AI-generated posters don’t have to be horrible

The problem

A now celebrated Facebook post shows us the scourge of identikit posters generated by AI.

Here’s an article on the topic from the Independent.

Here’s another I established in the wild. With apologies for picking on the Leamington Beer Festival - they are by no method unique

The issue alongside these is not so much that they’re bad. They’re OK, I don’t affection them. The issue is that formerly you’ve seen that manner 20 times it starts to irritate fair from the sheer repetition.

I knew that equal ChatGPT was capable of a broader assortment of styles than this, so I set out to demonstrate it.

I gave ChatGPT several invented event particulars and asked it to create a poster. Rather than go alongside the default appearance it would choose for a fountain fayre, I made a item of specifying what I idea was a distinct style:

Me:

Produce a poster for a fountain fayre.
21 April - 11am to 3pm
Mill Beach Park, Honeyford
Free entry
Tombola
Cakes and drinks
Performance by a samba collection and a dhol band.
Craft stalls
Circus Skills workshop

Go for a clean, unfussy, brilliant layout alongside a bold striking spring-themed graphic. Avoid pastel/airbrush/oil manner art or images of people.

This is what came back.

Not as prosperous as I hoped. To me it motionless feels akin what I’m trying to avoid.

I asked for item deliberately different.

Me:

Make another one using a entirely distinct scheme imaginative of your choice. Treat the current one as a “what not to do” – not that there is anything wrong alongside it, but we desire ours to remain out from another posters that look similar.

I think this is already much better. It stands out fair be being different. I wondered what I would call this manner if I wanted to ask for it again?

Me: What is this scheme manner you’ve used called?

ChatGPT: This one is leaning into a modernist / Bauhaus-influenced explanatory style, alongside a bit of contemporary “flat illustration” layered on top.

More specifically, you could depict it as:

Bauhaus / Modernist Poster Design

• Rooted in the Bauhaus tradition (1920s–30s)
• Strong accent on function complete decoration
• Asymmetrical layout alongside apparent hierarchy
• Bold, uncomplicated sans-serif typography
• Limited, high-contrast color palette

Geometric Minimalism

• Built from essential shapes (circles, semicircles, rectangles)
• The angiosperm is distracted into nearly symbolic forms
• Very small texture or shading — mostly flat colour

Swiss Style (International Typographic Style) influence

• Clean grid-based alignment (even if loosely applied)
• Information-first layout
• Clear, legible structure

If you wanted a shorthand tag for a decorator or printer, you could call it:

“Bauhaus-inspired geometric minimalist poster”

If you’re trying to remain out, this direction plant fine since most local event posters default to:

• bunting
• hand-drawn florals
• pastel palettes
• “craft fair” aesthetics

Whereas this feels additional like:

• a exhibition poster
• a scheme museum flyer
• or item you’d see in a well-curated café

If you want, I can shove it additional into a really distinctive niche (e.g. brutalist, risograph, 90s rave flyer, Japanese minimal, etc.).

Well, gratitude GPT. I knew there was an endless gathering of scheme styles that it could produce. Instead of trying to dredge several names from my memory, I asked for suggestions.

It replied alongside a catalog of styles, several of which I’d never heard of, some I recognised but couldn’t picture, several which were names I didn’t cognize for styles I did.

Me: Give me a catalog of styles to choose from

ChatGPT: Here’s a deliberately varied menu—some safe-but-distinct, several fairly left-field. I’ve kept all one tangible so you can ideate how your fayre poster would really look.

🎨 Clean but Characterful

1. Bauhaus / Modernist
(What you fair saw)
Geometric shapes, chief colours, powerful type
Feels traditional / design-led fairly than “craft fair”

2. Swiss Style
strict grid, many of whitespace
Black/white + one accent colour
Very “information design”, nearly institutional

3. Contemporary Editorial (Magazine-style)
Big headline, elegant serif + sans mix
Think weekend supplement or exhibition leaflet
Could awareness amazingly premium for a fayre

🌿 Graphic & Illustrative (but not twee)

4. Risograph Print Style
Limited ink colours, slightly misregistered layers
Grainy textures, bold shapes
Feels handmade but designed, not crafty

