30+ Best Poster Design Tutorials for Photoshop, Illustrator, and More!

Posters are an eye-catching, informative, and cost-effective way to communicate with a large audience and promote a product, idea, or event.

Premium Poster Template from Envato ElementsPremium Poster Template from Envato ElementsPremium Poster Template from Envato ElementsPremium Poster Template from Envato Elements

If you’d love some help creating your own unique poster design, here are over 30 of the best tutorials from Envato Tuts+ that will guide you through the process from start to finish. 

Best Poster Design Tutorials for InDesign

Want to create a top-notch movie poster design? Check out this Photoshop and InDesign poster tutorial. It takes inspiration from the Inception movie, which used breathtaking special effects to create a world of impossible reality. This tutorial will show you how to combine multiple images with advanced masking and blending techniques to create an impossible city in Photoshop and then use InDesign to create a template, as well as producing error-free artwork. A must-try film poster tutorial. 

Need a good dose of optimism? Why not create this InDesign poster tutorial to bring some cheer to your social media feed or office space? It’s a great all-round introduction to graphic poster design for beginners. You will need a working knowledge of Adobe InDesign for this tutorial.

You don’t need to get your hands dirty to create this event poster tutorial—not literally, anyway. In this tutorial, which is designed for beginners to print design, you use Adobe InDesign and Adobe Illustrator to learn how to build up textures to create that authentic chalky look we all know and love. 

Create a stylish, on-trend poster with this concert poster tutorial. Perfect for beginners to InDesign, the tutorial will introduce you to a range of print design techniques, and you can customise the design to your own text and colour scheme.

Want to create a simple poster while picking up new techniques for creating print layouts? Well, this is the retro poster tutorial for you. This pastel poster evokes summer, sprinklers, and melting ice cream. It’s also super simple to create in Adobe InDesign, so what are you waiting for?

This vintage poster tutorial uses retro typography, vintage textures, and a Soviet-inspired colour palette to evoke the atmosphere of the 1950s Soviet era of space travel. It’s perfect for intermediate InDesign users as it will introduce you to more advanced print design techniques. 

Celebrate women winning the right to vote in the UK while learning how to create posters using Adobe InDesign and Photoshop. That’s what I call a win-win vintage poster tutorial.

The failure rate of New Year’s Resolutions is said to be 80%, and most lose their resolve by mid-Feb, but why let a little thing like the odds stop you from using this InDesign poster tutorial to create a wonderful tongue-in-cheek poster design? 

This retro poster tutorial uses typography, colours, and grids which are trademarks of the Bauhaus style to celebrate their contribution to design. A great all-round introduction to poster design for beginners. 

Planning a Halloween party? Use this vintage poster tutorial to create a terrific poster to let everyone know. It’s a great way to learn Adobe InDesign, and you can adapt the design for other events.

Create this film poster tutorial and sharpen your design skills at the same time. For this celebratory recreation of mid-century designer Saul Bass’s original poster for the Hitchcock film Vertigo, you will be creating the poster in Adobe InDesign, and using Photoshop and Illustrator to edit graphics for the design. 

Best Poster Design Tutorials for Photoshop

How to Create a Poster Using Layer Masks in Adobe PhotoshopHow to Create a Poster Using Layer Masks in Adobe PhotoshopHow to Create a Poster Using Layer Masks in Adobe Photoshop

In this Photoshop poster tutorial, you will learn how to interweave text with objects to create a beautifully integrated image. It’s a great tutorial for improving your mastery of the Layer Mask tool. 

Here’s a wonderful Photoshop poster tutorial celebrating German language and culture. You will learn how to combine three different Photoshop filters to create a contemporary poster. You will mix two styles, a modern light effect and a classical dancer. 

In this Photoshop poster tutorial, you’ll learn everything you need to design your own typography poster, from tips on the creative process and generating ideas through to preparing your files for printing or sharing on social media, as well as the principles of graphic design and how to create a visually powerful composition.

Love the Roy Lichtenstein art style look? This Photoshop poster design tutorials will show you how to use the Colour Halftone filter to create a poster in his iconic style. 

Improve your Photoshop skills while making an eye-catching poster when you discover how to use Layer Masks, clipping masks, and the Liquify Tool in this great sports poster tutorial.

Here’s a minimalist poster tutorial for those who love simplicity. You will learn how to use Layer Masks to combine image and text in the most engaging of ways.

Is grunge-punk your thing? Well, here’s a Photoshop poster design tutorial that teaches you how to combine different Photoshop tools to create an awesome grunge-punk style poster. 

Movie poster design can be quite tricky, but it’s not impossible to learn when you have great tutorials like this one, which walks you through how to use Photoshop plus the Placeit’s poster maker to customise a realistic movie poster template and create your own professional-level design.

Here’s a sports poster tutorial you shouldn’t miss. Why? Because apart from creating a stunning poster design template you can use over and over again, you will learn the all-important lesson of how to use grids effectively, as well as how to use layer masks and adjustment layers to edit images.

If you’re going to create a music poster, you’d better make it cooler than cool. And that’s exactly what you’ll learn to do with this event poster tutorial, which teaches you how to use Bitmap mode in Photoshop, using a few different patterns on a photograph to create a screen-printed effect. 

In this concert poster tutorial, you will learn how to make a rave poster with an abstract 90s design in Adobe Photoshop. But for those who don’t have Photoshop or don’t want to spend the time creating from scratch, the tutorial introduces you to Placeit’s poster design templates that allow you to create amazing poster design right in your browser, in a fraction of the time you’d take to create a poster in Photoshop.

