Creative Poster Design for Events by Marte

Learn to design a poster that actually stops people in their tracks. Marte walks you through her entire process, from sketching ideas on paper to building a polished, event-ready layout in Illustrator. You’ll focus on combining hand-drawn lettering with graphic design principles to create something that feels both personal and professional.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Create a mood board to define your poster’s visual direction.
• Develop thumbnail sketches to explore layout and composition.
• Draw custom lettering by hand and refine it digitally.
• Use Illustrator to digitize, vectorize, and finalize your poster design.

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Basic familiarity with Adobe Illustrator is helpful but not required.
• Tools: Pen and paper for sketching, a computer with Adobe Illustrator installed.
• Hardware: A computer capable of running Adobe Illustrator.

📝 Description

This course isn’t about following a rigid formula. Marte shows you how to build a poster from the ground up, starting with raw ideas and ending with a polished digital file. You’ll begin by researching graphic styles and building a mood board to lock in your visual direction. Then, it’s time to get your hands dirty with thumbnail sketches and hand-drawn lettering.

The real magic happens when you move into Illustrator. Marte teaches you how to digitize your analog sketches, clean up your lettering, and compose a final layout that works for any event. She focuses on practical techniques—like balancing negative space and choosing the right type hierarchy—so your poster communicates clearly and looks great. No fluff, just a straight path from concept to finished design.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Graphic designers looking to add hand-lettering to their poster workflow.
• Illustrators who want to expand into event poster design.
• Musicians or event organizers wanting to create their own promotional materials.
• Anyone curious about combining analog sketching with digital tools.

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Marte, also known as Martina Galarza, is a graphic designer and lettering artist from Buenos Aires. She started making posters for her musician friends as a hobby, and it quickly turned into a full-time career—she even left geology behind to pursue it. Her client list includes Paul McCartney, Pussy Riot, Budweiser, and WeWork. Her Female Power poster series, created during Argentina’s feminist movement, was exhibited internationally and won a Latin American illustration award.

🏁 Final Result

• A complete, print-ready event poster designed from scratch in Illustrator, combining your own hand-drawn lettering with graphic design elements.