How to design a brand advertising poster? 3 tips to solve your problems!

What are the design and creative techniques for leveraging brand advertising posters? Can you apply it freely?

In an era where hot topics emerge one after another, it has become a trend for everyone to follow them. Whether it is holidays, new product launches, large-scale sporting events, popular TV dramas and movies, which are potential hot spots with clear times and can be predicted in advance, or sudden events without any warning, we can always see two groups of people.

• One wave of netizens came after hearing the news, bringing their own melon seeds, soda and benches to watch the event, and not forgetting to spread the word while making strong complaints. This has led to the birth of a new Internet term, "the crowd that is unaware of the truth", which shows that the general public loves to join in the fun to an extraordinary extent.
• The other wave is the hard-working (ku) advertising/ copywriting /design/ new media / operation personnel . In order to be one step ahead in taking advantage of the situation, they lurk day and night, on call at any time, all year round.

From this we can see that the public is chasing hot topics, businesses are chasing hot topics, public accounts are chasing hot topics, and of course brands are also chasing hot topics. Therefore, we can always see various brands taking advantage of the trend every time a hot topic breaks out: some are creative, some are mediocre; some are imaginative, some stick to the old ways; some are closely related to the brand, some are just trying to catch the topic...

However, only a very small number of thoughtful posters that leverage the trend can closely follow the hot topics and highlight the brand, attract attention and evoke resonance, and truly achieve the effect of taking advantage of the trend for publicity. What kind of poster design and creativity should major brands use to stand out among the ever-changing hot spots and numerous opportunities? By collecting, integrating and analyzing the posters of different brands and hot spots, I would like to make some technical analysis from the three aspects of composition, color and font .

1. Clever composition - using balance, proportion, reality and illusion, segmentation, etc. to create unique visual effects

Simply put, composition is the position and combination of background, logo, text, pictures and other elements in the poster. By making different designs of the balance, proportion, reality and illusion, rhythm and division of the composition, a unique visual effect can be formed, which can highlight the main body, attract attention, and achieve clear layers, balance and harmony.

1. Negative space creativity

It is a very creative composition technique. The well-designed blank space combines the spatial elements with different visual senses, so that another complete picture is hidden under one picture, which gives a sense of "looking at a mountain from the side, it looks like a peak". The composition of negative space is full of imagination, which can bring double visual surprises to the audience, firmly attract the audience's attention, stimulate their interest and imagination, and leave a deep impression on the poster.

The Qixi Festival poster of the liquor brand " Jiang Xiaobai " (as shown below) cleverly uses the negative space design of the characters' heads: a large amount of blue and the red and white shape in the middle, at first glance it is the side faces of a man and a woman facing each other and preparing to kiss, and the blue space above the white faces constitutes the hair of the two characters; and if you look closely at the entire poster, you will find that all the elements form the shape of a wine bottle, the two faces become the bottleneck and the bottle mouth, and the blue space above exists simply as a background.

The combination of the two pictures of "kissing picture" and "wine bottle" has no sense of incongruity, and the simple elements contain rich content. Jiang Xiaobai's negative space composition is not only eye-catching in design, but also perfectly combines the hot spots and the brand: the kiss between a man and a woman highlights the theme of Chinese Valentine's Day, and the wine bottle hints at its own brand, coupled with the copy "A little wine can soothe the mood, but it is not suitable for children", which is quite profound.

2. Use puzzles wisely

That is, using existing materials to creatively combine and piece together a new picture or shape, similar to the collage art we use in painting. In poster design, things that originally existed independently or even had no connection with each other can be artificially and organically matched to create a new picture with rich colors and various shapes.

Huawei Honor's holiday promotional poster uses a puzzle technique, placing foods of different sizes, shapes, and presentation in a certain order, forming two connected circles, which just represent the "dual lens" of the phone and highlight the brand's functional characteristics; the two "circles" and the "200" shape formed at the connection of the puzzle further indicate the theme of "direct reduction of 200".

