PSA Poster

Objective: Design an appealing PSA poster only using text. The client and designer relationship was incorporated into this project. The designer had to communicate an important message to the reader, while meeting requirements found in the creative brief created by the client.

This project was challenging, limiting me to only working with type on a poster. Formatting my poster was difficult and knowing how much negative space to leave. But overall, it made me try different compositions rather than defaulting to images to fill space.

On my PSA Poster, I used around one-third of the page for the title, so it was scaled much bigger than the rest of the text on the poster. I wanted it to be eye-catching from a distance, so “Time” was bolded, italicized, and scaled larger in the title. The next heading “Great Outdoor Spots Around Campus” was bolded, gray, and had a different font family so it didn’t blend into the title. This section was more important than the next, so it was still larger scaled and had a black background with a thin border. The least important section of text on the right side of the poster was in a more subtle, black, regular font. The key parts of this section included “Mental” and “Physical Wellness” which were bolded in Bell MT font. I left enough negative space, so it was not overwhelming for the audience, but not too much where it felt unfinished.

This project tested my ability to be creative with type only. I think if I can create something visually appealing and creative by these guidelines, it’ll make me use images more purposefully in future work. From this project, I also learned how to use more features of InDesign that I could use for personal work too. Knowing how to manipulate functions like “character” and “paragraph” in the app changes the orientation of a poster tremendously.

Lastly, this project introduced the dynamic of client and designer, and the rules that come with working for someone else, such that you cannot just change their ideas or text. Instead, as a designer, you must check with the client to see if the changes you recommend still fit their vision or not. On the other side, being the client was fun and frustrating at the same time, because I got to see unique ideas, but some of them were not what I had in mind, so it was more back and forth.