(… in London…)
If you are in a band that is trying to make it in London, you have some stiff competition, as in London there are a lot of existing bands and many more forming every day, as the nearly 10,000 ads on Gumtree prove. This high density and competition has created a very lively gigging scene, especially in the areas in and around Shoreditch, Camden and Islington. Firstly, to make it in this environment you have to genuinely be good and stand out.

Once you have reached the level where you can play a few songs, you should get out there and make some noise, play as many gigs as possible and build up a fan base. Most signed and unsigned bands have an active MySpace site, which allows them to post songs online without having to worry about illegal downloads and interact with their friends and fans – in addition MySpace is free. Some, especially bigger bands have a stand-alone official band website. Further you could try and get your songs onto iTunes so people will actually pay for downloads! These are great ways of spreading the word as links get passed on, but another approach is to have something handy to give to your fans when they come to see you at your gig.

You could start off with some inexpensive flyers. If they have seen you and liked you, but you were in one of many bands on stage that night, likely after one or two beers they will forget your band name. You can find inexpensive leaflet design and flyer printing services online, but maybe if you are of a creative nature (likely, as you are in a band!) you can take care of the design yourself and just submit the completed artwork to your printer.

Many bands/musicians carry demo-cds on them wherever they go. These are not just handy in case there is a music-exec in the crowd – and you never know who you might bump into - many times you will talk to an enthusiastic new fan after your gig. If you can hand him a cd with your music, you can help him spread the word for you. If you have a clever printer you can even print a customised cover for these, but it depends on how many you hand out how much time you want to spend on customising these.

Another idea is to invest in some band posters. You could ask venues where you are going to play to put these up a couple of weeks before the gig. Many pubs and smaller venues will welcome some well-designed and attractive wall deco as it makes them look good too. This will make folks recognise your band name, which is half the way to making a fan – now they just have to like your music! Have a look - large format poster printing is a lot cheaper than you might think.

Another good idea is to take part in as many competitions as possible. For example Glastonbury Festival this year offered unsigned bands the opportunity to play on one of the smaller stages at the festival this summer. Keep your eyes peeled and don’t be shy. Imagine how proud your mum will be when you tell her that you are playing at Glastonbury!

Movie posters play a big role when it comes to promoting new movies. However, there are times when the poster itself is a disaster – giving you a premonition of what to expect of the movie. Together with the trailer, the movie poster will help determine whether the movie will be a blockbuster or a flop. By having an appealing and engaging design, the movie will interest the public that as a result will stream into the cinema, but with a bad design, the movie is off to a bad start. Sometimes, looking at theses posters, it feels like the marketing people must have spent more on the large format poster printing, than the actual design. After all large prints are not the cheapest. This is why it is so important to have movie posters printed that actually encourage viewers see the movie, rather than having an off-putting effect, before the poster print has even had a chance to dry!

With so many movies and their respective posters all over the world, we have come up with our own top 10 worst movie posters ever printed:

#10 - Corky Romano
We are not sabotaging this movie, but what can one say in favour of this cheap looking full colour poster print? It looks as if the man in this poster, which happens to be Chris Kattan, looks so stiff it’s as if he hasn’t had any bowel activity in days. With the fake grin, how is the poster going to influence anyone into watching the movie? And what is the movie about?

#9 - Brick
When someone is hoping to pull off a bad movie, you get a bad movie poster printed…. You use the image of the lead actor. Then suddenly, you have an idea. Ah, we can even see the penny dropping. Your idea is to scratch out the image, leaving only the outline. If I was the actor I would be really upset and I think so would be the actor’s mother. There is the actor’s name but no face to show. Nothing more to say.

#8 - Live Forever

This is a poster to promote a movie that was filmed on a tight budget. The budget for poster printing and design was equally not very high up on their priority list. In the end, they came up with this poster. I think they hired school children to actually sketch this whole thing so that the producer can save a few cents. Either that or it is a teenagers first attempt at a tattoo design. Like we are going to live forever after seeing this poster.

#7 - Alice
This poster looks very eerie. Specifically, the eyes of the woman featured on the poster. It is like she is about to step out of the poster and put a hex on you. Plain scary and not encouraging unless you like to be creeped out! It is a Woody Allen film!

#6 - Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2
Another example of a title and poster aimed at a less than intelligent audience. One can only assume that the movie follows in a similar way. A clear example of a misnomer is a movie called ‘Superbabies’, with some kindergarten-age kids on the front of the poster print who are still wearing diapers. Some posters are fabulous deterrent saving critics a lot of work!

#5 - Hercules in New York
The title is amusing. The poster is hilarious. The man is a mutant. We don’t hate Arnold Schwarzenegger, but some of his film-choices have been more than cheesy. Interesting fact: At first this film was going to be called “Hercules Goes Bananas”. I could not find anywhere you can buy this movie if you should want to… Go figure.

#4 - The Aristocrats
Usually you get a few reviews featured in a poster. This is useful as it shows the interested observer that someone has found this film worth watchable before. But only putting reviews on a poster is a little strange, especially when they do not tell us anything about the movie apart from how hilarious it is. You can see nothing else other than blue and red words all over it. It’s dull, boring, and very forgettable.

#3 - Big Momma’s House 2
Never heard of “big momma’s house 1” so very surprised at spotting this sequel poster. What was Martin Lawrence thinking? Probably: “I need money… Hey! There is a cash cow I can milk!” While the next poster we look at is outrageous – this one is unbelievable.

#2 - Outrageous!
Looking at the title, one would expect the movie poster to be really outrageous, only to find the opposite. It is plain, simple and non-outrageous. Perhaps the movie is not really outrageous and the poster would have shown that. I would not know – I have not seen it - and chances are, you probably haven’t either! NEEEXT!:

#1 - Superman III
This is a prime example of how making a bad choice when printing a poster can really mess it up. Superman III is actually quite a good movie but no one would expect that, looking at the poster. Which raises it above the other 9 bad poster prints in our Top Ten, making it the overall winner. It looks cheap and unappealing.