In hot spot posters, puzzles can also bring a sense of freshness to the audience. You can even directly piece together text or patterns related to the hot spot as the main picture, which is easy to operate and closely follows the hot spot. Of course, there must be a certain connotation in it so that it does not appear dull and abrupt.

3. Balance and symmetry

Balanced symmetry can also be called "balance". Balanced shape design can make the audience feel perfect, peaceful and harmonious visually and psychologically. We have already come across axial symmetry and central symmetry in mathematics, but the "symmetrical" composition technique in the poster does not require that the elements in the picture must present complete axial symmetry or central symmetry, that is, the elements on both sides do not have to be exactly the same and arranged in correspondence, but rather avoid placing all the elements on one side to cause imbalance.

In the poster for "Spider-Man: Homecoming" which was released nationwide on September 8, Durex's text, logo, underwear, clothes hangers, clothes drying rods and other elements are unified in a left-right symmetrical distribution, with the middle as the axis (note that it is not completely axially symmetrical, because the clothes hangers, text, etc. are not the same on the left and right). Putting aside the creative aspects of the poster, its symmetry is quite obvious. At first glance, the regular layout appears balanced, giving people a clean and tidy visual enjoyment, and years of obsessive-compulsive disorder are cured.

4. Strong contrast

The use of contrast is very common in poster design. It can be a contrast between image sizes, a contrast between strong and soft colors, a contrast between thick and thin fonts, or a contrast in content. A sufficiently strong contrast can not only highlight the theme directly and clearly by taking advantage of the momentum, achieving the effect of emphasis, allowing people to clearly perceive the intention of the poster at a glance; it can even catch people's attention at once, mobilize the audience's intense, angry or joyful emotions, and bring a visual and psychological shock.

NetEase Cloud Music ’s New Year’s Day poster uses red as the background, with only a few white words at the bottom and the “egg” in the middle. The large background and small elements, the bright red and a little white/pink/black/yellow form a sharp contrast, firstly creating a festive atmosphere for the New Year; secondly, in the egg divided into two halves, the black and yellow disc shape is particularly eye-catching against the red background, representing the brand image of NetEase Cloud Music.

2. The infinite possibilities of color - creating visual impact and attracting the audience's attention

Colors themselves carry rich symbolic meanings: red represents joy, happiness, and intensity; yellow represents brightness, brilliance, and splendor; purple represents nobility, elegance, and luxury; white represents purity, simplicity, and cleanliness...; whether used as background color, main color, or auxiliary color, they are extremely important elements in poster design.

In poster making, if color is used properly, it can not only beautify the entire picture, bring good visual effects, and balance the composition; it can also create a special atmosphere, highlight the theme, and enhance appeal and attraction; and when color is used to the fullest extent, even text and pictures are redundant, and color alone can support the complete content of the poster and convey a sufficiently clear and profound connotation.

What color application techniques can be tried in poster making? First, the strong color contrast we mentioned earlier is one of the effective ways; secondly, based on the understanding of the meaning behind the colors, choose the most appropriate color according to the hot spots and the theme of the poster. For example, you can use more pink on Valentine's Day and Chinese Valentine's Day, and choose red as the main color on National Day, New Year's Day, and New Year; finally, use color as the main element or the only element in the poster, and through the mix and match and combination of multiple colors, create a unique picture and convey the theme of the poster.

For example, in the poster that the Palace Museum used to celebrate the beginning of summer, there is a blend and mix of various colors including red, yellow, black, gray, silver, white, and a little blue. We often use the color yellow to describe autumn, when the sky is clear and the weather is bright. The "red" in the reflecting pool refers to the red of the Forbidden City and also foreshadows the maple leaves that will soon change into red. It is a lively scene of "autumn is coming again on the pond". The harmonious and colorful pictures give people endless imagination and are full of charm.

