1. Effective Poster Design: The Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams Dec 2010

2.  CSU places certain restrictions on fonts, colors, spacing  See the Communicator’s Toolbox for details  http://graphicstandards.colostate.edu/files/pdf/csu- toolbox.pdf http://graphicstandards.colostate.edu/files/pdf/csu- toolbox.pdf  Fonts  Minion (serif) and Swiss 721 (sans serif) recommended  You may use Garamond, Helvetica, and Ariel to replace if you don’t have those fonts  The “accent font” loophole  For titles, headers and sub-heads you can be creative  Use this loophole judiciously A Caveat

3.  The Non-Designer’s Design Book  Lots of pictures  Brochures, business cards, websites, posters  Shows before and after examples of applying specific principles  4 main principles  Contrast  Repetition  Alignment  Proximity CRAP

4. “If two items are not exactly the same, make them different. Really different.”  Make strong choices  What to contrast?  Size  Color  Font typeface  Vertical vs. horizontal  Background Contrast

5. “Repeat some aspect of design throughout the piece.”  Unify the design with one repeated aspect  Again, make strong choices  What to repeat?  Design elements (logos, bullet points, shapes)  Header and sub-header styles (size, thickness, color, style)  Vertical and horizontal lines  Colors and textures  Spacing Repetition

6. “Break away from a centered alignment”  Doesn’t mean NEVER center align  E.g. – Center text in a box that is off center  What to align?  Edge of text (left, right, center)  Where the edge of the text is on the page  E.g. – You can right align your text and then place that right edge on the left portion of the page  Alignment

7. “Group related items together”  Don’t be afraid of empty space  Use space to create relationships  Physical closeness implies a relationship Proximity