Pour la version française, c’est par ici
How to make a poster at the last minute with no title, no pictures (or unsatisfactory resolution) and too much content? I’m sure it must happen to you as often as to me, juggling the text to keep it readable without overflowing. The photos are interesting but too small to be A3 printed. Not to mention the time limit which is a constant in all the graphic world (web or print) and unfortunately a barrier to the imagination, inspiration.
In short, at the beginning, you have to sort through the information provided to define what will be the title, date, main text (if any) and contact information. This last will be relegated to the bottom of the poster.
The title is the most important part of a poster. Most passers-by will see it. If the title speaks to them, they will probably read the other information: date, location … and lastly, they should note the number or address listed in small print at the bottom of the poster. Suffice to say that the title has to be bold. For this post, it’s pretty simple, I assumed the title of the program: Vietnam Cycling Challenge, which contains three main topics of this event.
A word on the subject: Vietnam Cycling Challenge
Global Volunteer Network organizes many fundraising treks and challenges to support nonprofit organizations in areas where these challenges take place. Among others, there is the ascent to Machu Pichu, Everest and Kilimandjaro. The new challenge this year (April 2011) is a biking tour in Vietnam. More than 500km to go along the Vietnamese coast alongside local professionals to provide financial support to over 600 children living in orphanages in this region.
Returning to the poster, the title is the most important and should reflect the subject:
- Where? in Vietnam
- What? challenge, bike
The title is an assemblage of words, which is not really appealing to the eye. Why do you think the number of icons is raising on all buttons, menus (physical or digital)? This is not just to look pretty (even if that reason alone would be enough for me) but also to facilitate the work of reading. much like the comic book from our childhood.
For the poster, so I searched on Google Image (my muse) for each word main title. This allowed me to create different designs in Illustrator for:
- Vietnam – Vietnam’s map with the flag,
- Challenge – difficult one, finally the inspiration comes from Carbon Rally
- Bike – stylized wheels in C and overlaid cycling bikes.
It only remains to integrate all: title, date (which must be at least as visible as the title) and text (where there is room still available). Of course, one option is to persuade sponsors to shorten the text. If you’ve ever tried, you know it’s easier to play on the spacing between the letters to gain a few inches :). Finally, contact information are included at the bottom of the page with the largest size possible in the remaining space, which is often the smallest in the limit of readability.
Here is the final result
Emjy's Blogart 