This document provides guidance for students on designing digital posters. It outlines the purposes of posters as visual communication tools and types such as advertising, politics, and information. Effective poster design engages the audience through knowledge of their interests and uses images, headlines, and formatting to attract and guide the eye. The document recommends a workflow process including planning, focus on key messages, layout, use of colors, editing, and finalizing in a digital format. It concludes with an example poster assignment and references for additional resources.

1. Digital Poster Design Workshop Strategies for ADVS 210 Students Prepared by Adrian Chong Taylor’s College American Degree Transfer Program Fall 2010

2. Overview Purpose of a poster Types of posters How to communicate to your audience Tools for designing posters Poster design work flow Practical exercise

3. Purposes of Posters A visual tool to communicate messages, concepts and findings Without need for further elaboration In simple and understandable terms Visually using pictures, charts and shapes That is relevant to the audience That stick (leaves a lasting impression)

4. General Types of Posters Advertising & Promotion of products, services, events With underlying motives Politics Advocacy Corporate Communications Source of Information Subject Posters Affirmation Posters

5. Effective Engagement Know your audience Where you are distributing your poster Determines your formatting and message approach Stickiness Entire poster message must relate to your audience Use catchy images or phrases More images, less words Use blocks, graphics, diagrams and flowcharts Emphasize words appropriately Prioritizing your content Size and placement Include author and contact information

6. Effective Layout & Formatting Overall appearance Find a good balance of text and images, use white space to organize sections, avoid clutter Organization Use headings and columns to direct the reader’s eye Graphics should be clear and properly labeled Text size Should be readable from 1 to 2 meters away Use color contrasts appropriately Follow reader gravity (top to bottom, left to right)

7. Digital Formats Word Processing Microsoft Word Apple iWork Pages OpenOffice Writer Presentation Microsoft PowerPoint Apple iWork Keynote OpenOffice Impress Other Tools Mind Mapping Drawing / Illustration Desktop Publishing Diagramming File Management and Conversion

8. Design Work Flow Planning What’s my message? How much room do I have? What is the page size of my poster? Who and where are my audience What software should I use? Focus Keep message and points simple Prioritize by avoiding less important details (which can be included in a separately distributed leaflet) Edit text carefully

9. Design Work Flow Layout Determine a layout that works best for your poster’s purpose Heading To summarize, organize and emphasize Graphics Balanced with text Avoid random placements Text At least 36 point for heading, 24 point for text

10. Design Work Flow Colors Light background with dark objects Stick to 2 or 3 colors Avoid overly bright colors Edit Check and double check your poster Have your friends read it and feedback on relevancy Finalize Convert your poster into PDF format

11. Distribution of Work Load Creative Director Lead in concept and message creation Assist team members in work load Copy Writer Content writing and placement Graphic Designer Hands-on with graphics software

12. Team Practical Exercise Taylor’s ADP’s Student Enrolment Drive (Winter 2011) Poster Main objective is to promote ADP to prospective students to enroll for the 2011 Winter semester Main message should cover the qualities of Taylor’s ADP Secondary messages that could be covered : Move of operations to the Lakeside Campus SETARA ’09 Ratings Time limit for completion: 1 hour 15 minutes

13. Useful References http://www.articlesbase.com/online-business-articles/common-types-of-posters-today-731186.html http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/NewSite/ http://clt.lse.ac.uk/workshops-and-courses/Course-resources/Poster-Design-Tips.php http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/?CTT=97 http://www.apple.com/iwork http://why.openoffice.org/why_great.html http:// www.adobe.com /products/acrobat/segments/individual/