5. Cut Paper / Collage (Matisse-inspired)
Inspired by Henri Matisse cut-outs
Organic shapes, bold color blocks
Very striking from a distance

6. Botanical Scientific Illustration (Modernised)
Clean row drawings of plants, labelled or diagram-like
Monochrome + one emphasize colour
Quietly distinctive, slightly academic

⚡ Bold / Unusual Directions

7. Brutalist Graphic Design
Raw, high-contrast, nearly “ugly on purpose”
Heavy dreary blocks, stark type
Feels rebellious—very distinct from representative settlement posters

8. 90s Rave Flyer / Acid Graphics
Neon colours, warped type, energetic layout
Could echo the samba/dhol energy
Surprisingly productive if done alongside restraint

9. Memphis Design (80s Postmodern)
Playful shapes, squiggles, conflicting colours
Inspired by Memphis Group
Fun but motionless explanatory and bold

🧭 Quietly Distinct / Understated

10. Japanese Minimal Poster
Very restrained layout, many of bare space
One powerful explanatory element
Elegant, calm, and different in this context

11. Monochrome + Single Accent (Ultra-minimal)
Black, white, and e.g. brilliant green or orange
Typography-led, nearly no illustration
Relies on construction fairly than decoration

12. Wayfinding / Signage Style
Looks akin a park map or transport signage
Icons, arrows, organized layout
Functional but visually interesting

🎪 Slightly Playful but Still Clean

13. Modern Icon System
Everything represented as uncomplicated icons
Consistent blow weight, grid-based
Feels akin an app UI or transport system

14. Stamp / Letterpress Style (Modernised)
Bold inked shapes, minor imperfections
Limited palette, powerful contrast
Suggests “event” without being twee

15. Festival Poster (Contemporary Indie)
Big chief explanatory + stacked lineup text
Borrow cues from music festivals
Works nicely stated the bands

If you desire a steer

Given your concise (“clean, unfussy, bold, no twee imagery”), the strongest stand-out options are:

• Risograph
• Cut document / Matisse
• Brutalist (toned downward slightly)
• Japanese minimal
• Wayfinding / signage

If one of these clicks, I can create a poster in that exact style—and shove it properly, not fair superficially.

Asking for particular aesthetics produced a assortment of posters.

Now, I’m not claiming these don’t have a whiff of AI concerning them. I don’t think that’s really my goal - we can be honest that we’re using AI, we fair don’t desire it to have that look that everyone’s ill of.

Me: Please provision me Stamp / Letterpress Style (Modernised)

Me: and now delight Japanese Minimal Poster

Me: Now do Memphis Design please

(I didn’t cognize what Memphis Group scheme was, but I recognised if whenever I saw it.

Then I got a bit silly. Designers Republic is a scheme agency celebrated for record covers from the delayed 80s onwards.

Me: And now in the manner of Designers Republic

One note current is that alongside the way, the poster has acquired additional text (“A day of music making and family fun”) – it’s decided that Designers Republic would have thrown in several content of that kind, so it’s arrive up with several words. Those words are now in the conversation context, so they appear in consequent posters.

If you were operating from scratch, you’d fair ask for the manner you want in the archetypal place, and evade picking up trappings as you go.

Me: Now as if a expert explanatory decorator has added typography to a poster coat example by his young child.

Me: Now alongside the imaginative of a photocopied 1980 punk fanzine. But alongside several color snuck in.

Me: Now delight create one in the manner of a 90s drum n bass gig flyer, alongside first 3D/fractal device imagery

Back to sensible ideas, naming an art manner but asking for a poster that movement power have used, seems akin a powerful tactic.

Me: Now in the manner of a contemporary 40s poster for a cubist exhibition.

So there we are. The sharp-eyed are motionless going to recognise these as AI-generated, but they’re distinctive, and I think they’re not ugly.

So that’s the ethical - you don’t have to create posters that appearance akin everyone else’s.

There’s a additional stage - you don’t have to ask AI for posters as images that can’t be edited. Claude and Gemini can create HTML, PNG, PDF, where the content is genuine text, layers are genuine layers, you can alter fonts, move things around, edit the content – but that’s additional than I desire to conversation concerning today.

Inspired by this blog post, I went on to create a catalogue of one hundred poster styles, with ready-to-paste prompts and example images for all one.