Poster Design

This workbook turns the Poster Design course into three finished posters and the files to ship them. Each section pairs with a course module and mixes guided exercises, fill-in worksheets, and checklists so you end up with real artwork - a thumbnail set, a working grid, a type scale, a tested palette, and press-ready and screen exports - not just notes. Work through it with your design software open, a brief in front of you, and the two-distance test always in mind: does it read at three meters, and does it reward a look at thirty centimeters. The value is in the posters you build and the specs you write down so a printer can run them and a screen can show them.

Lock the format and resolution, distill the brief to one idea, and find the composition through thumbnails before you open the software.

Complete this before designing anything. Pick a real or invented brief (an event, a film, a cause, a product launch) and force it down to one message and one visual concept.

Define the canvas for each poster before you build the document. Confirm the unknowns (required dpi at size, exact bleed) with your chosen printer or display vendor.

By hand, draw 12 tiny thumbnails (a few cm tall) for your brief - sketch the same idea three clearly different ways (type-led, image-led, graphic-system) and vary the rest. Mark only the focal point, title block, and information masses; no real type, no color. Pick the strongest two or three, then run the two-distance test on each.

Build the underlying structure - a working grid, one dominant focal point, balanced weight, and confident empty space.

In InDesign or Illustrator, set up a grid for your chosen poster: margins scaled to the format, a column count matched to your content, gutters, and a baseline grid tied to your body type's leading. Put the grid on its own locked layer and compose your masses against it. Then deliberately plan one grid break for an accent.

Establish one unmistakable focal point that wins the far read (usually the title or hero image), then rank everything else into a secondary and tertiary level using scale, contrast, color, position, and weight. Track where your own eye lands first, second, and third on the thumbnail.

Plan the arrangement of weight on the page before refining. Decide the balance type and where the key elements sit relative to thirds and the optical center.

Give the poster a voice - a deliberate type scale and pairing, a limited tested color system, and integrated imagery.

Choose a modular scale ratio (e.g. 1.25 major third, 1.333 perfect fourth, or 1.618 golden ratio) and generate your size set from a body size. Set the title at display size with the contrast exaggerated for a poster, tune tracking and leading on the big type, and limit yourself to one or two typefaces (or weights of one family).

Choose a harmony (monochromatic / analogous / complementary / split-complementary / triadic) and build a limited two-to-three color palette in Adobe Color or Coolors, assigning each color a job (dominant / support / accent). Then desaturate the whole poster to grayscale to judge value contrast, and check the text contrast ratio with a tool like the WebAIM contrast checker.

Record the type and color decisions so they stay consistent across all three posters and into the print spec.

Choose a tradition on purpose, prepare a press-ready print file, and export and present the poster for screen.

Pick a poster tradition that reinforces your message (Swiss/International Typographic, Bauhaus/Constructivist, Art Nouveau, psychedelic/pop, punk/DIY, or contemporary Neo-Swiss). Collect 8 to 15 real reference posters in that direction, name what makes each work, and extract the rules you will follow plus the one or two you will deliberately break.

Fill this out so a printer could run your poster without emailing questions. Confirm the unknowns (process, exact bleed, rich-black recipe) with your chosen printer.

Plan the screen exports and the mockups that will present each poster. Tailor the views to where it lives and who approves it.