A couple of years ago, the Graphic Art News website published a piece entitled: What is Social Poster Design? 8 Significant Poster Designers Advice! Featuring the wise words of Andrew Lewis from Canada, Antonio Castro from Texas, Chaz Maviyane-Davies from Zimbabwe, Luba Lukova from the USA, Mehdi Saeedi from Iran, Michael Thompson from Jamaica, Pekka Loiri from Finland, and Susan Machicao from Bolivia.

In the post, the featured designers share their views on how to effectively present a message, what they think makes a good Social/Cultural poster design and the impact of poster design in our contemporary society.

They also share with us 3 principles of what they think makes a good poster design:

Andrew Lewis: “Cultural or social posters in my mind must communicate its message to anyone in any country in almost any language”

Antonio Castro: “A social poster needs to alert and engage the viewer in a compelling and provocative fashion. It needs to challenge and call an audience into action. In order to achieve this impact; the social poster ought to be swift and in your face”.

Chaz Maviyane-Davies: “Design is expression of thought, and the design process gives form and meaning to thought. Offer dialogue, not only spectacle. Create and articulate from a striving for meetings, so that the audience may be in communion with your images and words, making you not only a problem solver but a cultural stimulant”.

Luba Lukova: “I believe if it’s done well poster design provokes discussion, thinking, emotion. That may look not enough to transform the world, but that’s how art works: it has the power to change perception and increase empathy”.

Michael Thompson: “In the past the only avenue for social poster expression were the wall of the streets, while that still remains to some extent, the Internet has become a much more dynamic annex. Through social media platforms like Flickr, twitter and Facebook, it is now possible to spread ideas and awareness around the world quickly with immediate feedback…Keep the message clear and simple with out-of-the-box creative thinking”.

Peka Lori: “It’s purpose is to tell stories and stimulate humans interest. It wants to impact on the viewer’s way of thinking and behavior. That’s how I see the meaning and purpose of  social / cultural  posters.”

Susana Machicao: “What makes a good of poster is to work with a concept, economy of resources and to be a designer with social compromise. You simply cannot represent what you don’t know, feel unfair or when you don’t think you can make a statement”.

What do you think makes a good poster?

via GraphicArt News