The secrets of guerrilla communication
Communicating design to your colleagues is an important skill. I was reminded of this last week when visiting one of our offices and seeing Helena’s latest posters in all sorts of good places.
The trick is to focus your efforts anywhere that people stand around with nothing better to do than to read what’s in front of them.
Use these techniques to communicate user needs, user research, and key messages. Anything where you need to build a shared understanding or empathy with a group of people.
What you’ll need
Good tape. Preferably coloured.
A printer capable of printing posters at A3 or larger (colour).
Places to think about
In the office kitchen – the fridge door is good. Cupboards are used less frequently.
Above the kettle or microwave – watch for fire hazards. Also, think about paper stock, and steam condensation.
Above the office printer.
Inside toilet cubicle doors (yes, really – ask Simon).
Other things to think about
Placement: think about eye level. Will people be sitting or standing? It’s all about the context of where people will see what you’re trying to communicate.
As Joanne pointed out: watch out for poster fatigue. Whisper this quietly: sometimes it’s an idea to remove other posters, but tread carefully.
When designing your artwork, think about colour and typography. Quality of design matters here. Be consistent, not uniform is a good design principle. Images don’t always help, and keeping things simple is best.
If you have time, make a simple and reusable design system. The repository of GDS posters is a great example.
Extending this beyond posters
Stickers are your friend, and will help you make friends.
This blog post is part of an experiment where I’m writing and publishing something everyday. This is day 12: everyday is an opportunity to write something – previous blog posts.
This is my blog where I’ve been writing for 18 years. You can follow all of my posts by subscribing to this RSS feed. You can also find me on Bluesky, less frequently now on X (formally Twitter), and on LinkedIn.