You finally managed to organize that fantastic event you planned for so long. Everything looks cool and smooth, but what about invitations? You can’t just tell people about that celebration – you need to amaze them all with an amazingly looking poster that showcases every feature in a single (or couple) of highly colorful pages.

Or maybe you’re a business owner who just wants to create an enticing post on a social network to take advantage of the holiday season. That’s when people buy more, and it’s the perfect time to offer an unique upsell or deal. But if your visuals look bland or boring, or if you end up recycling the same old stock photo… are really people going to be interested into it?

Regardless of the reasons why you want to make your own event poster or invitation, there are a lot of great tools that offer custom holiday designs for free available on the Internet. So just grab the first one you can find (or the best one – your choice), and let’s see what are the most important things to know to amaze your peers or customers with a fantastic personalized holiday poster.

And no, you don’t need to be a professional to achieve great results – even newbies can make it with some effort.

1. Familiarize with the templates

Different events require different tones, and templates represent the shortest route to find the right theme. Getting acquainted with them by browsing them all is the first step to check the general structure you’re going to edit later.

There are a lot of different templates you can use, each one with its own unique structure. Depending on the type of event for which the invitation or poster is designed, a different tone should be used. If you’re planning a birthday party, grab a colorful and happy one. Large, bold fonts with giant lettering sets are lively enough to convey that sense of “let’s party!” you’re looking for even before you add the details.

If you’re going to create an invite for a formal event, instead, check for a more neutral and classy template. A classic style with more sparse design will put all the focus on the meaningful elements such as the where and when. Graphic such as the silhouette leaf can be added later to increase uniqueness and personality.

1. Choose the correct message

Choosing the right words to tell something isn’t so obvious as one may think. For example, a business owner may think that offering a terrific deal during a holiday occasion is the best way to attract customers. Although it probably will, it can also have a negative effect if your buyers will perceive you as a bargain even when you’re valuable. Even worse, if the discount too high it may tell them that the only time they should buy is during the holidays.

You should be careful not just to what you say, but at how you say it. Following the above example, it’s better to offer a discount only to existing customers, to reinforce the loyalty of your fan base. The message you will tell to other prospects is very effective as well – buy from me, and I’ll hold you dear even in the future.

1. Add the details that make the difference

Once you’ve made your choice about the message you want to portray, you’re ready to find the right text and adjust it. Write your wording on the pre-existing boxes, and play with different fonts, sizes and effects until you found the optimal combination.

Now you can work on smoothing the current template by working on frames and filters with the graphic tools. You can add a more modern or traditional look by optimizing the visuals, but only choose those that fit with your current mesh. Photos and pictures are normally added during this step, and they’re used to highlight the text rather than cover it.

Try to avoid unnecessary clutter, and add the finish design touches such as personalized graphic elements. Try to use lines and text banners to draw the attention towards the vital elements of the design, such as the primary text and/or pictures.

Even if you’re not particularly experienced as a designer, don’t worry. Feel free to experiment until you find the right formula. After all, template designs let you save every blueprint to be edited later, step by step.

Why you should make your own custom invitation? Well, because it will save a lot of money and because it’s the best way to strengthen your relationship with your fans, customers or friends. No one else but you did it, do you really need any other reason?

Categories: General