Faces of Multi-functional Posters
Your poster’s design should not only grab the attention of your audience, but should also appeal to the senses. This means that a designer must think about how to engage both the aesthetic and physical aspects. Designers can make a poster more appealing by catching their audience’s attention with catchy typography, creative images and colors, and dramatic effects like animation or video.
Adding in other sensory elements can take a poster from being just attractive to almost irresistible - which is good for making an impact. Smells have been shown to have particular power in evoking emotions - so designers may want to consider whether incorporating them into their work has potential for their project. Don’t be afraid to use strong smells, or even stinky ones. They will connect with a person’s emotions and may be just what is needed to make your audience take notice.
When incorporating smells into multi-functional posters, it is important to remember that smell is powerful in affecting people’s mood and behavior. For example, putting lemon essential oil on the hands can help prevent illness and improve cognitive performance. These effects may be even stronger for more emotional types of information like promotional posters because the sense of smell is linked to emotions.
Using smells as a promotional tool can be effective because they can evoke a range of moods. A smell that is appealing, pleasant and calming would correspond with the purpose of your poster. Sniffing something fresh and clean immediately helps to relax and calm us down. A spicy scent that is strong but not overpowering, puts the mind at ease with images or words that are related to cooking, or even like an aphrodisiac.
Many foods have been shown to have powerful smells that create certain moods - and these food aromas can be used for a variety of purposes when using scent as a promotional tool for posters. For example, chocolate has been shown to remind us of yummy sweets like candy bars. Sweets can make us happy, but we are also attracted to them because they taste good. Thus, combining a scent with a picture or phrase that is linked to sweets is an effective way to get your audience’s attention.
On the other hand, there are some strong smells that can be harmful and come with negative associations; these may not be appropriate for you to use in your poster. Unpleasant smells include sulfur and rotten eggs, which have long been proven for their aggressive effects on people’s emotions and behavior. The sulfur smell is often associated with fire, which can cause fear. The rotten egg odor can be linked to the idea of being dirty, and thus associate a negative image or feeling with your poster’s viewer. Knowing this, you should think carefully about how the smells you choose can help or hinder your project.
To decide which smells to use in your poster, ask yourself what emotions and ideas are associated with them. Try pairing the smells that create the emotions or feelings needed for your project with words or pictures that match this goal. Always make sure to test out these ideas in advance. Comfort is important when incorporating smells into your project. This can be done by testing out the different scents to see which ones are appealing and comforting to you, and which ones may be too strong or unpleasant.
Smelling things brings us a sense of comfort, which is why the hospital environment is commonly associated with clean and antiseptic scents. These include smells like lemon, which has been linked to cleansing and protection from germs. It is important to test out how your audience may respond in advance to avoid any negative reactions.
Adding smells to your posters can help to create a positive effect, but there may be some smells that should be avoided. For example, studies have shown that there are negative associations with the smell of ammonia. Strong scents like this may not be appropriate for use in your poster or may even cause harm to your audience.
Remember that using strong smells for your posters can come with an effect of addiction. Many people have conditioned responses toward scents - and if you use too many appealing ones in combination, it can make it hard for them to stop sniffing. This is why it is important to be cautious when using powerful smells in your posters.
Even if the audience does not sniff your poster for its smell, the visuals of your design are still essential to grab a person’s attention. Colors are important, because they are linked to our emotions and can make us feel good or bad. When picking out colors, it is helpful to think about what you want the images on your poster to convey - like feelings of comfort or excitement, peace or cooperation - while also thinking about how this relates to the color choices you make.
Picking out colors that are fitting and appealing can help to get an audience’s attention and create a positive effect on people’s moods. Color is linked to feelings, so if you are targeting happy feelings and want your poster to be cheerful and exciting, use bright colors. If you have a goal of making your audience feel more peaceful or energized, choose softer colors that are more organized.
The way a color looks can impact how people feel about it. Some colors make us feel confident and happy, while others make us feel calm and relaxed. Orange is associated with happiness because it is bright, warm and friendly looking to our eyes - thus it makes us feel good. Green-yellow hues also make us think of good things like springtime, fresh air and relaxing vacations - which create a positive feeling. Contrasting colors like red, which is aggressive in nature, can be linked to anger and aggression.
In addition to picking out color that complements your poster’s purpose, it is important to also pick out color that is easy to see on the screen. Because colors are linked to our moods, if people cannot see your text or images very clearly, they may lose concentration and become tired of your poster. Consider this when choosing color schemes or patterned images for posters.
Incorporating photos into promotional posters can add a personal touch of life and personality that makes the message more interesting and appealing.
Conclusion
Promotional posters offer a unique opportunity to reach an audience and create a personal connection with them. Picking the right design elements and using effective promotional poster techniques can make all the difference in you getting your message out to people.
For graphic designers and others in the creative industries, it is important to be able to identify what combination of tools or techniques are best suited for the project at hand. Whether it be a small or large poster, or an image that cannot be printed on paper, it is important to focus on the details rather than overcomplicating things.