How to Make Cool Posters for Your Desk Setup

diy free cool homemade posters

Designing your own posters is easy, free, and fun. It gives your desk setup a truly unique touch and you pick the colors and style entirely to your taste. Learn how to make cool posters for your desk setup in 5 minutes.

There are so many advantages to making your own posters…

It’s so easy that you in theory can have them hanging on your wall in 5 minutes. Of course, the creative process may take longer, but that is entirely up to you.

It’s free. You can also afford trial and error to see what works in your setup and what doesn’t. Or you can switch your style once in a while to freshen it up.

It’s cool and unique. You will have your own truly unique touch and it’s extra cool to be able to say that the posters are designed by you.

It gives you the freedom to choose style and colors entirely to your own taste. You can create the aesthetic that you want your setup to convey whether it be for productivity, creativity, or gaming. It’s also much easier to match the style to the other interior in your home office or gaming room.

What you need

Most of the stuff, you probably already have.

A free Canva account

If you don’t already have a Canva account, you can create one for free on Canva.com. Canva can be used to make a digital design in your browser. It’s free and no installation is needed.

A color printer

You need a printer that can print in color on A4 paper. I’m assuming most people have access to this nowadays. Probably, your local library have one at your disposal and a good one at that. You can of course also use a print service, but then it’s not free. I am literally using the cheapest inkjet printer available in the local electronics store (Canon TS3450 series). A more expensive printer would be able to print completely to the edge and in higher quality, but my cheap printer gets the job done.

A4 paper or glossy photo paper

You can use regular A4 paper or glossy photo paper. If you use photo paper, you will need to check the specifications of your printer. Pay attention to the maximum gsm that your printer supports. Gsm simply means how thick the paper is. You then just have to make sure that you buy photo paper that is within the supported gsm of your printer.

A4 frames

Since A4 is the standard for home printers, you will have to use this. If you need to fill out a large wall, you can simply make more posters. Sticking to A4 will also make it possible to swap your posters easily when you get tired of your existing ones. I bought my frames in oak. It is a little darker than bamboo and brighter than walnut, which I think complements most colors. Frames can be costly, so you can, of course, also skip them altogether.

How to create the digital design

There are so many styles and options you can choose to pursue. Your creativity is the limit. For instance, you can import real photos and turn them into drawings or simply just create text statements with beautiful fonts. In the example pictures, I have played around with shapes, which is what I will use to show you how you can get started.

Open Canva

Login to Canva and click “Create a design”.

Choose “A4 Document”.

creating cool canva posters

Create your shapes

Start by creating 5 different shapes by choosing “Elements” and then “Lines & Shapes”. You then drag your preferred shapes onto the canvas and size them to your preference.

creating cool canva posters with shapes and geometry

Pick a color palette

Now it’s time to pick your colors. I picked a color palette that matches my desk lamp and my colored keycaps. This is the perfect way to tie it all together.

You choose a shape, and click the colored square in the top menu. If you want a custom color, you click the “+” and choose. You can also just pick from the default colors. When you have done this for all 5 shapes, you will now have your own color palette under “Document colors”.

creating cool canva posters in color

Set your geometric creativity free

Now it’s time to be creative by resizing, moving, and flipping.

You resize by dragging in the corners of your shape.

You tilt by dragging the turn symbol.

You move around by clicking the shape somewhere in the middle and dragging.

creating cool canva posters with creativity

Be transparent

You then add some transparency to make the elements melt together.

creating cool canva posters with transparency

If you want a shape to be behind or on top of another, you can adjust the layering by clicking “Position” and then either “Forward” or “Backward”.

creating cool canva posters

Splash with a colored background

If you can’t get enough color like me, you can add a background too. Click somewhere on the background, then choose the colored square and pick a color (I like orange).

creating cool canva posters

Move on to the next marvel

Simply click “+ Add page” to move on to the next poster and your color palette will carry over. You can choose different shapes or just different combinations of sizes and positioning to maintain the same style.

creating cool canva posters

Save your work to png

When you’re done, click “Share”, then “Download”. File type “PNG” is good. Then click the “Download” button and save your work to your disk.

creating cool canva posters

Time to print

Find the PNG images on your disk and print them in A4. Make sure to choose “High quality” in your printer settings.

If your printer doesn’t support A4-sized photo paper, you can still print on A4 photo paper – just pick regular A4 paper in settings and the printer will continue anyhow.

This is my final result

diy free cool homemade posters
My 5 posters in digital format. I even gave them names to make them super cool! From the top-left Crossroads, Central Spot, Rising Tides, Robot Broomer, and lastly Mountain Top. Yes, I know you can do better :).

diy cool homemade posters
I put 3 on my wall behind my desk.

unique desk setup with homemade posters
And the remaining 2 on each side of my monitor.

Have fun being creative and cool! And if you like my posters, I will gladly send them to you free of charge. Just send me a mail.

This series consists of several posts that you should also check out!

This Is the Ideal Clean White Gaming Setup Equally Suited to Work

How to Build an Easy DIY Desk Shelf and Monitor Stand in 5 Minutes!

The Secret to Designing an Aesthetic Desk Setup

The Best Peripherals for Your Gaming and Work Desk Setup

How to Make Cool Posters for Your Desk Setup

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