When you want to have the right impact on your target audience, creating a poster design can really take time. And to have a striking visual, the creation of a poster design must go through effective design steps and relevant content. In this article, we will show you how to make an impressive poster design quickly. We’ll create a recruitment poster on Photoshop, to give you a concrete example.
Creating a poster: the importance of clipping an image
Just like creating a flyer, you must first create a new document in “Files” to create a poster.
In our example, we will choose a 50 by 70 cm format (by the way, to learn more about posters and their different formats, click here). Before importing the first image that we will use to create our recruitment poster, we will first clip it. To clip this image, we will use a clipping plug-in. How to proceed? First of all, go to “Filters”, then to “Topaz Labs”, then choose “Topaz Remask”. Note that this plug-in is not integrated, but to be installed on Photoshop. So here we’ll have access to a page that’s a little bit different than usual.
To clip the image, we can use three Brush tools, that is:
- the “Compute Brush” used to contour the element to be clip
- the “Cut Brush” that erases
- and the “Keep Brush” which restores the deleted parts
The filling tools “Fills” will be used to overlay the parts to be erased (precisely the bottom). In this example, we will use the red fill color to distinguish the element to be clipped from the parts to be removed.
To correct and improve the clipping, you just need to click on the “Compute mask” tab. The image is strictly contrasted into two colours : the element to be clipped becomes white and the background and the other parts to be erased become black. This distinction makes it possible to make precise corrections and trimming to refine the clipping. Although this process takes time, it must be ensured that there is no overflow – for quality rendering.
Once the clipping is completed, click on the “OK” button at the bottom right, and you will return to the usual page of Photoshop. We can now move our clipped image into our working tool. We therefore have the layer of an already clipped image.
Creating a recruitment poster: layout and content sample
The clipped image just imported will serve as a main illustration. We will primarily use the rectangle tool and the text tool (in the toolbar on the left) to create our recruitment poster.
A little below our illustration image, we will now draw the limits of the text that describes the criteria of the position on our recruitment poster, and we’ll do this by using the rectangle tool. To write texts in any part of the poster, we have to use the Text tool. Just draw a frame where to write and it’s good.
Then, to give a background colour to this shape, just double-click on its layer to reveal the colour options.
As for the setting of the font and the size of the characters, just go to the bottom toolbar (the tab that lists the fonts, sizes). Note that each text must be displayed with an appropriate font, size, and colour of characters. In this example, we will match all the colours of our poster, whether texts or backgrounds, with those of the recruiting company. To do this, first import the company logo in PNG format with a transparent background using the displacement tool. With a red logo, we will eventually use the colours red and black to create a recruitment poster reflecting the image of the company.
The importance of the visual when creating a poster
Also take care to groom each text for an attractive visual. Thus, we will play on the inclination of the rectangle delimiting the texts to give an aesthetic touch to our poster. To do this, simply use the handles delimiting the frames and drag with the mouse while holding down the Ctrl button.
To apply other additional enhancements, we will draw a new rectangle and remove the opacity by going to “Properties of the dynamic shape” and then by applying the “No background” option. Meanwhile, we will attribute the red colour to its outline and increase its size. After applying a merge mask on the rectangle layer to the red outline, we just need to use the brush tool and the white colour to restore the parts hidden by the black background. Here is the result:
To finalize the rest of our recruitment poster, we will import a new image in PNG format. We will place it in a drawn circle using the ellipse tool.
Now we will decorate the area that we will reserve to contacts with various icons such as Facebook logos, Gmail and a small phone icon, always in PNG format with transparent background. We will also add a background with a different colour, not the same as what we have already used. Thus, it will create a little contrast and break the monotony of the poster. What do you think?
Here you go! We’ve created our recruitment poster.
Even if the design takes a little more time, the result is really worth it. Of course, you’ll still be able to apply other enhancements and more customization to create a less ordinary and more image-like poster. It’s up to you!
>See also: How to Create a flyer with 4 simple steps.
