How to Create Posters for Print on Demand
Now that you have an idea of what kind of posters you want to be making, it’s time to get creative and make some designs!
Choosing Your Design Software
Photoshop (and the Creative Cloud in general) is arguably the industry standard for poster design. However, when starting out, it can be a scary investment at roughly £30 a month.
While Photoshop is preferable in the long term, you can learn the ropes of design and get going with Canva. Canva is fantastic for beginners because they have a massive load of templates you can use to get used to layout and typography.
Note: While it might be tempting to slightly modify these templates and sell them, those designs are often saturated on places like Etsy. We recommend using them as a starting point to build something entirely new.
What size format should I use?
The best design format to start with is A sizes (A4, A3, A2, A1, A0) because they are perfectly scalable.
This means you can make your designs in one size, for example A3, and that file will be ready to scale up or down to all other A sizes. If you design an A3 poster and someone orders an A1, you can simply upload that A3 file to PrintShrimp and it will be ready to print perfectly.
Pro Tip: Design in UK "A" sizes but list your products in both UK and US sizing on Etsy. If you get a US order (in inches), you can quickly redesign that specific file on demand. This saves you from having to create multiple versions of every single poster before you even know if they will sell.
Our recommendations for starting design
1. Experimenting is your best friend
Honestly, the best way to learn design is to just have a play around! The satisfaction when a poster design finally comes together is like no other.
2. Replicate to learn (but not to sell)
A great way to start is by trying to replicate a poster you see for sale online. Don't do this to sell it—that would be stealing—but trying to recreate a complex design is the fastest way to learn how layers, fonts, and colors work together. You'll be surprised at how easy it is to pull together designs that at first appear complicated.
3. Master the art of "Googling"
At the start, you won’t know how to do everything. Learning how to search for specific design tutorials (e.g., "how to create a grain texture in Photoshop") is a skill in itself that you will master over time.
4. Take inspiration, do not steal
This is the golden rule. You want to be selling similar products in your niche, but not copies. If you make designs too similar to ones already available, customers will likely buy from the established shop with 1,000 reviews rather than your new one. Make yours stand out enough to offer a fresh alternative.
📖 The Poster Selling Series
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How to Make Posters (Current Post)
