Poster design.

A poster is a piece of printed paper designed to advertise and promote a subject. I will be looking specifically into music poster art from the past and present. This type of poster needs to be eye-catching and  be able to easily convey information. The main features of a music poster are; A title - which usually is the musicians name or event title. A sub-heading/slogan - This could relate to the band or song title. Imagery/graphics - This is the main feature of a poster as it attracts attention and separates posters from each other. The design of a poster commonly relates to the genre, audience or a specific message. For example; A poster created for a dance music genre would be brightly coloured and fun looking to attract the attention of the target audience which is usually young students.


The 1960's is where poster art really became popular, the designers were able to excel design restraints to create something unusual and unique. The colours of this time were extremely bright and psychedelic which represents the drug use and 'highs' of this era.
In the 1970's poster art was also extremely creative and handmade. Most posters were black and white or two simple colours to save on printing costs. The style of this time was punk, as so the poster designs were extremely aggressive looking and hand drawn.
In more recent times designers have experimented with various design techniques which include typography and digital manipulation as well as the traditional hand-rendered illustrations and collages.


I plan to be creative with my poster designs and use various techniques to create them. Collage being one of my main ideas. I also plan to keep my designs quite neutral coloured wit a grungy style.


http://www.gigposters.com/
The website above gives many examples of exsisting poster art. The posters are all very creative and attractive. I love the retro styled posters which use mixed media. The colours are well thought out. (Example below).