Unique College Student Posters

Avoiding Cliché Wall Poster Choices for Your Dorm Room or Apartment

May 6, 2008 Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Looking for something more creative than a poster of a bottle of beer to decorate your walls? Here are some more creative poster choices for students.

One of the easiest ways to decorate a dorm room or college apartment is by placing a framed or unframed poster on the wall. Posters are cheap, especially if they're not framed, and they're easy to come by on a college campus. Unfortunately, students aren't always all that creative when it comes down to choose wall posters, and some of their choices are downright cliché . Here's how to avoid a poster that looks like everybody else's poster-- and some ideas for more creative choices.

Cliché Poster Choices

If you're looking for a unique poster choice, here are some categories to avoid. Students have been decorating their dorm rooms with these stereotypical kinds of posters since before you were born.

• Half naked women. There's nothing that screams "stereotypical college guy" like a poster of a pin-up girl. There's also nothing that's less appealing to girls on campus, who these guys would like to impress.
• Half naked men. These are a little less stereotypical and common than half naked women posters, but still pretty trite
• Beer and alcohol related posters. Putting a picture of a beer on your wall isn't very original, and it doesn't exactly convey much about your personality-- unless beer is your whole personality. Needless to say, marijuana posters are pretty overused as well.
• "I Wanna Get Rich" posters. Posters of sports cars and other expensive stuff are thoroughly overused. Unless you're a pimp, think of a better idea.
• Motivational posters. Those posters that encourage "imagination" or "perseverance" or "teamwork" or whatever are about as tired as you can get. The satires of these posters can be pretty funny (like the ones that encourage "piracy" or "conformity" or "underachievement"), but these have been used so commonly too that they're not exactly original either.
• Overused artwork. College students love slapping art on their walls, and this is a nice way to add color, but it's not exactly original. If you want to be unique, you should pretty much avoid prints of all works by Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Hokusai, Dali, or Escher.
• Stolen street signs. These aren't posters, but they're definitely cliche-- and illegal.
• Sports team posters. Unlike beer posters, these don't speak badly upon your character. They're just not very original.
• Kitty cats and puppy dogs. Nice to have on your wall, especially if you miss your pet back home. But definitely not unique.

Unique Poster Choices

Looking for something a little more original? Here are a few suggestions.

• Maps. Maps are cheap and large, so they can cover a lot of wall for your money. Plus they can come in handy, too, if you need to find something on a map. For a more artsy touch, get a poster of an old map.
• Pop culture retro "kid" posters. Feeling nostalgic? Get ahold of a Strawberry Shortcake poster, or Sesame Street, or your childhood pop culture favorite. Superhero and anime posters fall into this category as well.
• Old advertisements. Old magazine ads for all kinds of projects are a great conversation piece. Check out eBay to find examples.
• Movie posters. Some of these are overused, like Scarface. But choose a poster for a movie you love that everybody else doesn't, and you've got a unique poster. Old movie posters can give your room a classy retro feel.
• Make your own. For an especially creative touch, take a picture of your choice and have it turned into a poster. Most online and storefront photo shops will provide this service.

Use your imagination. A dorm room isn't exactly the most exciting place, but it's also a blank canvas, so take those blah white walls and add something unusual that expresses your personality.

The copyright of the article Unique College Student Posters in Campus Life is owned by Naomi Rockler-Gladen. Permission to republish Unique College Student Posters in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Old Maps are Great Posters

A Thoroughly Cliche Poster

Old Ads Make Unique Posters