HIGHLIGHTS | Posters, prints, billboards

What makes a good poster? Above all, if it calls attention. But what makes a poster catch our eyes, speak to us and demand our attention? Is it a clever or funny slogan? Is it an unusual or perhaps tried-and-true font? And what’s the deal with the product the poster is about?

A poster has a thousand faces, since it can carry a thousand messages. It could sell a product, a feeling, it could inform us about an upcoming event, or simply delight us, because sometimes that’s perfectly enough, right? The surface of posters made with artistic intuition is virtually a canvas where the designer can create freely. In the case of most posters, the carrier acts as the conveyor at the same time: a smaller or larger surface serving the purpose of conveying information, and this information must be made available to the observer, the reader. And although artistic intuition can indeed be perceived as a sort of information (or message, if you like), in general, the prints of the world tell us about completely ordinary things: theater performances, concerts, desired clothes or furniture.

The only question is how? Here are some answers, from Budapest to Bristol.

Kitti Mayer
design theorist