How-to's > Guidelines > Resources - Hart House

7. Basic tips & tricks
Here’s a few things to keep in mind when designing your promotional materials.
1. Be concise: You only have a split second to grab someone’s attention. Bio’s, background information and excessive
contact details are all things to have on your website. Keep the poster clean and only include the most important info.
2. Contrast: Be sure to choose background and text colours that contrast well. Using yellow type on a white background
can be very difficult to read and is not accessible for people with a visual impairment
3. Formatting your text: It is standard to lay out your text so that it is read from left to right, this means that you
should always left align you text and titles. Centering blocks and right aligning text makes it difficult to read and
understand.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur
adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor
incididunt ut labore et dolore magna
aliqua.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur
adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor
incididunt ut labore et dolore magna
aliqua.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur
adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor
incididunt ut labore et dolore magna
aliqua.
4. Choosing the right image: When choosing an image to use for your event remember that you have to be able to read
the text over top of it. Choose something that isn’t too busy or has a lot of contrast so that your text still pops out.
5. Keep the design simple and clean: The more you add to the poster, the more opportunity there is for people to
miss the important information. Less is more.
6. Don’t distort text or images: Never stretch or compress any text, photos or illustrations.
7 Hart House Circle / Toronto, ON / M5S 3H3 / Canada / 416.978.2452 / www.harthouse.ca