# Student club posters and posts: recruit members every term

[Canonical HTML page](https://gradiently.design/guide/student-club-posters)

A club lives or dies in the first three weeks of term. Here is what to put on the noticeboard, the feed and the group chat, and how to make it all look like one club.

## The short version

- Student club posters work when someone walking past can tell what the club is, when it meets and how to join in about three seconds.
- An A4 poster at 300 dpi is 2480×3508 pixels, and an A5 flyer is 1748×2480 pixels.
- Every printed poster should have a matching Instagram post and story, so people who see it on a noticeboard recognise it again online.
- The weeks around the start of term matter most for recruitment, so plan freshers posts and the first meeting before term begins.
- Keeping the club's look in a shared kit lets each new committee pick it up instead of starting again every year.

Good **student club posters** pass a three second test: someone walking past a noticeboard can tell what the club is, when it next meets and how to join, without stopping. Pair each poster with an Instagram post and a story in the same look, plan them around the moments in the year when students are actually looking for something new, and you will recruit more than a club with nicer artwork and no plan. The rest of this page gives you the calendar, the sizes, layouts that work, and a way to stop each year's committee starting from scratch.

## The recruitment calendar for a student club

| When | What to make | Formats |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Summer, before term | Freshers fair poster, stall banner, "find us" post | A4 poster, Instagram post, story |
| Freshers week | First meeting or taster session | A4 and A5 flyer, post, story, group chat image |
| Weeks two to four | Socials, "still time to join" reminders | Story, post |
| Mid term | Main event or competition | A3 poster, post, story countdown |
| January | Second semester welcome for new and returning members | Post and story |
| Spring | Committee elections and AGM | Post, story, A4 poster |

Most new members join in the first weeks of the first term. Make that set before term starts, while you still have time.

## What makes a club poster work on a noticeboard

A noticeboard in freshers week holds dozens of posters, all competing. The ones that work are not the busiest. They have one big line people can read from a few steps away, then the essentials, then a way to join. [Poster design](https://gradiently.design/guide/poster-design) covers hierarchy in detail.

An A4 student club poster for a climbing society inviting students to try climbing on Wednesday at 6pm with no experience needed

An A4 club poster: the invitation as the headline, then when, where and the one reassurance new students need.

### Gets walked past

- The club's name as the biggest words
- Every event of the term on one poster
- Small type across the whole sheet
- A QR code the size of a stamp
- No date, or last month's date

### Gets read

- What you'll do as the headline: "Try climbing"
- One event per poster
- One big line, then three short facts
- A QR code at least a few centimetres wide, tested on a phone
- A date that is still in the future

> **Say who it's for** "No experience needed", "beginners welcome" or "all years" removes the main reason first years don't turn up. Put it on every recruitment poster.

## Freshers posts and stories that match the poster

Students see the poster on the way to a lecture, then see the same design on Instagram that evening. That second sighting is what turns interest into turning up. Make the post and story from the same design, laid out again for each shape rather than cropped from the poster.

A portrait Instagram post for a climbing society matching the printed poster, inviting students to try climbing on Wednesday

The feed post, same words and look as the poster.

A vertical story for a climbing society reminding students the session is tomorrow at 6pm and to bring trainers

A story the day before, with one practical line that answers the next question.

On a story, keep the words inside a central box roughly 800 px wide by 1,150 px tall, starting about 250 px from the top, so Instagram's own buttons never cover them; [social media safe zones](https://gradiently.design/guide/social-media-safe-zones) explains why, and [Instagram Story size](https://gradiently.design/guide/instagram-story-size) covers the format. If the club runs on Discord, a 960×540 server banner in the same look makes the server feel like the same place. [Discord banner size](https://gradiently.design/guide/discord-banner-size) covers the details.

## Sizes a student club needs

- A4 poster: 2480 × 3508
- A5 flyer: 1748 × 2480
- Instagram post: 1080 × 1350
- Story: 1080 × 1920
- Discord banner: 960 × 540

Five formats cover a whole year for most clubs. A3 at 3508×4961 is worth it for one big event a term. Print needs full resolution: Gradiently's Free exports are 720p PNG or JPG with a small watermark, so poster files and print PDFs come from Pro.

## Give the club a look people recognise

A club that posts in a different style every week looks like several clubs. Choose a background, one bold font and one plain one, and keep them all year. The look should say something about the club: energetic for sport, considered for a debating society, playful for a board games club.

- Sport: yellow to red: `linear-gradient(135deg, #facc15 0%, #f97316 50%, #dc2626 100%)`
- Debating: slate: `linear-gradient(160deg, #0f172a 0%, #1e293b 60%, #475569 100%)`
- Arts: orchid to plum: `radial-gradient(circle at 30% 30%, #f0abfc 0%, #a855f7 45%, #3b0764 90%)`

Three club looks with copyable codes. Each one tells you something about the club before you read a word.

To make it truly the club's own, claim a Mark on Gradiently: a living background with its own colours, material and type voice that nobody else can export with once it is yours. Its calmest area moves behind your words, so posters stay readable even on a bold background. Claiming is a one-time payment that includes the first year of keeping; after that, keeping is free with Pro or a yearly fee per Mark. Browse them on [the Market](/market) by colour word, such as "deep teal".

## Hand the look to next year's committee

Clubs lose their look every spring, when the committee changes and the new social secretary can't find the files. Plan the handover.

1. **Keep everything in one shared place** Logo, fonts, colours and templates in one kit rather than on one person's laptop. On Gradiently, a shared workspace and the brand kit are part of Pro.
2. **Make templates for the regular posts** First meeting, social, event, elections and "meet the committee".
3. **Pass on ownership, not just a password** If the club's Mark is in the outgoing president's name, they can give it to the incoming one for free. A code is emailed to confirm, and the certificate of authenticity moves into the new name.
4. **Write a one page handover note** Which posts go out when, and where the files are.

"Meet the committee" is a good job for a spreadsheet. On Gradiently Pro, bulk create takes one template and a CSV with a column for each name, role and line, and makes one design per row for you to review.

```text
name,role,line
Priya,President,"Third year, climbing for six years"
Tom,Treasurer,Will chase your membership fee
Amara,Social Secretary,Ask me about the Christmas trip
Leo,Kit Officer,"Shoes, harnesses and chalk"
```

One row per committee member becomes one post. Text that contains a comma goes in double quotes, as in the first and last rows.

For more ideas, see [poster ideas](https://gradiently.design/guide/poster-ideas), and if your club sits inside a bigger institution, [university social media](https://gradiently.design/guide/university-social-media) explains how student and official accounts can share a look.

## FAQ

### What should a student club poster include?

What the club does as the headline, when and where the next session is, who it is for, and how to join, such as a QR code or a short link.

### What size is an A4 poster in pixels?

2480×3508 pixels at 300 dpi. An A5 flyer is 1748×2480 and an A3 poster is 3508×4961.

### When should a club start making freshers posters?

Before term starts. Most recruitment happens in the first few weeks, so have the poster, post and story ready for freshers week.

### How do we keep the club's branding when the committee changes?

Keep the logo, fonts, colours and templates in one shared kit, write a short handover note, and transfer ownership of anything held in one person's name.