You have seen 13x19 posters erected on tall billboards, hung high in the corners of the streets or stuck on the walls of public buildings. Posters are one of the most potential tools of mass communication. A poster is a unique amalgam of visuals and few one-line snippets put together to express an idea. Hence, the first thing before one decides on other components of a poster, the idea or the intent of the poster must be clearly laid out.

A poster can communicate in various fashions. It can simply state the idea in one phrase or can coax the onlooker to think beyond what is depicted. The idea can be limited to one entity or it can cleverly and subtly play down the competitor. All this and much more can be effectively conveyed through a well-designed poster.

The design of a poster decides the tone and impact of the message delivered through it. Hence, design stands out as one of the most crucial aspects of a poster. A good poster design must be:

• Loud and clear
• Concise
• Well-organized
• Must convey the message
• without any ambiguity

A good poster design must be simple and uncluttered. In place of having one poster with a lot of information, it is best to have a series of posters wherein one message may lead to another. Once you have decided the format and are sure about the idea to be conveyed, the next step is to look at the components. A poster usually comprises of visuals, text and some amount of graphics. In some cases the need for written language is omitted altogether. Now let us look at the various dynamics of each of the component individually.