Making and Distributing Flyers and Posters

First ask yourself who will be reading your flyer or poster. Is this going to hang in a shop, or café window, or handed to people walking on the street? Will it be crowded into a community bulletin board? What will make it stand out among all of the others?

Make your words count; you don't want to make the page so crammed that no one wants to read it. A flyer or poster? It needs to be very easy to read!

Your flyer or poster must tell the public about the following information:

Who? What? When? Where? and Why?

All of this information has to fit on the page. If you don't use the template we provide, remember not to make more than a few headline phrases.

Photographs and graphics catch people's attention, but they don't photocopy well. If you can print them directly from your computer's printer, photographs and graphics can look great and help your poster be read above others. Are you going to be printing a large volume from your computer's printer, or using a copy machine? If a copy machine, choose simple 'line art' and avoid photographs and complicated graphics.

If your group is going to mail your poster or flyer to a local contact list, consider including one or more of Our Factsheets with your mailing. If you are building a November Coalition chapter, consider adding the Factsheet on our organization.

Don't forget to add your local contact information along with the Journey for Justice website information and November Coalition contact information on your posters and flyers. A local phone number and email address is important. People need to know that a national effort has local interest and local contact people.

If you intend to hand out flyers on the street, you can print four to an 8 -1/2" x 11" page. Street flyers should contain only pertinent information about the event, plus two headlines. We have provided 'PDF' (Adobe Acrobat Reader) templates and samples for both types of published event notifications.

Unless you have a willing artist in your group, make the flyers with your computer, or ask our staff to assist you. If you give us four weeks notice, usually one of us can help design, and then mail, a camera ready copy that you can photocopy for local distribution.

The template downloads should assist you in the design and format of your own plans for making and distributing flyers.

If you can convert your poster/flyer into a PDF document, we can post it with the Journey event schedule. Perhaps strangers will download and hang notices of public Journey events in other neighborhoods your volunteers won't cover. Best of all, at your public event, strangers will meet.

Download Sample Journey for Justice poster (PDF format)

Download Editable Journey for Justice poster (PDF format)

Download Sample Journey for Justice flyer (4-up; PDF format)

Download Editable Journey for Justice flyer (4-up; PDF format)

Note: PDF format documents require the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, available here.

Instructions for Editable PDF files: These are laid up as templates where you can just enter text into assigned and formatted fields. In Acrobat Reader, simply click where it says "Enter ***" and fill in with your information. On the 4-up flyer template, you only have to fill in the text field once, and the text will repeat on the other three flyers. We recommend downloading and viewing our sample poster and flyer as guides.

Visit our Artwork and Supplies pages for other Flyers and Posters resources.

Distributing your Flyers and Posters

Event and public meeting announcements are welcome in many businesses and public buildings.A shopkeeper or café owner will often give a person permission to hang a flyer in a window.

Some suggested places include grocery stores -- which often have community bulletin boards, as do laundromats -- apartment complexes, senior centers and public libraries,. Cafés, book stores, medical offices, beauty salons, barber shops, student unions, and employment and social service agency offices will often allow event announcements to be taped to walls and windows.

Be sure to hang poster or distribute flyers in the neighborhood where the meeting is to be held!

Ask permission before you post a flyer. If there is no one to ask, that is another matter. Check the laws before you attach a poster to telephone poles, at bus stop, train-station areas, etc. You can be cited and fined in some areas for applying posters to some fixtures or some areas.

Remember to carry your own special 'removable' tape. If it is for outdoor posting, you will want to use durable tape, but it shouldn't remove paint, or be hung with nails. Don't damage another's property. Your poster lists your local contact information. Remember that, and be sure to instruct volunteers to do the same.

If you prepare a small flyer for street distribution to passersby, those people handing out the flyers should be prepared to answer questions about the event.