Designing a good poster
Fast
Facts
- You really should read
this whole document. It has a lot of information that will help you be
more successful. Don't embarass yourself or the department, take some
time to do this right!
- For STEM 2005, posters are presented on an area that is 4 ft.
wide x 8 ft. high. I recommend a 48 inch wide x 36 inch high poster.
Here is a powerpoint template for
such a poster.
- You can see what such a poster looks like hanging on the wall
between Dr. Kay's & Dr. Lobo's offices in the CS dept.
- Be sure that your poster has a white background. Colored
backgrounds look nice, but use up all of the (extremely expensive) ink
in the printer.
- You may not print your poster without permission from the faculty
member advising your poster
- Guidelines for making effective posters can be found below
- Guidelines for STEM (and other conference) posters can be found
below
- Directions for using the wide format plotter can be found below
First, take a look at my poster on
how to make a poster.
- If you want to look at it on your screen, you should look at the pdf version. Please note that the
pdf version has been scaled to fit on an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper for
printing.
- If you want to play with it in powerpoint, you should look at the
powerpoint version. I have two versions: one that is 24 inches high x 36 inches wide, and
one that is 36 inches high and 48
inches wide.
When I started working on that poster, I ended up with something that
was pretty good, but too busy. So it's a bad poster, but has more
details that you might want to take a look at. Here's a pdf version and a powerpoint version.
Using the 36 inch wide printer in room 308
- You must have the permission of a member of the CS department
before you use the fancy printer.
- Here are detailed directions
on how to use it.
Using the 24 inch wide printer in room 312
- You must have the permission of a member of the CS department
before you use the fancy printer.
- Here are detailed
directions
on how to use it.
Preparing for STEM
- Answers to the following questions can be found on the STEM
FAQ page
Preparing for other conferences
- Be sure to find out how big your poster should be
- Be sure to find out whether your poster will be mounted on an
easel (in which case you'll need to have something like a piece of
foam-core to mount your poster on) on a wall (you may need masking
tape), on a fabric board (sticky back velcro hooks), or on a bulletin
board (push pins).
Sample Posters
I have copies of some posters on-line for you to look at. Some of them
are excellent, and some are not-so-good. You make the call.
Related Links
- Mary Jo Dowling taught me how to make a poster. She's a
professional artist and she wrote up some design
advice that you might want to look at.
Last updated 4/20/05