Poster Design
Guidelines for Student Posters
Poster stands will be provided in Tilton Hall in Higgins University Center. All poster materials should be prepared in advance. Students are expected to set up their presentation at least 30 minutes before the beginning of the scheduled number assigned in the program. The senior author should be available to answer questions. Thumbtacks will be provided. Please remove your poster as soon as the session is over in order to make room for the next presenter.
Making Posters
Printable RTF PDF
Standard poster dimensions are 48 inches by 36 inches, either landscape or portrait layout. This is the maximum size that will be printed on the ITS large format printer.
Posters should be easy to read and not crowded. They should contain the
following
Title (at least 1.5" high)
Name of author(s), institution, and faculty sponsor(s)
(at least 1" high)
examples:
John Doe '99 - Clark University (faculty sponsor: Professor Jane Smith)
Jeanne Doe '99 - Clark University (in collaboration with Steve Smith, graduate student;
sponsor Professor Tom Hall)
Generally, for studies in the physical, biological and social sciences,
the main body of the poster consists of abstract, introduction,
method (subjects, procedure), results, discussion,
illustrations (tabular and/or graphic) which are used to support major points
of the text. Lettering should be at least 3/8" high.
Sample Poster Arrangement
TITLE OF POSTER
John Doe '99 - (sponsor: Professor John Smith) |
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Abstract
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Method
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Table 1
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Introduction
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Results
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Table 2
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Figure 1
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Conclusion
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The information below contains suggestions for organizing your poster content and designing an effective poster. ITS recommends using MS PowerPoint to design your poster as a single PowerPoint slide. They can print out your poster for you. See ITS Poster Printing Guidelines.
The purpose of a poster is to convey information. The most important goal in poster
design is to present your information in such a way that it is accessible and understandable. Every
element on the poster—whether text or graphic, should be chosen and arranged to
further that goal.
Posters are different from books or articles in the way they convey information. People
view a poster from both far away, and close up. Your design, title and subheadings, which
will be noticed from a distance, need to be eye-catching. Your detailed text needs
to keep the audience reading when they move close. Poster space is very limited. Make sure that every
element counts—nothing should be extraneous. Your text should be as concise as
possible.
Know your audience. Will they be other scholars in your field, or people with no
expertise in that area? Posters are often viewed by lay people. Write to your audience.
Think carefully about the language you use and the assumptions you make about the
viewers’ knowledge. Don’t use technical jargon unless you’re sure it will
be familiar to your audience. An indication of how familiar you are with your subject is
evidenced by how well you can convey it. Don’t use three words when one will do;
don’t use a three-syllable word when a one-syllable word will work as well. Keep in
mind also that your poster will be competing with others for attention.
There are two elements in a poster: text and graphics. Text includes titles,
subheadings, captions, labels and "body text"—the narrative. Graphics can
include maps, charts, diagrams, illustrations or photographs.
STEP 1:
Think about what size you’d like your poster to be, and actually look at a piece
of paper at that size. You may need to modify the size after you work out your content.
Also think about whether you want it in landscape or portrait format.
STEP 2:
Outline your content. An effective presentation includes
- Problem statement: what are you investigating
- Problem context/literature review (optional depending on space available)
- Methodology: how did you go about doing your research
- Discussion of data
- Conclusion
- Directions for further research
Think through the types of text: title, subheadings, captions, etc.
Generally, you will not have room to devote more than one or two paragraphs to each of
the above. You will also want to include acknowledgements and perhaps information on
sources.
A slightly different way to organize your information would be to follow the problem
statement with the conclusion.
A nice touch is to provide copies of your poster in 8 ½ by 11 format that people can
take away with them. Include a way to contact you in case they want more information.
STEP 3:
Write a rough draft of between 500 and 1500 words, depending on the poster size you
plan to use.
STEP 4:
Decide on appropriate accompanying graphics. Since your subject is geography, a map
probably should be included. Convert text and tables to graphics when possible.
