After seeing as many posters as I have over the years I have come to a very specific conclusion on what makes a poster work. The more complicated a poster gets, the harder it is for it to be effective. There are always going to be exceptions to the rule, but these exceptions are scarce, and I have just seen too much evidence to make me think otherwise.

A great poster is the kind that has a very simple message. That does not mean the poster itself needs to be completely simple. You can have plenty of different images and other things to fill up the poster in order to grab the eye better.

This is usually a must if you want your poster to stand out, but be aware here that the more complicated your images get the harder you will be to hold a person's attention as well.

Why do complicated posters have a harder time?

The reason is because people are not going to invest that much of their time and attention into a poster. Most posters are only going to get a few brief stares at most, and even if you do grab someone's interest, you only have so much time to use it before they get bored.

Consider it a matter of short attention spans, and in truth, poster printing is meant to target those who are not looking to read a long message. That is why poster work best along the wall of various stores where people are trying to read an advertisement.

You are grabbing their attention away from something else they were doing. That is why you do not have much time, because this is merely a distraction from what their real goal is, and if you get too complicated, people cannot understand it fast enough to get what you are saying.

The less time it takes to understand your poster the better the chances are a person will get the message. If you need a longer message go for something other than poster printing, because you will not be able to have much success with it.

The core message of your poster needs to be a very brief statement. Yes, you can have additional details on it, but the basic message still needs to be very brief.

You also want to have things laid out in such a way so that someone has very easy access to what you have to say. See how fast a person can acquire your message when glancing over at your poster. The faster they can figure out what you're saying the better your poster is.

The next time you need to get posters done make sure you keep your message as short and to the point as you can. The more complicated you get the lower your odds are of getting a person to listen to what you have to say.