5 Cinco de Mayo Clichéd Poster Designs to Avoid

By Kathleen Burns , May 5 2014

Featured Image: iStock/Juanmonino

“Let’s all wear sombreros and get drunk in celebration of Cinco de Mayo, even though we are American and have no idea what Cinco de Mayo is.”

Cinco de Mayo is around the corner, it is a ripe occasion for designers to tweak their design skills. It goes without saying that the most important thing to do in your designs for this holiday is to achieve originality- and avoid imitating clichés and design trends!

Cinco de Mayo is primarily celebrated in the United States despite popular belief that it’s primarily a Mexican holiday. It has its origin from the Mexican-American communities in the American West as a way to commemorate the cause of freedom and democracy during the first years of the American Civil War.

Today, May 5^th is observed in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride, and it involves lots of drinking.

What better way to celebrate this holiday, which is jam packed with poster design for every party, event, and social gathering, than booing at terrible and clichéd Cinco de Mayo posters. And for you all out there, if you are planning to design a poster for Cinco de Mayo, avoid imitating these:

1. Hot chick with a drink and the Mexican flag

Cinco de Mayo is less about a celebration of the Mexican Independence Day, and more of a promise to increase tequila sales. Like every late night party club, you are pushing with the concept that this party will be full of hot chicks who are loose from drinking too much. Pack your post design with the red, white, and green theme, and don’t forget the lens flares!

2. Generic blend: cactus, peppers, and guitar approach

Every concert or DJ host on Cinco de Mayo will have these elements in their poster. You don’t know much about Mexico at all except that it is located in a desert area, the hot sauces are extra spicy because of the type of chili peppers grown there, and you know from movies that all Mexicans play guitar. Make sure to have a bottle of tequila or Corona beer in there too for extra Mexican emphasis. This party is all about the music and whatever the DJ is giving away for free.

3. Day of the Dead inspired

All of the Mexican holidays are celebrated with skulls painted with patterns, right? Don’t worry, people are drinking too much to pay attention to the design or wonder what the Day of the Dead visuals has to do with Mexican Independence. As long as you add a guitar, drink, and chili peppers in the patterned skull, no one will notice! It looks Mexican enough.

4. High-flying Luchador

Mexican wrestling is characterized by colorful masks, rapid sequences of holds and maneuvers, as well as “high-flying” maneuvers. The wearing of masks has developed special significance, and matches are sometimes contested in which the losers must permanently remove his mask, which is a wager with a high degree of weight attached. It has nothing to do with Cinco de Mayo, but it’s an important piece of culture! This can be a useful visual in a Mexican themed design, although it seems pointless for Cinco de Mayo.

5. Piñata / kids party

Piñatas are commonly seen and associated with Mexico. It is decorated, and filled with small toys or candy, or both, and then broken as part of a ceremony or celebration. If you see a poster for Cinco de Mayo with this, think of it as your clue to stay sober. Wherever this party is, it has no alcohol or it has kids invited to it. If that was not your intended message, stay away from this visual!

Have you designed a poster for Cinco de Mayo? Are you guilty of falling for these clichés? Tweet us @zilliondesigns or comment with a link to a design you created!

5 Cinco de Mayo Clichéd Poster Designs to Avoid

1. Hot chick with a drink and the Mexican flag