在台灣的設計教育中，許多設計相關學系均鼓勵學生參加國際設計競賽以累積設計經驗，而海報類型作品被認為是藝術性最高的設計項目之一。在眾多的投稿作品中，要如何讓作品脫穎而出，並且透過海報來了解創作者要傳達的訊息，這與海報設計的元素緊緊相關。在臺灣國際學生創意設計大賽中，每年的主題都不一樣，本研究以「內容分析法」，分析臺灣國際學生創意設計大賽之視覺設計類2008~2020年金銀銅獎海報作品。在內容分析架構方面，圖像部分是以皮爾斯的符號學理論中的符號分類來分析；文字部分是以海報中文字的六種手法（原筆畫手法、減筆畫手法、連字手法、裝飾手法、立體手法、書寫手法）來歸類；色彩部分，分析得獎海報中的色彩屬性（色相、明度、彩度）、色彩配色原則（同一色、類似色、對比色、補色色、曖昧色）；編排部分是以編排形式來分析得獎海報中的編排方式。本研究彙整出不同主題在圖像符號、文字、色彩與排版上的運用手法，藉以了解不同主題、年分、社會議題等因素對於海報設計手法的影響與趨勢變化。研究結果得知：在圖像設計手法上同時含有2種以上符號的設計手法有54%，其中「象徵符號」使用頻率達72%，「圖像符號」使用頻率54%，可見象徵符號是最常被運用的；文字設計部分，以視認、辨讀性最高的「原筆畫手法」被運用的比率最高，高達90%，表明此手法被廣泛的運用；色彩色相部分，「中性色」使用頻率63%，顯示中性色是色相中普遍應用的；彩度部分，「低彩度」使用頻率達72%，顯示低彩度比中、高彩度更受到青睞；編排形式中，「垂直型」使用頻率為90%，可見海報設計師較常運用垂直型來呈現他們的作品。在交叉分析中，本研究發現不同的海報議題，也會影響設計手法的不同。本研究樣本共有四類海報議題，分別為「創新」、「個人」、「文化」、「環保」。在「創新」議題部分，圖像以圖像符號、象徵符號來設計，文字以3種文字，原筆畫文字手法、裝飾手法、立體手法；編排手法以2種形式為主，分別有垂直型、散佈型。在「文化」議題中，圖像部分以圖像符號、象徵符號為主；文字上運用原筆畫文字手法、書寫手法2種手法；彩度部分使用低彩度，配色手法上同一色與對比色為主；編排手法以4種形式為主，分別有垂直型、水平型、散佈型、並置型。在「環保」議題部分，文字以原筆畫文字手法、裝飾手法、書寫手法3種手法為主；配色手法上以同一色與對比色為主；編排手法以5種形式為主，分別有垂直型、水平型、散佈型、開放曲線型、並置型。整體而言，在各種設計手法的探討中，色相的選擇無論在何種議題的表現上，皆是較被多元使用的元素，而「個人」與「環保」議題在圖像符號、文字和色彩設計手法上均相同，在編排上個人議題多了封閉幾何型。

Design education aims at fostering students' ability to think, judge, discover and solve problems, and innovate independently. Among the areas of visual design, poster design is usually considered to be one of the most artistic design projects. For many submitted works in design competitions, to make the work outstanding, especially to attract viewers’ attention and to understand author’s idea through the poster, is closely related to the elements of poster design. Generally, four elements in poster design are image, text, color and layout. In the present study, the method of content analysis is applied to explore and analyze the award-winning posters, with various themes from year to year, in the Visual Design category of Taiwan International Student Creative Design Competition during the period from 2008 to 2020. In image analysis, three kinds of image design methods are classified from Pierce’s semiotic theory, i.e., icon, index and symbol. In text analysis, the text in the poster is identified based on one of six stroke techniques, including original, minus, connective, decorative, three-dimensional and writing. In color analysis, the posters are examined with three color attributes, including hue, brightness and chroma, and five color matching rules, including same, similar, contrasting, complementary and ambiguous, where three levels in hue analysis (i.e., warm, neutral and cool), three levels in brightness analysis (i.e., high, medium and low) and three levels in chroma analysis (i.e., high, medium and low) are applied. In layout analysis, the layouts of posters are discussed with seven layout styles (i.e., vertical, horizontal, tilt, open-curve, juxtaposed, geometric-closed and dispersed). Summarization of poster design techniques for different themes in images, texts, colors and layouts is presented such that the influence and trend changes of various themes, years and social topics on poster design may be shown.
The results of the present study show that 54% posters contain more than two image design methods simultaneously, and the usage frequencies of “symbol” and “icon” are respectively 72% and 54%, revealing that mixed use of image design methods is a common approach and “symbol” is generally more popular than the other two methods. For the text design techniques, the “original stroke technique” holds the highest usage frequency with 90%, indicating that this technique is a widely used way in post design. Moreover, when the theme is related to eastern cultures, the writing technique can be applied with usage frequency 36%. For the analysis of hue, the usage frequency of “neutral color” is 63%, displaying that “neutral color” is a commonly applied hue in color design. On the other hand, in the analysis of chroma, the usage frequency of “low chroma” is 72%, indicating that “low chroma” is more favored than high and medium chromas. In the aspect of color matching rules, the usage frequency of “same color” is 54%, which is dominant in color matching rules. In the analysis of layout, the usage frequency of “vertical style” is 90%, which means that poster designers always love to use this style to present their works.
In the cross-analysis, it is found that poster topic apparently affects the design methods. There are four types of poster topics in the present study, namely “innovation”, “personal”, “culture” and “environmental protection”. In the topic of "innovation", both “symbol” and “icon” are obviously the major image design methods, and original, decorative and three-dimensional stroke techniques are three main approaches in text design; for the color analysis, all three levels of hue are averagely used and both “medium brightness” and “medium chroma” respectively play the major roles in the design of brightness and chroma; for the layout analysis, both vertical and scattered styles are critical layout styles. In the topic of “culture”, both icon and symbol are generally used in image design, and both original and writing stroke techniques are preferred in text design; all of three levels of hue and brightness are evenly applied, “low chroma” is the major way in chroma, and both “same” and “contrasting” are two main color matching rules; the design of layout is mainly based on the following 4 styles: vertical, horizontal, scattered, and juxtaposed. In the topic of “environmental protection”, all three kinds of image design methods are used, and original, decorative and writing strokes are three major techniques in text design; in the aspect of color, all three levels of hue, brightness and chroma are evenly used, and both “same” and “contrasting” are two main approaches in color matching rules; there are 5 layout styles are involved, including vertical, horizontal, scattered, open-curve, and juxtaposed. In the topic of “personal”, the design methods of image, text, color and layout are basically the same as those in the topic of “environmental protection”, but the geometric-closed layout style can also be seen in the topic of “personal”.