The article deals with the design of the stacking sequence of layers in composite plate element in order to create the desired behaviour in the postcritical range. Tested plates were made of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminate with different layer arrangement. As the type of load, the axial compression was assumed. The configurations have been choosen specifically to investigate the influence of Extension-Twisting and Extension-Bending coupled designs under axial load. To analyse the influence of layer arrangement on the posbuckling behaviour the parametric study was performed. Matlab software and a script developed by the author were used to calculate the components of ABD matrix. Additionally, the experimental validation was carried out together with numerical analysis.