case, a flyer sends messages across faster than a poster hence the name flyer which gives a hint to its meaning.

Qualities of a good poster or flyer

• The texts have to be bold and clear.
• It has to be attractive.
• It must contain the relevant information to send a complete message.
• Texts and images have to be positioned well to avoid moving the audience eyes unnecessarily.

Making a simple poster

Posters come in two types which are: Text only posters and text-image posters.

Text only posters: They are made with the use of texts only. With this kind of posters, you do not find anything like pictures or pictorial presence but rather they make use of only texts to convey their message. They are used when simple notices are to be created example: Do not urinate here

Text-image posters: They communicate with the use of both texts and images and this kind gives messages that are more clearer to understand that the text only based. Their messages are clearer because the images help inform audience who can be literates or illiterates to understand the messages easily without the presence of anyone to explain.

Below is a simple text and image poster designed by a student to educate a particular community about the need for sanitation and good hygiene. 

Poster made with an A4 sheet with texts and images

Look  at the steps that were followed but not in any order:

1. Mark the paper to demarcate the space for the texts and images.
2. Creation of border design(not necessary).
3. Draw the illustrations, logos etc.
4. Coloring the drawings with crayon or water color.
5. Writing the texts with pencil first and then deepening with markers for legibility.
6. Any final editing

The steps are not the exact ones followed but just to show some stages involved in doing something like this.

Now, let's get a little bit into flyers and how you can start your journey of designing one. This publication won't cover how to really design one but subsequent ones may include it.

Many are the software now available on both PCs and smartphones that can be used for these Graphic design works.

Examples Canva, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw among others.

The above image is an example of a flyer designed for a dawn trotting notification. Can you identify some of the qualities of a poster outlined earlier in it? If you can, that is good but try and find others for yourself. Graphic Design is a field that aims to send messages across to create awareness on a lot of matters and the most important reason why you as a designer or audience has to be well informed about the trends and techniques involved in doing so.

I am happy you have learned something from this publication; do well to keep learning.