Effective Poster Design For Information Dissemination: The Ethics Promotion Project In Tanzania

Abstract

This article is written with an understanding that information communication posters are frequently prepared and used in all types of educational campaigns, but their planning, design and production rarely takes into consideration their effectiveness for the purpose they are prepared. The paper is thus aimed at discussing the essential and crucial design elements that when adhered to, can help in the production of posters that are audience or target group centered. The need for such information is even more critical in developing countries, where there are innumerable upcoming governmental, non-governmental and civil society organizations that are involved in educating people using printed visual materials. The paper presents and briefly discusses how ethics promotion information dissemination posters for Tanzania's civil service were planned designed and disseminated. This poster production project was organized and implemented through a collaborative initiative between the President's Office and the University of Dar es Salaam. The project's time span was from January 2004 to February 2005. The project involved untrained (in poster design) school going children, who were mostly teenagers. Subsequent to the well organized preliminary discussions and execution of the project, high quality posters were designed, produced and distributed to their intended sites. The paper makes some conclusions and recommendations.

University of Dar es Salaam Library Journal Vol. 9 (2) 2007: pp. 105-120