Posters are a wonderful and cost-effective way to decorate your store or office. Interesting, beautiful, eye-catching posters can be purchased online or at national chain retail stores like Michael’s Crafts for a fraction of what original art or furnishings would cost. They come in all sizes and shapes, and turn a boring space into an instant gallery.

Better for your business, these days you can quickly and easily create custom posters from your own photographs, advertising, artwork, or graphics you like. Some of your suppliers may be able to give you attractive readymade posters, or ads from their companies that can be made into posters, to showcase and promote the products or services you sell.

My favorite source for custom posters is FedEx/Kinko’s. For as little as .95 (as of April, 2009) you can take your photo, ad, graphic, or digital memory card into a FedEx/Kinko’s store anywhere in the country and come out with a poster in a matter of minutes or hours, depending on how busy the staff is. Or you can send your digital file to their online printing service, and get the poster back in a matter of days. Most locations also have a self-serve machine for making or copying oversize posters, and can provide custom backlit or edgelit frames that really make a statement.

A sturdy frame manufactured for commercial use costs a little more, but is a good investment in the long run. It’s durable, will last you for many years, will stand up to abuse, and will allow you to change the contents as your products, preferences, or world change. Posters that were perfect in your store in, say, 1980, would make you look outdated today. Frames designed for commercial use won’t be dated.

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I’ve adapted six eHow.com step-by-step residential suggestions for planning how you’re going to arrange, find and hang your posters:

1. Survey your space. Decide whether it will benefit from one or two large posters or a cluster of smaller ones. Draw a “map” of the wall, indicating the heights of furniture and any wall-mounted shelves or fixtures. Make notes on the existing colors.

2. Envision what you want the poster décor to do. Do you want the poster to promote a product or service? Bring a theme into the store, or make it more colorful and appealing? For example, if you sell products from Mexico, you might want colorful scenes of Mexico. If you sell insurance, you might want a poster of a happy, healthy family. Do you want a panoramic landscape to “open up” a small office space?

3. Browse. Shop for posters online or at crafts stores, or look through your own files, sell sheets, company literature, and photographs for images you’d like to make into posters. You might start out with one idea and see something you think is much better suited to your goals.

4. Choose the right frames for your posters and your space. Remember this isn’t your daughter’s dorm room. Choose a display frame made for a commercial establishment or office that’s durable, changeable, and attractive. Most manufacturers can make frames in whatever size and color you choose, or a variety of durable metal materials. Consider frames that are backlit, edgelit, prismatic, or scrolling if you want your poster to attract maximum attention. Orders from anywhere in the world can be made online, by phone, or by fax.

5. Hang or place your posters. Commercial frames are often attached to the wall with bolts or screws, or can be hung or placed on an easel. Posters to be placed in a shop window or arcade can be made with a closed back, or a box frame that stands by itself. Small posters can be put in box frames so they stand on a counter, bookshelf or desk. A small, backlit poster can draw customers’ attention to a particular location or content you want to make their first impression, or focus.

6. Change your poster décor frequently. Keep yourself and your customers from getting bored! Consider changing your posters with the seasons. You can store posters rolled in tubes until the each season rolls around again the next year.

Far too many stores and offices are just plain dull, when they could be cheerful, inviting, and pleasant to enter with something like a few nice posters. Your most profitable item could be promoted in such a prominent, mega sized, or maybe backlit way your customers couldn’t help noticing it.

Alternatively, in this age when people want to put a “face” on the companies they deal with, you could create a poster of yourself, your family, your pets, your suppliers, or your store or office with customers. A popular Minneapolis restaurant is named after the owner’s young daughter and dog, and dramatically decorated with fabulous black-and-white posters featuring them.

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