The University of Toronto Student Union election season is no picnic for the candidates. Between spending all day talking to (mostly apathetic) students, speaking at high-tempered debates, and getting grilled by journalists from The Varsity, they really don’t get much time off. That’s why advertising becomes so important: a strong online presence, a well-designed website, and eye-catching posters can make all the difference during an election. Think back to the 2008 presidential election in the United States: even though it was designed by famed street artist Shepard Fairey, the “HOPE” poster became synonymous with Obama’s presidential campaign.
You can convey a surprising amount of information on an 11×17 inch piece of paper. (The Varsity’s own dimensions, for instance, are roughly 11×17 inches.) Posters are especially effective in places like university campuses, where students are often stuck waiting around: for classes to begin, for a slice of pizza, or for a fresh cup of coffee. Campuses also have a distinct postering culture — students know to keep an eye out for posters advertising subsidized meals, jobs, and events. It comes as no surprise that postering becomes such an important tool during election season.
Considering the prevalence of postering during election season, a good design can mean a world of difference for an overall campaign. Let’s have a look, then, at one of the posters for the Unite For Action UTSU slate — specifically, the poster for Corey Scott, running for VP Internal & Services.
The first thing one notices is the colour scheme, a basic pink and blue (with a bit of beige thrown in for good measure). Pink and blue is a powerful, time-tested colour combination, providing the friendliness of pink with the sobering effect of blue. Pink is also an eye-catching colour, and easy to spot from a distance.
This poster is clearly designed with a scale and hierarchy of information in mind. By far the most dominant elements are Scott’s name and photograph; as names are what people will see on the ballot, and a candidate’s visibility is essential during elections, these two bits of information are given precedence over everything else.
The poster is extremely well designed: a single font is used for the entire poster, and colours are relied on instead for emphasis; his platform’s proof points align neatly to both the two T’s in SCOTT and the word UNITE; the left-aligned proof points are contrasted with the right-aligned website address; and the QR code is placed in such a way that it doesn’t interfere with the content.
In fact, there are very few real faults with the poster. The proof points could be moved up a bit and the reminder to recycle should have been easier to read, but for the most part it’s an almost ideal elections poster. Considering that the Unite For Action slate is running almost unopposed, it might have been interesting to see how well these posters fared against a rival slate. But I guess there’s always next year.
A poster design primer
1. Kerning
The spaces between pairs of adjacent letters are a vital and often overlooked element of poster design is kerning — especially when it comes to candidates’ names, A badly kerned name will look awkward and sloppy, decreasing readability.
2. Wordiness
Posters aren’t books, and are meant to be read fairly quickly. If you have to stare at a poster for more than five to ten seconds to take in all it has to say, it’s a failure. Bullet points, such as the ones in Nathaniel Tang’s poster, are best.
3. Scale
Playing with scale is also essential. Scale guides the eye: if all the elements in a poster are of similar size, the eye doesn’t know where to look. Tang’s poster lacks proper scale — his name is only marginally larger than his platform proof points. At a quick glance, it’s difficult to discern what the poster is even trying to communicate.