3. The art of fonts: creative design that makes people unforgettable

The charm of text lies not only in its rich connotations and ability to accurately convey a variety of effective information, but also in its varied font forms, which can bring an alternative visual experience to the audience. Font design refers to the overall careful arrangement of text according to the rules of visual design. As one of the important means of expressing visual language, it plays a good role in posters.

We often hear the saying "The handwriting reflects the person, and the person reflects the handwriting". It is not to say that it is absolute, but it is enough to reflect the charm of good handwriting. Creative font design can often add points to the poster and increase the audience's favorability. So, how can we cleverly utilize the art of fonts when making hot topic posters? (PS: Please note that when brands use certain fonts to make posters, they must pay attention to whether it will cause infringement)

1. Partially replace the font

Partial replacement, as the name suggests, is to select a part of a complete text, such as a stroke, and then add other graphics or text elements as a replacement. These substitute images do not change the meaning of the original text, but instead highlight its connotation more vividly and give ordinary fonts an artistic feel.

For example, in the poster for the Beginning of Autumn by the mobile reading platform ZAKER, the theme word "Beginning of Autumn" was partially replaced: the stroke of "Chu" was replaced by a full ear of rice, and the other part was replaced by a magpie spreading its wings and about to fly, and a small leaf; the stroke in the middle of "Shu" was replaced by a standing long-tailed magpie. Whether it is the image of rice ears, green leaves or magpies, they are all full of the strong atmosphere of summer and autumn, and at the same time express the joy of harvest, further enriching the connotation of "Chushu" and giving the text vitality.

2. Cute and playful fonts

People can be cute, animals can be cute, so fonts can be cute too. By changing the corners and edges of the font and every dot and horizontal line into arcs or dots, the overall look becomes rounded, visually creating a very cute and playful text image, rather than a rigid font with sharp edges. Of course, special attention must be paid to the use of colors in such fonts. If the colors are not matched well, the effect of the font will be greatly weakened and the playful characteristic cannot be better reflected.

360 Mobile Security's Teacher's Day poster uses this round font idea. In addition to making the font round, small arcs are added next to some words to turn the dots into heart shapes. At the same time, the green color combination makes it more childlike. Because, from the whole picture we can see that the words "Teacher, you have worked hard!" come from the mouth of a child, which undoubtedly deepens its cuteness.

3. The art of spelling combination

Similar to a puzzle, a new font is formed by creatively arranging, combining and connecting materials. These fonts are often casual and unique, even full of fantastic ideas, which can bring people a refreshing enjoyment and require testing the imagination of designers.

For example, BMW China’s Teachers’ Day poster takes out certain parts of a BMW car and uses natural spatial composition to form the English words “THANK YOU”: the driver’s seat, the front passenger seat, the windshield and the blank space in between form the letter T; and part of the steering wheel forms the letter K... This is a very creative set of spellings. When reading and recognizing the words, the audience has to give full play to their imagination and go through a thinking process, which deepens their impression of the poster.

4. Creative design of fonts with common strokes

The linked characters that we often see are a type of font that uses common strokes. The so-called shared strokes refer to the fact that adjacent characters on the left or right or above and below share one or more strokes, such as a left stroke, a right stroke, or a dot, a horizontal stroke, etc. It is widely used in font design. Using creative fonts with shared strokes in posters is highly artistic, and the words are closely connected, which often gives the audience a sense of smoothness and good visual effects.

TCL’s Children’s Day poster has a very individual font design and an overall creative stroke-sharing style. “Happy” and “Children’s Day” are two groups of connected characters that share the vertical stroke. In addition, we will find that in addition to the creative use of common strokes, this poster also has spelling and partial replacement font design. The coexistence of these three techniques does not appear messy or abrupt, but makes the picture more rich and the childlike fun and flavor are vividly displayed on the paper.

The article ends here. The design and creative techniques of brand hot spot posters are far more than the three points I mentioned. There are many good methods. As for how to present them more effectively and attractively, you should choose according to the unique characteristics of the brand and specific hot spots.