STEP 5:
If you have time, ask a friend to review your draft and ideas for graphics. He or she
will be able to point out places where things aren’t clear.
STEP 6:
Design your poster.This can be done in one of two ways. You can design the whole poster
on the computer and print it out on a single sheet using a program like MS PowerPoint. See ITS Poster Printing Guidelines. Alternatively, you could print out the different components at 8 ½ x 11 size
and paste them neatly on a piece of poster board.
Either way, think of your presentation in unified modules—groups of text and
related graphics—that are presented in an ordered form.
Do not hand-letter your text. If you do not have access to, or know how to use a
graphics program, you may create your graphics by hand, using a ruler, pen, colored
pencils, etc. If you have access to a light table, you can slide a piece of graph paper
under the white paper to help in lining things up.
STEP 7:
Make a draft copy. Proof. Print the final copy.
Design Guidelines
Think hierarchically and reflect that hierarchy in your design. The most obvious way to
do this is by varying size. Categorize your text: title, secondary headings, tertiary
headings, captions, body text, graph labels, source, acknowledgements, Assign each
category a level of importance and assign each category a style consisting of text size,
color, style, etc. Stay consistent. For example, the headings "problem
statement" and "methodology" would probably both be secondary headings.
Make them look the same.
Make the differences in importance obvious.
When you read a page in a book (in English), you begin at the upper left, and move your
eyes from left to right and from up to down. A poster may work somewhat differently. It
presents a lot of information to view at once. Use devices—arrows, numbers, letters--
to help the reader know where to start your story and what order to read it in. For an
English-reading audience, it’s good to stay fairly close to the left/right, up/down
reading pattern.
Background shading can be used to group things (for example, a block of text and a
graphic) that go together.
Proximity indicates that items are related or should be viewed together.
Where possible, express points as bullets rather than paragraphed text.
- Use only one font: vary it according to size, boldness, angle (italics or not); avoid
ornate fonts
- Italics are standard for use as captions
- Keep narrative text at about 18 points (½ inch height of capital letter) or larger
- Make your title not less than 1" in height—bigger if possible
- Title and subheadings should be readable from 5 feet away
- Make the space between your lines of text about 133% of the text size. For example, if
your text is 18 points high, your leading should be about 1.33 x 18 or 24 points
- Lines of text in a text block should usually contain about 7-8 words on average.
Changing text size or block width can help you make adjustments
- Keep your capitalization consistent. Generally, in a title, prepositions and articles
(of, the) are not capitalized unless they begin the title.
- Place blocks of text on white or a very pale background. Avoid light lettering on a dark
background except for titles/headings where text will be large. Make sure contrast between
background and text is strong and visible from a distance.
- Use the title as a way to state the conclusion. For example, instead of saying "A
Study of Automobile Emissions Generated at Drive Up Windows" say: "5% of Air
Pollution Derives from Cars Idling at Drive Up Windows" or "Drivers Spend an
Average of 7.2 Minutes Idling at Drive Up Windows"—phrase in such a way as to
get the reader’s attention
- Keep color use to a minimum and use it consistently
- Every graphic should have at minimum, a caption. Graphs and charts should have a title,
with fully labeled x and y axes. Unless there is a wide variation in the sizes of graphs,
make their component parts consistent in size and coloring. If your using a 14 point x
axis label in one graph, do the same in all. If your type is blue in one graph, make it
blue in all graphs.
- Align, align, align! wherever possible. Creates a sense of order
- If you’re printing your poster on the computer, leave at least a ½ inch margin all
the way around
Design Don'ts
- Don’t use all capital letters in a heading
- Don’t feel compelled to cram too much into the space available—leave some
white space
- Don’t center any portion of text except possibly the title. In general,
left-justify text. Captions may be an exception depending on how they’re positioned
next to the graphic.
- Don’t use multicolor gradients
- Don’t use boxes with rounded corners
- Don’t add meaningless graphics—every graphic should have a purpose
- Don’t justify blocks of text on both sides
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Academic Spree Day
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