How to Design a Road Safety Poster

Road signs are critical because they tell drivers what they need to know to drive safely and avoid accidents and injury. Road safety signs also educate people, including children, about what they need to do to be safe near roadways. Designing posters is a good way to reinforce safety concepts learned in the classroom and charge students with the responsibility for educating others about road safety. With careful consideration and creativity, students can create road safety posters that are both attractive and effective.

Identify Target Audience

Different road safety issues affect different populations, so determine what the audience for the road safety poster is. If you're working on keeping kids safe on the way to and from school, the issues your poster covers will be different than if you're focusing on improving safety among high school children with a brand new driver's license. If older students are designing the posters, they might design a poster for younger children in the school.

Brainstorm Ideas

List several ideas based on your chosen target audience. For younger children, a poster might show the importance of wearing a helmet when riding a bike, scooter or skateboard. A poster about always buckling up in the car, holding hands to cross the street or looking both ways before crossing the street are additional ideas for younger children. Road safety posters for new drivers might educate them about never texting while driving or always putting on a seat belt before putting the car in drive. Posters that remind people about wearing bright colors while bike riding at dawn and dusk, crossing at the crosswalk and obeying crosswalk signals are also potential topics.

Get the Attention of Your Audience

The key to making a road safety sign effective is to make it eye-catching. A white poster with black words, for example, might convey the message, but it won't be effective if no one bothers to pay attention to it because it's boring. Color is an easy way to ensure that people see the road sign, according to the National Schools Partnership website. Use bright colors such as red, orange and yellow to draw the eye to the poster. Add bits of reflective tape or metallic paper as another way to attract attention to your poster. Pictures cut from magazines, printed from the Internet or hand drawn is another idea for making your poster eye-catching. Cutting the poster into the shape of a stop sign to draw the eye to it is another potential idea.

Make the Poster Effective

Proper placement is key when it comes to making your poster effective. For example, if you make a poster about wearing a helmet when riding a bike, the poster should be mounted by the bike rack at an elementary school rather than hung in the halls inside the school. A poster about buckling up or putting a cell phone away while driving would be most effective mounted near the exit of a parking lot. Improve the durability of the poster by laminating it or covering it with contact paper so it doesn't get ripped or damaged by weather.