Designing gig posters (1 Viewer)

[eucrid eucrow]

I'm putting on my first few gigs over the next couple of months and although it's been pretty easy to get venues sorted and people interested via word of mouth, I'm having some trouble designing posters. I'm not exactly artistically inclined so was wondering if anyone had any hints and tips about what methods to use? I'm actually leaning more towards the cut-and-paste option but am also willing to try out some kind of computer software, what are the best programs for stuff like this?

I apologise if this sounds pretty lame but it's been a real sticking point for me, any help is appreciated, thanks.

 

[GARYXKNIFEDX]

bands playing,where,date,time and how much. Make it readable and have them done and up soon as you possibly can. don't worrry about much else,as long as that's all done.

 

[Jim A. Morrish]

photoshop, quark, indesign and illustrator are the industry standards for design or any package that lets you export the finsihed graphic as a tif/jpg/pdf or eps. PDF is best we find.

speaking from the print end, the single most important thing to watch out for is to make sure you design in 300dpi minimum. A lot of people use 72dpi because website images use that and it looks fine on screen but when printed looks terrible (very 'bitty').

 

[Jim A. Morrish]

bands playing,where,date,time and how much. Make it readable and have them done and up soon as you possibly can. don't worrry about much else,as long as that's all done.

yup, legibility is the most important thing. You can have the artiest poster in the world but if people can't read the gig details then they won't attend your event.

 

[classic seanc]

http://www.9to6.com/services/printing.htm

I always these guys. Cheap and good quality. Student discounts, if that's relevant to ya.

I used to do posters on Microsoft word, so if you ain't familiar with photoshop etc then it's not a HUGE problem. You should use photoshop though. Seriously

 

[SONYMEGADRIVE]

only guys go to gigs, guys like girls, use pictures of girls on your poster

 

[inspector horse]

only guys go to gigs, guys like girls, use pictures of girls on your poster

it worked for rock n roll mofo, makes the designing of it easier too

 

[damien]

would definitly advise you to enlist the help of a friend who has an eye for design. get them to do the first few and give you a few photoshop tutorials along the way (cut and paste can be really cool but if you want to learn to do posters in the long term you should get some kind of grasp of photoshop). to think of the amount of shitty gig posters i've churned out over the years.
as well good quality black and white photocopying on colour paper is a hell of a lot cheaper than the printers if you're on a tight budget.

 

[eucrid eucrow]

Thanks guys! Guess it's just going to a matter of trial-and-error for a while, see what works. Think I'm going to go for cut-and-paste this time but will definetly be looking into Photoshop soon.
Again, thanks.:heart:

 

[glen]

You just need

and

.

 

[Rimbaud]

I found doing posters to be an real pain myself, as i'm useless when it comes to art...and i can't figure out Photoshop...so i ask friends of mine to help me out in that department.Although i have to learn how photoshop works...less hassle doing them yourself instead of bugging friends to do em.
But its not all that much hassle at the end of the day...
Wiat until you've to cook vegan food for a bunch of people!I can whip up a mighty Irish stew and Spagetti Bolognese, but god damn, when it comes to cooking vegan i'm out of my depth!
So thats two things i've to concentrate on...learning photoshop and cooking vegan.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

I just do an image search in Google for zany and eye catching pics or scan stuff from books. Hopefully the copyright police will never catch me.

 

[glen]

How did people know gig's were on before they invented Photoshop?

 

[krystal]

everyone wore one of these:

 

[glen]

"Hear ye, hear ye! At eight o'clock tonight in The Point Depot,
Decoy Owl Motherfuckers will perform live for your aural displeasure..."

 

[SONYMEGADRIVE]

i used to buy sheet music announcing all the latest gigs