“I always try to think roughly in triangles,” says Ferguson. “Think an
upside-down pyramid. So the design draws the eye down to a focal
point. I find that my posters are often much more pleasing to the eye if I
use this simple trick.” That focal point might be the text, and Jones
says he tries to integrate “the type directly into the design rather than
have it as a separate headline. That usually means your information
will become less bold and noticeable, but lately I tend to enjoy quieter
posters.” Generally this works best for celebratory merchandise
posters rather than those directly selling, where Jones “can afford that
luxury of sublimating the band’s name on occasion. Of course there are
times when a bold headline serves the design better.”
Of course, colour is one the most important things a poster designer
has to play and experiment with. As Williams explains, the limited
colour palette necessitated by screenprinting has to always be
considered: “I print by hand, so if I’m doing a run of 200 posters, a
four-colour poster means 800 passes of the squeegee. That can make
for a fairly tiring day’s work. Given that, I’ll usually try to limit my
posters to four or five colours if I’m on a deadline. I tend to favour fairly
natural colours. Since I’m often trying to create depth in my posters, I’ll
use different shades of the same colour to help secondary elements
fade into the background and accentuate the focal point.”
Colour isn’t just about drawing people’s attention though, it’s also
about making them feel what you want them to feel. “I always try and
use colour to evoke a sense of place and feeling,” explains Forsman.
“It’s one of the toughest things to do, but when it’s right it can
completely transport you.” To have this mastery of your domain,
Ferguson says he tries to keep colours to a minimum: “I always start a
poster with a base colour that informs the whole poster. A nice bright
colour can be very eye catching, as can the lack of it.” Meanwhile,
Williams says, “my work relies heavily on the detail and linework
in my illustrations. My favourite part of the creative process is
being hunched over at my table making fine lines and textures
with pen on paper.”
THE POSTER HAS MANY TRICKS UP ITS
SLEEVE, AND THEY CAN BE TEXTUAL AS
WELL AS A QUESTION OF COMPOSITIONCATCH THE EYE
Direct address is one of the poster’s great
strengths, shown off to perfection in the
propaganda poster (‘Your Country Needs You’ and
‘Keep Calm and Carry On’) as well as the
advertising poster, where a problem the viewer
didn’t know they had is brought into sharp focus.
Humour is another great possibility, whether the
gag is verbal or visual, and the simple meanings
and associations that we have with different
colours can be used to particular great effect
when the poster’s size means that you can be
talking such a physically large space.
Use the constraints of the particular poster
genre you’re working in as challenges. In music
posters you have a lot of freedom, but you need to
sum up the feel of the music in visual form. In film
posters the most important thing is that it looks
like a genuine film poster, and that means
studying the genre of film you’re promoting and
having it fit that mould. Also, don’t feature your
actors unless they are bona fide movie stars.Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes: “Make the art for yourself,”
advises Matt Ferguson. “I’m my own worst critic so I just keep going on a poster until I am happy with it.”engravings,” explains Rob Jones, “the main process that eats The Avett Brothers: “When creating images from old
meets the edge of another separate engraved image. I zoom in my nights concerns rounding off each engraving line where it
and add a pixel or two on top and bottom for each line so the result feels like an integrated whole.”© Neal Williams© Matt Ferguson© Rob Jones