Do you have poster design ideas involving split images that you don’t know how to make a reality? Fret not, this Photoshop poster tutorial will teach you all you need to know about creating a split image poster. Go ahead and dive right in. 

Use various drawing tools and functions in Adobe Photoshop to create fancy letters from scratch and digitise your own handwriting to create personal and memorable posters. 

Best Poster Design Tutorials for Illustrator

Let’s face it: we of the digital age love the nostalgia of the film age. That’s why I’ve included this terrific Adobe Illustrator poster tutorial, which teaches you how to create a poster with the glitch effect related to VHS using Photoshop and Illustrator. 

Use this Adobe Illustrator poster tutorial to create an astronomy-inspired vintage poster. You will learn how to use the Clipping Mask, as well as Warp Effects, and at the end you can apply a texture to add a vintage look to our poster. 

And here’s another nod to the age of film. This tutorial shows you how to use the Noise Tool in Adobe Photoshop to transform a low-resolution image for print and then create a cool poster in Illustrator. 

Best Poster Design Tutorials for an Online Poster Maker and Others

Before you can actually get into the job of making a poster, it’s a good idea to understand what great poster design is. That’s where this poster design tutorial comes in. It uses examples to discuss tips and tricks for making your own poster designs look great and introduces you to the user-friendly online poster creation tool at Placeit. 

For those who have no Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign skills but still want to create a professional-quality poster, there’s Placeit. In this tutorial, you learn how to use the online Poster Creator at Placeit to customise ready-made poster design templates to your own taste and needs. 

Wouldn’t it be cool to create your own wanted poster? Well, this is your chance. This tutorial will show you how to do so using a wanted poster template that you can customise using the Placeit poster generator in minutes.

If you love this awesome poster, why not learn how to create your own with this poster colour tutorial, which focuses on shapes, applying textures, and learning how to
layer different adjustment layers on top of each other to completely
transform an image’s mood and overall colour.

Need to know how to design a gig poster? This tutorial is for you. It shares five design tips for designing a gig poster, using terrific templates as examples. 

Unlimited Poster Design Ideas & Downloads at Envato Elements

If creating a poster from scratch is a bit too time-consuming for you, then a poster template is probably a good option for you. Envato Elements is a terrific source for poster design ideas.  

One of the things that makes this service outstanding is that it offers thousands of gorgeous poster design templates by the most talented designers in the field, and you can download as many as you want, as often as you want, for one flat monthly fee. 

What’s more, that monthly fee allows you to access thousands of other premium digital assets like logos, fonts, mockups, photos, business card templates, and much more.

Although the sample text on this one says “Music Festival”, you could use this sleek poster design template for more or less any industry you want. This A3 template is fully print-ready, with CMYK colours and a resolution of 300 DPI, and the well-organised files and layers make it easy to customise.

Promote your film festival with this flexible movie poster template! The imagery of a reel of film makes it clear that this is a movie poster design, and you can easily add your own images and details to grab your audience’s attention.

Summer may be over now in the Northern Hemisphere, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make good use of this bright, energetic template with its cheerful colour scheme that will remind your audience of a happy summer’s day. Use it to promote the event of your choice. The package includes three different poster design ideas, all print-ready with CMYK colours, bleeds, and an A3 file size.

And here’s another poster inspired by summer—although if you change the text and switch the camping illustration to something else, you can change the mood completely! That’s the wonderful thing about a well-designed poster design template: you have so much flexibility to create the exact look you’re going for. This package includes fully layered AI and PSD files at A4 size.

Do you want to help in the fight against COVID-19 by creating an informative poster? Use this clean, elegant template as the basis for an eye-catching poster—but, of course, be sure to refer to your local government and/or health organisations for the most accurate and up-to-date information and advice to include.

Here’s another very topical poster design template. Why not show your support for the Black Lives Matter movement that’s been taking the world by storm this year? This eye-catching poster is perfect for advertising a protest, teach-in, rally, or other public event. It’s an A4 template, with fully layered AI and PSD files that are print-ready and easy to edit.

If you want to promote a maths- or science-related event, this cool poster design template is ideal! The numbers-within-numbers design makes the topic clear, while leaving plenty of space for your text. Use this Photoshop poster template to announce anything from a talk or workshop to an academic conference. Like the other templates featured here, this one is print-ready and simple to edit.

You could have lots of fun with this Wild West wanted poster template. Add an image of your friend (or foe) to this template, modify it to specify the crime and the reward, and use it as a fun feature at a party or other event. You can edit the Photoshop file in seconds thanks to its clear organisation and use of Smart Objects. The only limit is your imagination!

Looking for a creative poster to advertise a music or art event? This eye-catching template is ideal, with its stunning splash of colour and its clear, bold text. It comes in A3 size, with bleeds and CMYK colours ready for printing, and you get a bonus Facebook event cover too! Download this one today!

Lastly, here’s a simple, flexible template for creating a stylish poster. The muted colour scheme and plain sans serif font suggest a corporate environment, but you can change it to suit another type of event if you want. Unlike most of the poster design ideas we’ve looked at, this A3 template can be edited in Microsoft Word as well as Adobe InDesign.

Create a Poster Design Today 

Why not try one of the Envato Tuts+ tutorials or use a poster design template from Envato Elements to create your own awesome poster today. 

And if you want more information on other terrific tutorials and template from Envato, check out these really helpful articles below: