Kojichu

Today, our little trip through the world of print media ends with posters and graphics, that not only exist just for decoration – they have a message (at least they should), but sometimes, booths have so many posters, that its hard to figure out what the message is.

But what is a poster? Well, you have to be careful with the definitions. A poster is a printed medium, often used for room decoration (for example some „cool“ boyband-posters, hanging in teenager rooms).
But it can also be a communication tool. It is placed in the public, for informing people about something. Normally, it consists of nice pictures and text.

You can see both types at the most exhibitions: Poster to embellish the booth or posters for information. Especially Japanese booths are often wallpapered with lots of „eye-catchers“, so many, that the eyes sometimes don`t know what to catch.
The style of posters is nearly the same than the booklets, it`s the typical „we-make-everything-so-colorful-that-people-have-to-look“-style. Of course, decorated with lots of manga characters. For some companies, that seems to be part of the corporate identity.
But that is not the same with bills: surprisingly, some of them are quite colorless, with lots of Japanese signs. A nightmare for every foreigner like me. But informative for sure.

In Germany, things look nearly the same: White, colorless booths are decorated with some posters. But both Germany and Japan, there are some different types of print media. Which type of media the companies use depends on their size and budget (that`s my theory). Not every poster has to be printed on paper. Some of them are exhibited in light boxes, that, of course, get more attention than some pieces of paper, pasted on the wall with tape. Sometimes, there are also posters printed on fabrics.
If you want to highlight your company in a very big way, you can even print murals. Some of them are meters high, you cant oversee them.
The costs for these murals are possibly as high as the walls, so for small companies, this effort might be too much.