Guide to Designing an Impactful Human Rights Poster

A human rights poster is one of the most effective ways of spreading awareness or getting a message through to your target audience. This is because a poster makes it easier to visualize and explain your message on a single canvas.

No matter who your audience is: a classroom full of students, a board room in your organization, or the general public, a human rights poster is the best way to educate them. But the question is how do you design a human rights poster that will help you in your next awareness campaign?

In this blog post, we present a guide on some proven strategies that you should use to design an impactful human rights poster.

Add a thought-provoking quote

Quotes are a great way to draw people’s attention, especially if they talk about something people can relate to or have heard of before. There are several reasons you should use a quote on your human rights poster, including:

• Quotes require very little commitment from readers making your content more easily consumable. Within 30 seconds of their time, your audience can decide whether they want to pause and read your entire poster or move on.
• Informational or awareness quotes can enlighten your audience and appeal to their desire to learn more (about your campaign). This can go a long way in helping you drive engagement through your poster.

But, having said this, you only have room for one quote on your poster so make sure to choose the right one! Here are some tips on how you can choose the right quote for your next poster:

• Don’t go for something too generic or far away from what you are campaigning for.
• Find a quote from a personality that was on the same mission as you are so people can relate to it and easily connect it with your campaign.
• A rule of thumb for quotes is the shorter, the better. You should aim for something that people can easily read in 30 seconds or less.

Here is a good example of the effective use of a quote for an awareness campaign by Human Rights Watch.

Make sure to use the right colors

The first thing that anyone is going to notice about your poster is the colors that you use. The color scheme can make a world of difference in how your poster is perceived by the target audience so it is essential to get this right.

Good thing is that in most cases, the appropriate color scheme will be obvious so there is no need to overthink it. Follow these tips to make sure you choose the right color scheme for your human rights poster:

• If your brand already has color guidelines in place then it is best to stick to the same colors or shades of the same colors that are in your brand’s color scheme.
• Consider the meaning and emotions of colors when using them on a poster. For example, red is often associated with energy and passion, and green is associated with health and harmony So, depending on the message you are trying to get across, you can choose any combination of these colors on your poster. You can learn more about the meaning of colors from Color Meanings.
• If you are unsure of what shades and combinations of colors to use, make use of a (free) tool such as Adobe Color to come up with some good ideas.

Use ready-made templates to save time and effort

We know the key elements that go into making the right human rights poster, but how do you go about designing it? If you do not have a lot of design experience or do not want to go through the effort of designing a poster from scratch, then we recommend making use of readymade templates to help you out.

Graphic design tools such as PosterMyWall make it very simple to design posters from scratch through its vast library of ready-made templates. You can start by picking out a human rights poster template that will help you communicate the message for your campaign.

How do you pick out the right template? These tips can help you out:

• Look for a template that has a layout and structure that fits your vision for the poster (e.g. header, images, icons, call-to-action).
• Be sure to check out the dimensions for the template and make sure they meet the requirements for the medium you need the poster for (e.g., pasting to a wall, email marketing, social media such as Facebook or Instagram).
• Don’t focus on things like the placeholder text or colors that are on the poster since those can be easily customized as per your preferences. Rather focus more on the layout, graphics, and other things that are difficult to edit out or customize.

Once you have picked out the right template, you can quickly customize it to add in relevant colors, quotes, and call-to-actions within a matter of minutes. After the poster is finalized, you can either print a high-quality version or publish it to social media directly.

Start making a difference today

One of the best ways to spread awareness about a human rights campaign is through a well-designed, thought-provoking poster. We hope that the strategies we have shared in this blog post will help you in designing creative and inspiring posters for your next campaign.