Top all-time · #10213
JH!
Personal blog · john.hartnup.uk · on HN as ereiamjhaidesignwriting
JH! is a personal blog at john.hartnup.uk about ai, design and writing. Since 2026, 7 different Hacker News readers have linked it 12 times, most often “Poster Prompts One hundred design styles as copy-paste prompts”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-23, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for its approach to prompting AI for event posters, aiming for varied designs rather than generic AI output. One commenter cites it as an example of how a good prompt shifts the output.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 4 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Personal blog by JH — posts on AI image generation and a catalogue of 100 copy-paste poster prompt styles for event flyers.
Most-linked posts?
- Poster Prompts One hundred design styles as copy-paste prompts4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2026-09-19
- AI-generated posters don’t have to be horrible2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-09-19
What Hacker News says?
Ironically the author isn't immune from publishing slop themselves. https://john.hartnup.uk/backpressure/
Comment linking /backpressure/
on “AI-generated posters don’t have to be horrible”Submitted AI-generated posters don’t have to be horrible as a story · 1902 points
HN discussionAI will leave blank space if its prompt gives it permission: https://john.hartnup.uk/poster-prompts/minimalism-art/ And similarly, all your other points. But of course, the more I say "you've got to prompt it right", the less value the AI is providing. A great AI would of course have that taste on your behalf.
Comment linking /poster-prompts/minimalism-art/
on “AI-generated posters don’t have to be horrible”Submitted Poster Prompts One hundred design styles as copy-paste prompts as a story · 6 points
HN discussionThis is something I actually cover in the follow-up project's how-to. Ask the AI to sense check the info you've supplied. It can tell you "hey, maybe you should mention venue address". https://john.hartnup.uk/poster-prompts/how-to-use/ But as with all of it, it's no use if you don't ask the right questions.
Comment linking /poster-prompts/how-to-use/
on “AI-generated posters don’t have to be horrible”Submitted Crab (Fiction): Google's AI Overview Invented a "Crab Team" as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThis is very true and after rendering 100 prompts twice for https://john.hartnup.uk/poster-prompts/ I realised that the prompts could be improved by asking for much less clutter. The best examples on there pick out one main visual subject, but many of them are too fussy. I may do a V2 one of these days. Clutter comes with the territory to some extent though. I was recently asked to do a real world PTA fayre poster,…
Comment linking /poster-prompts/
on “AI-generated posters don’t have to be horrible”Submitted AI Poster Prompts Improved as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThis is one of the most interesting posts I've seen, and that's the way people should work with AI. A brainstorming session, with background and references, with broad knowledge of the field, then with clear instructions on how to proceed, different designs, propositions out of the ordinary, etc I've been doing that for the last six months and the results are more than spectacular for the apps I build So no, 'create…
Comment linking /poster-prompts
on “AI-generated posters don’t have to be horrible”I've worked with some of the top designers in the world. I don't think that AI will beat them (for now), but the examples in his sample page[0] beat the junk that I've seen a lot of non-top-designers do. As he states, he isn't trying to make stuff that doesn't "look like AI did it," he just wants to introduce variety, and has proposed a disciplined way to do that. [0] https://john.hartnup.uk/poster-prompts/
Comment linking /poster-prompts/
on “AI-generated posters don’t have to be horrible”Buried at the end of the article the author linked a library of different art styles applied to the same poster content. Found some new cool art styles to try out in the future. https://john.hartnup.uk/poster-prompts/
Comment linking /poster-prompts/
on “AI-generated posters don’t have to be horrible”- ed · 2026-10-14
A good prompt will shift the distribution away from average eg: https://john.hartnup.uk/2026/06/07/ai-event-posters.html This is a feature, not a bug.
Comment linking /2026/06/07/ai-event-posters.html
on “Why do LLM pelicans look like this?”
