Effective Poster Design:
The Non-Designer’s Design Book
by Robin Williams
Dec 2010
A Caveat
 CSU places certain restrictions on fonts, colors, spacing
 See the Communicator’s Toolbox for details
 http://graphicstandards.colostate.edu/files/pdf/csutoolbox.pdf
 Fonts
 Minion (serif) and Swiss 721 (sans serif) recommended
 You may use Garamond, Helvetica, and Ariel to replace if you
don’t have those fonts
 The “accent font” loophole
 For titles, headers and sub-heads you can be creative
 Use this loophole judiciously
CRAP
 The Non-Designer’s Design Book
 Lots of pictures
 Brochures, business cards, websites, posters
 Shows before and after examples of applying specific
principles
 4 main principles
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Contrast
Repetition
Alignment
Proximity
Contrast
“If two items are not exactly the same, make them
different. Really different.”
 Make strong choices
 What to contrast?
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Size
Color
Font typeface
Vertical vs. horizontal
Background
Repetition
“Repeat some aspect of design throughout the piece.”
 Unify the design with one repeated aspect
 Again, make strong choices
 What to repeat?
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Design elements (logos, bullet points, shapes)
Header and sub-header styles (size, thickness, color, style)
Vertical and horizontal lines
Colors and textures
Spacing
Alignment
“Break away from a centered alignment”
 Doesn’t mean NEVER center align
 E.g. – Center text in a box that is off center
 What to align?
 Edge of text (left, right, center)
 Where the edge of the text is on the page
 E.g. – You can right align your text and then place that right edge
on the left portion of the page
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Proximity
“Group related items together”
 Don’t be afraid of empty space
 Use space to create relationships
 Physical closeness implies a relationship